Post by Bonobo on Jul 8, 2011 19:15:17 GMT 1
Polish man marooned at Brazilian airport for 18 days
07.07.2011 11:32
A Polish man got marooned at Sao Paulo airport for almost three weeks in an odyssey that has been compared to Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, a movie about an embattled eastern European who gets trapped at an airport.
Robert Parzelski, a 44-year-old electrician, flew from London to Sao Paulo on 17 June. However, enjoying the delights of the Brazilian city was never on the cards.
Mr Parzelski had no problems at passport control, but he did have a distinct lack of cash, with not a single Brazilian centavo to his name, nor a return ticket.
The Polish adventurer set up camp at the Brazilian airport, yet with no grasp of the Portuguese language and only a few phrases of English at his command, he was in for a lonely stay.
After noticing the solitary man in their midst, kind-hearted cleaners began to offer Parzelski – who soon sported a beard – yoghurt, water and cigarettes.
With local officials apparently uninterested in Parzelski’s plight, journalists from a Sao Paulo paper got intrigued, and managed to locate a Polish doctor in the city who agreed to help in translating.
The tale soon emerged that Parzelski, a father of five from Krakow who had emigrated to London to find building work but had recently lost his job, had apparently agreed to pick up some telephones for a Polish friend.
However, the man who was supposed to meet Parzelski at the airport never materialised, and the lone traveller was left in the lurch.
The Polish consul in Brazil eventually rode in to the rescue, and on Tuesday, Mr. Parzelski was put on a flight back to London via Zurich.
No one has yet managed to untangle the mystery of the telephones, however.
07.07.2011 11:32
A Polish man got marooned at Sao Paulo airport for almost three weeks in an odyssey that has been compared to Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, a movie about an embattled eastern European who gets trapped at an airport.
Robert Parzelski, a 44-year-old electrician, flew from London to Sao Paulo on 17 June. However, enjoying the delights of the Brazilian city was never on the cards.
Mr Parzelski had no problems at passport control, but he did have a distinct lack of cash, with not a single Brazilian centavo to his name, nor a return ticket.
The Polish adventurer set up camp at the Brazilian airport, yet with no grasp of the Portuguese language and only a few phrases of English at his command, he was in for a lonely stay.
After noticing the solitary man in their midst, kind-hearted cleaners began to offer Parzelski – who soon sported a beard – yoghurt, water and cigarettes.
With local officials apparently uninterested in Parzelski’s plight, journalists from a Sao Paulo paper got intrigued, and managed to locate a Polish doctor in the city who agreed to help in translating.
The tale soon emerged that Parzelski, a father of five from Krakow who had emigrated to London to find building work but had recently lost his job, had apparently agreed to pick up some telephones for a Polish friend.
However, the man who was supposed to meet Parzelski at the airport never materialised, and the lone traveller was left in the lurch.
The Polish consul in Brazil eventually rode in to the rescue, and on Tuesday, Mr. Parzelski was put on a flight back to London via Zurich.
No one has yet managed to untangle the mystery of the telephones, however.
