I don’t like carousels, rollercoasters and the like. I get slightly envious of the fun that others experience because I don’t even get to reach that state. The reason being that my stomach and head can’t handle it. What brings others great contentment and a lot of fun, is mostly a torment for me and I don’t see why I should pay money for it. That is actually why I am a bad candidate for fairs. Unfortunately, my predicament goes even further. Chances are I will start to feel nauseous when I’m on water (even though I love water more than anything) because of the movement of the waves and on the bus and train I always only sit in the direction of travel to avoid my stomach getting irritated.
Now I flew from Prague to Zurich and for a long time it wasn’t sure at all whether we would be able to take-off according to plan. The hurricane ‘Sabine’ successfully paralysed a large part of Europe. Germany completely stopped its air travel as well as a large part of its rail network. A lot of schools in many places remained closed and emergency services were increased so that they could quickly move fallen trees to clear the streets.
I had already thought of an alternative plan in case the flight wouldn’t take place. Since my flight was going to be quite late in the day at nearly 8 p.m. I thought that there would still be a chance for us despite the cancellations in the morning. I was right. The flight happened according to plan and to my surprise it wasn’t even completely full. In the beginning it was quite peaceful and the only reason why you could notice that there was a hurricane happening in the area was the fact, that no hot drinks were served.
There was already the announcement that we were approaching Zurich, our destination and that we were preparing for landing. We were pretty much a couple of ‘footsteps’ from home and then it started to shake. And how much!! We were like dolls that were thrown about in a box. My stomach and head were very clearly signalling that they didn’t appreciate it at all and that they weren’t ready to continue with this. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a choice. The seconds felt like hours and the landing took forever. I felt the colour vanishing from my face. I started to ask myself whether I could really keep the contents of my stomach down. To my luck my last meal had been a while ago and that surely helped.
When it started to get unbearable, I noticed that we really were about to land. The landing was very hard and bumpy, but we didn’t need to restart. All the passengers clapped for a long time including myself. We all were very grateful. What a great job the pilot had done today. When leaving the aircraft, I noticed that all passengers’ faces were chalk white. On top of that I was sweaty and felt very uncomfortable. My only thought was to lay in bed and sleep.
For all fans of rollercoasters, such a storm really is an experience. So long as you aren’t afraid, it’ll be worth a try. For me moving the trip will be a better option in future.
Image Source: unsplash.com
Michaela Merz 