Airport Woes (Survival Skills)

Travelling has unmasked some hidden bad habits in me. Not only did I discover that i couldn't map read, I have this impeccable inability to get to the airport on time. Its only a miracle (so far!) that i haven't missed any of my flights but this remains to be seen.
Normally, in my everyday life I am and known too to be punctual. I like keeping to time so I don't disrupt anyones planned schedules or even just the fact that I wouldn't want to be kept waiting.
Dangerously I have cut it really fine in some instances arriving 30mins at the most before check in closes. Why cant I translate this everyday time management skill to my travels? I leave the house sometimes 4hours before check in opens but somehow turn up late. En route to Copenhagen,  cDenmark I arrived 35minutes before boarding time.

Laughably when I am returning to the UK from my chosen destination I don't seem to remember where or how to get to the airport. In Vienna, I must have had a mild case of amnesia because i couldn't work out how to get back to the airport or even what it was called. Scratching my head at the metro station with only an hour till check in closes l found a couple of people I could ask. I must have looked really stupid to them because I spoke English with a German accent with the hopes that they would understand that this is an emergency. One man directed me to the bus station, another to the rail station and another to the metro. It got ridiculous!
I searched through my bag to find the metro ticket I bought from the airport to MariaHiffer Gurtel (where I was staying). The ticket had incomplete details.  How do you even say airport in German. So I travelled into the inner city and with a sigh of relief  and more information about locating the airport became more apparent. (Till this day i still have no clue what the airport in Vienna is called).

Hopefully Finland will be a different story!

Københavns Lufthavn - Copenhagen Airport

Travel 101: Thou Must Learn To Map Read

Travelling solo often means navigating places on your own. It can be both a frustrating and exciting thing to do (well when you are not walking three miles in the opposite direction). My orientation and survival skills appear to be getting better with each trip. I have found in some countries, when locals see a tourist with a map uttering in the countries broken native languge the name of a street most times the locals will stop to ask if you need assitance. Navigating Vienna was a joy because even the cyclists would actually get off their bikes to point me in the right direction. And the city was pedestrian friendly which is always a plus for a traveller.

However, Denmark was a different story. Not once but twice I ended up walking a minimum of 3miles in the opposite direction of where I was heading to. I mean, my map reading skills are not so atrocious that i end up crossing the border to another country (almost!). I was in a hurry to get to the Royal Ceremony (thingy), and with only 45mins to spare I set off on foot towards Charlottenborg Palace, only to end up walking towards the free way heading to Sweden. I could have taken a bus or metro you might remark. I was nowhere near a metro or bus station. Steam coming out of ears i retrace my steps and ask for help. Running late I just about make it to the ceremony dishevelled and breathless. Comedically I made it right into the middle of the guard change, disrupted the whole event, get yelled at by the police and laughed at by the tourists.

Moral of the tale; "thou must learn to map read"

(Here is another tourist getting told off by the Politi for crashing the parade)