I flew to Georgia from Sydney, Australia. First it was QANTAS (for those of you wondering what QANTAS stands for, it’s Queensland and Northern Territories Air Services) and its A380 – yay, for the first time in my life! One of the air bridges was broken, so there was some delay and queues when the airlines tried to pack 500+ passengers into the plane using only one entrance.
Anyway, we got off with no big delay. Qantas entertainment is decent and transfer in Singapore to TIE† fighters… uh, I mean Turkish Airlines, was comfortable, although the flight to Istanbul was postponed by one hour.
The service difference between QANTAS and Turkish was noticeable. For example it took me twice to ask for something to drink and also when my personal entertainment screen froze and I asked for restart, nothing happened. So I changed seats. Later, also that personal entertainment device froze. Oh heck, this happens to me everytime. All the people are enjoying their movies, games and what-nots and always when I use it it just hangs. It happened to me now 4 times out of 4 flights. Luckily, in other airlines they reset the device for you (and then you can see the verbose Linux booting report)
Never mind. I was in the air and on my way!
We arrived in Istanbul and I had a six-hour wait. Believe it or not, even Turkey learned to distinguish Czech Republic from Slovakia. Czechs get their entry free of charge, we have to pay 15 euros. It’s the same as the country I had just arrived from: New Zealand. Until recently, Slovaks were not entitled to Working Holiday visa while the Czechs and Slovenians were. Even now our yearly quota (100) is significantly lower than the Czech one (1200). To be fair, though, even Swiss citizens cannot get New Zealand Working Holiday visa – though that’s probably becauuse they are unwilling to offer similar arrangements for Kiwis in return.
But it does not stop there. To actually get the Working Holiday visa, I had to undergo a chest X-ray because Slovakia was listed as a country with high tuberculosis prevalence, while the Czech Republic was a low TB risk country. Now, although the actual rates in Slovakia are about 20 percent higher (12 vs. 10 cases per 100,000 people), they are still much lower than in many a Western European country. Ironically, Czech patients with TB usually used to go to Slovakia for a treatment, mainly due to cleaner, mountain air.
The same discrimination of two EU members happens in South Africa. Czechs get a 90 day stay permit, Slovaks 30 days. Although when you ask actual people, they’re like:
“Czechoslovo…? Yugoslovakia? Slovenia?”
At the South African customs and passport control it was even stranger – the officer(!) seemingly did not know my country and had to phone his superior to inquire what kind of visitor permit he is obliged to award me. This was especially strange considering I arrived in South Africa only days before the 2010 World Cup kicked off – and Slovaks were participating, whereas Czechs not.
But I digress.
Enter Turkey.
The Turkish visa officer first sent me to the passport queue, telling me that entry is visa-free. Obviously he must have mistaken Slovakia for Slovenia (I wonder if Slovenians are reciprocally mistaken for Slovaks?) The passport officer, of course, sent me back to buy visa.
€15 is a bit steep for peeking out the airport so I stayed inside the transfer zone, took a nap, and surprisingly found out Turkish girls are stunningly beautiful.
Then there was a short hop from Istanbul to Tbilisi by Turkish Airlines A320 and it seems as if every other flight from Istanbul is late. Ours was, too.
We had some strong winds at the airport, but later the weather cleared and the flight offered us amazing views of the Greater Caucasus Range, with what I thought at the time was Mount Elbrus dominating the background. In the actual fact, it was much more likely an area around Mt Shkhara, Koshtan-Tau and Dykh-Tau. We also caught a glimpse of a newly built 800-meter-long Gori Tunnel and a viaduct under construction. The tunnel seemed to be an overkill, because it went through a low-lying hill in an otherwise unremarkable terrain and it seemingly could have been bypassed quite easily by expanding the fairly straight old road very close to the new highway.§
We landed in Tbilisi about one hour after our scheduled arrival and the customs were… a breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze. It was the first ever passport control in the world, where I didn’t have to wait in a queue, but proceeded straight to an officer upon arrival. I spent with her seconds at most, answered two (2) questions – purpose of the visit and whether I had been to Georgia before – and received my 360 days work/stay permit in no time. That’s how it should be!
Even bigger surprise waited for me at the baggage carousels. My luggage did not get lost! That marks my 47th flight with no lost luggage along the way! Thumbs up to baggage handlers.
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