At the Luftwaffe counter the very lovely young lady asked me for my Ethiopian Visa. I gave her the visa I’d printed off last night after ordering it on line weeks ago.
“This is an Azerbaijan Visa” she said. “Do you have an Ethiopian one?”
Of course I did, on the computer but I was suddenly terribly flustered. Besides I’d not brought my hearing aids. I need them for work and feared they’d get lost in travel. Airports are awful for the hearing impaired. I had to ask her to repeat her request several times, expecting any minute for security to be called to removed the old cementing geaser. She really was patient and tolerant. She was very attractive especially in the smart German uniform with the bedevilling accent. I think I reminded her a great grandfather. She took pity on me.
“If you’re sure you have it on your computer. That’s okay.” I was relieved of fruitless searching my iPad, my mind having gone blank as the line behind me lengthened palpably.
“Could you put your bag on to be weighed?” I tried to gather spillage and stuff it back in my bag with the computer and iPhone.
“It’s too heavy.” She said
“Could I pay for the extra weight?” I suggested.
“ No. We don’t want it to fall down and hit someone on the head, “ she said. I suspected she was hinting it could fall on my head and I needed whatever neurons I had left.
“Could you put your carryon on the scale?” I was sweating profusely, and ready to submit like a sex slave before a dominatrix. I was completely unnerved by the wrong visa, now the over weight luggage.
Again she took pity.
“You could move some of the overhead bag to this carryon and that would solve the problem. Would you do that?” Yes, anything, anything.
She handed me my boarding pass and gave me a betwitching smile.
“Next”.
I stopped at Currency Exchange.
“Could I have some Ethiopian money in exchange for Canadian?” I asked the Asian girl. She looked at her computer.
“We don’t have that country listed?”
She wrote the name on a piece of paper. She’d spelt it with an “A” rather than an “E”.
“It’s listed but we don’t have any of their currency here.”
“That’s okay.” I said, “I’ll get some in Frankfurt.” It’s the Brrr. I thought with that name it would be more suitable for Canadian currency given the snow and cold.
I used my Nexus Trusted Traveller car and regained a little confidence, swaggering past the long lines of the ‘untrusted.’
I had an extra bin for my laptop, tablet and iPhones. As I was setting off alarms and getting personally whisked my back pack was being hand checked because of all the bottles Ben’s 30% Deet and anti diarrhea, antibiotics, odourless garlic, ibuprofen, aspirin, antihistamine and anti malaria pills. He was relieved to see my grey hair. . I wasn’t a drug trafficker. The medications were all my own stash.
I bought a simple cheap Swatch watch then. I’d left my Apple Smart Watch not wanting to attract thieves but felt naked without a watch. I had my money bag around my neck and felt awkward without my wallet. The watch reduced my anxiety. I’m double checking everything .I’ve repacked to protect my head. I’m really enjoying this new Tilly Safari Jacket. All the deep pockets are helpful. I just took a picture of myself in the washroom mirror. I look good on the outside. 10 hours to Frankfurt and 7 hours on to Addis Ababa. I can do this. My last long flight I wondered if I was going to be reduced to First Class flying as my long body and long legs becoming increasingly intolerant of the cramped Economy. The claustrophobia hovers too. I’m longing for sleep. Too many flights this lifetime has me longing for a Star Trek Transporter. I’d be happy to have my atoms rearranged. To think though only a hundred years ago this trip could take 6 months by sea and land. We are so blessed.
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