[disordinary]

A few years ago I was flying to Russia from New Zealand, a friend of mine was flying to Ireland. Ironically we were both on the same flight from Auckland to Osaka, and then on the same flight from Osaka to Frankfurt. From Frankfurt our flights diverged.

In Osaka I was called to the checkout, where in typical Japanese efficiency they said there were some issues at Frankfurt and they had already printed my ticket for my next flight. This was a life saver.

Anyway, it turns out there was a huge snow storm and Frankfurt was having to cancel 500 flights a day. The place was like a refugee camp with thousands of people sleeping on stretchers, etc. The queue to talk to anyone or checkin lasted for hours, and people couldn't leave the airport because if your name was called for a flight you had to be there to take it. Every single flight in Europe's busiest airport were grounded except the Russians, the biggest snow storm in years was nothing and I only had to wait a couple of hours, my friend was there for a couple of days. So it really is amazing what you're used to.