This is where the Antarctic adventure began. I was pretty nervous. After all, you don’t travel to Antarctica every day. I had already started packing my suitcase a week earlier. I also did some shopping, which was on the Hurtigruten Expedition packing list.
Top-layer and under-layer gloves, a drybag (waterproof rucksack), sunglasses with a polarised filter, 50+ sun protection and 50+ lip protection and a cold-insulated water bottle.
Rain protection for the camera was also on the list. There were so many, but which one should I buy? So I asked a Hurtigruten photographer I know via Instagram. He said: “We have these overcoat things here, but they’re annoying. I would take a drybag with me and put the camera in there when it gets uncomfortable. And then take it out for a picture if you have to. Then wipe it down with a cloth and put it back in.”
So I bought a drybag and not a camera protector. The drybag wasn’t on the list.
I already had warm clothes as I’d done a lot of shopping in Norway, where it can easily be minus 18 degrees or more in winter. So did the Canada Goose jacket. Here’s a photo of the jacket so you know what I’m talking about. It’s really very warm and was a tip from my dear friend Virgil after I got really cold in Norway. But it cost a small fortune :-).
Finally the time had come and I was off to the airport. Admittedly, I was really warm in my thick jacket and stood out everywhere, on the train, at security, in the duty free shop and in the restaurant. Everyone wanted to know where I was flying to and the security check was very surprised at my answer and only let me unpack my laptop. Normally I always have to unpack the whole photo rucksack.
As I was much too early, I went to eat something after the security check. I only ordered a small portion. Cervelat with chips and vegetables. For anyone who doesn’t know what a Cervelat is, in Germany you would call it Bockwurst.
Then I went to the gate, where I waited for my first flight to Frankfurt.
The flight to Frankfurt went without incident. We arrived in Frankfurt very quickly, but there was a brief moment of shock when I looked at my mobile phone in Frankfurt and realised that the flight to Buenos Aires had been cancelled. The stewardess told me that they hadn’t received any notification and that I should just go to the gate and see what was going on. So off we went. It was a very long way to the gate and you are supposed to take lifts but there were long queues at the lifts so I sprinted up the stairs with a photo backpack weighing around 9 kilos. It’s my own fault for packing so much. 🙂 When I finally arrived, my flight was on the display. So everything was ok. However, there was quite a bit of chaos at boarding. I didn’t quite find out why. But at some point I got on the plane and found my seat.
The flight went quite well to France. From then on there was a lot of turbulence and later this increased over the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the time you had to sit with your seatbelt on and when the seatbelt signal went off you started running to the toilets.
Nevertheless, I arrived safely in Buenos Aires, just a little tired.
