Helsinki - Athens via Warsaw
LOT
A vintage story, but somewhat funnyish.
A Polish Airlines (LOT) flight from Helsinki to Athens, with a stop-over at Warsaw. Back in 1999 Poland was not probably the most nicest place to be, especially for vegetarians.I had been vegetarian for almost all my adult life already, so I was quite used to explicitly confirming getting the VGML or VLML in every step of the buying / reservation / check-in procedure. Also this time, and everything went ok at the travel agency and even still at the checkin ("yes, it says here you have the vegetarian meal reserved for both parts" -- check-in was not operated by polish people in Helsinki).
Anyway, story starts at the food time. The hostess brings a plastic box of nice slices of something that looks quite like gray sausage and slices of meat (and nothing else, like garnishes or extras).
Me: - Could I have the vegetarian meal, please
Hostess: - err ... what sir?
Me: - I ordered a special meal, you see I'm a vegetarian
Hostess: - err ... what is that?
Me: - You know, something to eat without meat
Hostess: - one moment
And then she disappears into the front for a few minutes, and comes back.
Hostess: - What did you say you want to eat?
Me: - Vegetarian food, you know, something that is not meat or fish
Hostess: - We don't serve vegetarian food on this flight
Me: - But I confirmed it at the reservation and checkin - could you please check that you don't just have extra plate with Vegetarian food -tag in the kitchen?
Hostess: - one moment
Then she disappears into the front again, and after a few minutes the head hostess comes to talk to me instead.
The head hostess: - Sir, you wanted to have something
Me: - Yes, well, I was wondering if my vegetarian meal is on the plane...
The head hostess: - Do you have a doctor's prescription that you can confirm that with
Me: - Err no, in Finland you don't actually need a doctor's prescription to stop eating meat
The head hostess: - Then we can not do that, we need some official document for the vegetarian meal
At this moment I started to wonder that if they had the extra VGML there and everyone else was so fond of the meat-parts, why would they not serve it to me without a goverment stamp.
Me: - Well, I have this VGML code printed in my reservation paper if it helps you...
The head hostess gets my reservation info paper and disappears into the front for a few minutes. Then she comes back:
The head hostess: - We don't have any special food here. You should have get the doctors prescription and inform us in advance. Next time maybe you bring your own food?
Me: - Oh well, OK. Sorry about that.
So no food (or apologies) for that part. I love the polish politeness.
At Warsaw airport transit -- errr, sausages was the only option. It was a quite long transit time and I was getting hungry so after few hours I managed to get find a nice lady working at the office that guided me out of the building to go shopping and after that even let me in back (without checking any IDs or tickets or going through security, btw). Sad part is that there were no meatless options outside the transit zone either.
Next part, Warsaw to Athens. Food time:
Me: - Excuse me, I did have a vegetarian meal reserved
Hostess: - Err ... what is that?
Me: - Oh, never mind.
