16.05.2013 – 16.05.2013  24 °C (climate controlled on an aircraft!) 🙂

My day started far too early because as per usual I’d left all of my organisation to the very last possible moment. In my defence, I’d had a super duper busy lead up week at work, and had taken my house sitter Rosemary out for dinner the night before as a bit of a thank you for looking after the Grey Man. When it all boils down to it though… procrastination is the main reason I hadn’t gotten around to it til the last minute! 🙂

I figure that after all these years of travelling if I’ve forgotten something well, it’s just too bad! Packing this time around was actually more challenging than when I went for six months with the folks to the US.. It was nice and easy that time around, no plans for any five star action and plenty of opportunity to buy new gear. This time around it is holidaying with my soon to be 90 yo Grandmother, my cousin, Uncle and Aunt… we are cruisin’ down the Danube so I actually had to fit a pair of high heels into my suit case! No backpacking for this weary traveller this time around.

Ok my one and only five star holiday started with Mum, Dad and Nanna arriving at my front gate whilst I was still chowing down on my breakfast! Yep I’d spent so long getting myself organised that I was still eating when they came to pick me up. Mum grabbed everyone a coffee and we had a pleasant 15mins catching up before they whisked me out the door and on our way to Brisbane International. By now we were less than 2hrs til take off and Nanna was starting to get slightly concerned (not much, as I clearly wasn’t worried but she knows that you need to get to the airport early!)

Big surprise was unveiled at the check-in desk where she still hadn’t worked out the fact that we were travelling business and not economy. Dad actually had to tell her so that she knew what was going on! So after a breeze of a check-in and a quick good bye to Mum and Dad, Nanna and I headed down the escalators to security and immigration. It was really enjoyable giving Nanna the heads up on business class travel. For starters, she had never enjoyed the wonders of the lounge. Just the fact that everything was free was pretty exciting to her! We sampled some pancakes and coffee, got back my tax on my new camera and before we knew it our plane was being called for boarding!

And so the luxury began! Our first leg of this epic 33hr trip to Prague (yep holy smokes.. way, way too far to travel) was on Cathay. Nanna was spoiled rotten! For starters, we both enjoyed a champagne before take-off as I tested out the intricacies of the flat bed pods that were to be our seats for the next ten plus hours.

Food glorious food followed. In fact, we spent the entire 33hrs eating (or so it seemed). Every flight we were fed, and every airport we ate in the lounge so by the time we got to Prague we had consumed 3 breakfasts! But.. I’m jumping ahead of myself. Travelling with Nanna is an interesting experience, mainly because for her, everything is about the food (both good and bad). Ask her about any of her previous trips overseas and she’ll tell you not about the sites she has seen but about what sort of cuisine she ate! So in keeping with this theme I thought instead of blogging a daily song (as I did during my US/ Canandian trip) I would this time around blog about the most interesting daily meal!

Nanna and I both delighted in our little kit bag of goodies that we were given on the plane and both came in handy when we touched down in HK. The beds on Cathay are comfy! Well, they are comfy right up until they stop working and you get stuck in super recline mode when you want to be sitting up! For the last two hours of our flight we had to move back a few rows because no matter what we did we just couldn’t get my chair to move.

Lunch was the especial highlight of this flight, smoked salmon, tuna and lime encrusted prawns was our very exceptional entrée, followed by steak and steamed veges for Nanna and chicken stir fry for me. Piece de resistance for this meal was the praline centred chocolates for aperitifs! So good, that Nanna and I ended up with a whole box of them to share! Nanna went out on a limb for lunch and tested a French chardonnay.. it couldn’t have been too bad because she had a few glasses!!!! 🙂

Before we touched down we again consumed more food (this time Cannelloni for both of us) and ice cream for Nanna and so with dinner consumed it was time to leave the very lovely hosties on Cathay and go spend way too long in HK airport waiting for our next flight. As it turned out, we ended up spending almost 6.5hrs in the airport waiting for our Finn Air flight. It was supposed to be only 4.5 but our flight time changed, and then the plane was late leaving so by the time we got on board both Nanna and I were heartily sick of HK airport.

I guess there are two good things about a long stop over in HK; firstly, HK is big—so plenty of time-wasting shops to peruse, secondly the Wing Club.. But I need to explain how we got there first.. To start with we had to go and find the internal transfer desk because we need to be issued with our new boarding cards for our flights to Helsinki and Prague. No issues, jumped on the train, headed to the other terminal and picked up our boarding passes. At this time we were also issued with complimentary access to the Traders Lounge. Thinking this was the Cathay lounge, off Nanna and I wandered looking for this lounge. Arrived to find a huge line up to get inside, I jumped the queue and walked straight in with Nanna in tow. Inside; packed, uncomfy, hard to get food, and No Showers!…… Now, I knew that showers were on offer at Cathay’s lounge and was pretty grumpy to discover that there weren’t any available. We made the best of the situation and both grabbed a drink and sat down and chatted well, Nanna chatted, I internally fumed… It was over 12hrs since I’d last showered and knowing it was going to be another 20 before I got a shower was making me feel pretty annoyed.. add that to the price we had paid for our tickets and well, you can imagine!

Eventually, I got sick of this crappy lounge and told Nanna we were going to stretch our legs and discover what else HK airport had to offer. Our walk took us the length and breadth of this part of the terminal. We gawked at expensive watches, hand bags and clothes. An hour later we’d managed to see most of what it had to offer and were back looking at the super long line up into the Traders… I decided we weren’t going to go back in and kept Nanna walking! Found this off shoot part of the terminal and suggested we go see what was down the other end… Down the other end was the Wing Club and all my prayers had been answered. Here was one of the many Cathay lounges and we were admitted immediately. First stop, the nicest shower I’ve had in ages! Full monsoon style shower—total bliss! Next stop the noodle bar upstairs for some yum cha and a bowl of noodles.. We weren’t hungry, just bored! Final stop, some very comfy lounge chairs where I snoozed for an hour til it was time to find our gate. I’ve got to say, that things like this lounge is why you pay the extra for business on the super long haul flights.. Trust me, the shower was so worth the extra dollars!!!!

Finally, at nearly 2am Brisbane time, Nanna and I hopped on the plane for our next leg. Finn is not in the same league as Cathay.. Seats were more like the style I’ve had on Qantas before.. they do sort of lie flat but actually are more like a tilted down sleep.. They are good, but after being in our pods on Cathay.. not that good! But yes, to all of my readers, a million trillion times better than the alternative found further back in the plane! I was asleep before the plane had even taxied….

Cuisine of the Day– Superb Cathay Starter—Smoked Salmon, Tuna and Lime Encrusted Prawns