Man, I love flying.

Man, I love flying.

When have you seen a Spaniard on time? Well, when you are flying being on time is not enough, you have to be there 2 hours in advance, TWO. One reason is that now you spend at least 20 minutes repacking your bag if it happens to be a pound overweight, or arguing with the lady at the counter that if the plane is empty a couple pounds wont make it go down.

Then there is security, which can take for ever. On one hand you have those people who beep five times, first the keys in their pocket, then the cellphone, oups some coins etc and when you think they are done then there are liquids in their bag which they had forgotten about..... But hey dont blame the guy,  even experienced travelers can take a while. No shit, now they even get you naked. Last time I was going to fly I was so worried about security that I took the following steps: 1. Bought a new pair of socks since so many people were going to see them. 2. Waxed my legs, in case the officer wasn't happy with me removing  my shoes and belt and he asked me to take off my pants. 3. I started a diet and daily exercise, in case after streaping I was requested to get a body scanner.

Usually once you are done with the check-in and the security you still have an hour before boarding. Such a waste of time. But hey, there are ways to kill some time. Duty free shops, most of us tend to visit them, we smell perfumes and try on sunglasses and leave empty handed. There go 10 minutes. 50 more to kill. There is also that shop that sells books, but their selection tends to be awful. I mean, who reads all those biographies? Most of them are either about Obama, Clinton and Bush or nobodies whose names I have never heard before. Then there are those self help books. How to be happy, How to love yourself. Secrets to an awesome life full of friends, Love yourself and others will follow. Really? I Have been bored to death in an airport a million times and never have I considered even holding one of those books for ten seconds.
I must admit I enjoy looking at the front cover of international newspapers, I try to compare them and if I have no clue what it says then I compare the main picture. There goes another minute of my time, plus 2 more going through books. 47 more to kill. 

Going to the bathroom even when you have no need can take up to 10 minutes in line for women plus another couple minutes to pee and wash your hands. 35 left. Taking a walk usually can help killing another 10 minutes, and if you have a coffee -for which you pay 8$- there go another 15. 10 minutes left for boarding, if it was to be on time for once ever. Surprisingly people are queuing already, some of them have been standing up since before my visit to the bathroom.... I am a late boarder. I don't make the plane wait for me, that never, but I usually wait for all the freaks to stand in line  and take their seats and once the room is almost empty I finally approach the gate. I always think if my life was a movie and the love of my life -Mr A- was to chase me to the airport, ours would certainly be a happy ending because I would still be seating in the boarding room, not like in real movies where usually the person is already in the plane.

Once in the plane I do certain things that most people probably would never realise. I always empty the seat pocket in front of me and if I travel alone I put the magazines in the pocket of the seat next to mine. Bottle of water, book and iPod go in the now empty pocket in front of me. Then I place the pillow in the tiny space between the seat and the window (i always try to get a window seat). I then put on my seat-belt and earphones, even if I dont play music. I do not like when the person next to me tries to start a conversation. My flights are usually of at least 5 hours and if you give people a chance they will tell you their entire lives. I am not kidding, once this guy even showed me his holidays' pictures. It will never happen again. I find that Sky Mall magazine is much more entertaining to be honest, and you can close it and be done with it whenever you want. The magazine is very funny if you read it the right way. Here are some examples...

- The Cat Toilet Training System, in 3 steps you can teach your cat how to use a toilet! what would we do without such a thing?

- Hidden Litter Box... Loos like a real clay pot, they say, which you can place in your living room and no one will notice if you don't tell them. Well, that is if your friends cant smell.

- How could I forget the Polar Fleece Footed Pajamas for adults..... 

- Or the Italian Armor Sculpture for $975

But talkative people are not the worst. There are crying babies, fat people who take half of your seat -and you had to get rid of 2 extra pounds from your luggage-, the guy that always has the light on in overnight flights, the one sitting behind you who seems to be boxing with your seat. Either that or he really dislikes you and he is set on not letting you rest. The mean air-hostesses who think they are the queens of the plane. And my favorite,  the one time you get an aisle seat you have next to you that guy who needs to pee every 25 minutes and thus makes you get up twenty times per flight. Why he didn't take the aisle seat beats me.

But you know what? Flying is not that bad, waiting for your bags once you have landed can be even worse. You might wait there, standing up, with people all around you going crazy and fighting with their carts like being closer to the belt will make their bags come out earlier... And sometimes after 45 minutes there are no more bags and yours are no where to be found. The airline can't locate them at the moment and they send you home or to your hotel with the promise to contact you soon. And that's after they made you leave stuff at the check in on the other side of the world.  

But at least if you are lucky you will have a loved one waiting for you in the arrivals lounge.... and you will think "man, I love flying", while forgetting about all of the above. 

 

Adam in Cairo

Life back in Spain isn’t very exciting and thus I haven’t been updating this blog. However, Mr. A is in Cairo and unfortunately that is quite a thrilling story to follow. I just wish he was out of there already. He is safe and in the airport trying to get out, which I guess is good enough at this point.

It all started a week ago when Egypt was celebrating a national holiday: Police Day. I remember a couple days before the holiday Mr. A was telling me that he found such a holiday quite absurd and even annoying in a country with a dictatorship. A country where policemen are most often corrupted, and usually feared rather than respected. Mr. A even made a joke stating that instead of being a holiday that policemen can enjoy it always ends up being the day they work the hardest to control protests all over the country.

Protests were thus expected but no one anticipated what was about to happen. Suddenly the whole country realized that kicking out a bad leader can be easy: you “just” need thousands of people protesting in the streets, like Tunisians did a few weeks ago.

After 30 years of oppression, Egyptians have finally understood that they all have a voice. One voice might not be heard, but put together thousands, hundreds of thousands, and the message will be clear and loud. And the message is that they want Mubarak out. They do not want a change in the government; they want him out, his son out, his ministers out. They want a new country. They want to be able to choose their future, even their present.

The protests have been quite peaceful. Protesters in general do not have weapons, they are not attacking the police or the army, they are being loud, and that is all. I have received a translated copy of a booklet that is circulating all over Egypt on how to behave in the protests and one of the main ideas is to not use violence. Also they want to get the Police involved and the army, and they suggest shouting slogans such as “The Police and the People stand together!!”. They encourage citizens to invite their neighbors and coworkers to join the protests always using positive persuasion.

I must admit at first Mr. A seemed to be happy to be witnessing such a moment. He was part of History, even if he was living it all from his balcony. Him and 4 friends/coworkers had all taken refuge in their apartment, in Zamalek, a small island full of embassies, hotels, and wealthy people. A rich neighborhood just a few blocks from Tahrir Square (the square is outside the island, on the other side of the Nile).

No one saw this coming in Egypt because we all have the idea that Egypt is a stable country. And it is, Mr. A has lived there twice and he loves the country, he enjoys Cairo, but he will tell you it is a poor country. It is a country full of unhappy people, oppressed people, poor people. It is said that over 50% of the population lives with less than 2$ a day, that makes over 40 million people.

The problem with Egypt is that it has had the support of Europe and the US for a very long time. Egypt has a strategic location, between Africa and the Middle East, in the Mediterranean and next to the Gulf, thus the stability of Egypt is key in order to maintain stability all over the region. Also, the peace treaty they signed with Israel years ago has somehow maintained “peace” between other Arab countries and Israel. Egypt has without any doubt the most powerful army in the region and Israel needs to have a good relationship with them. But if Israel looses that, there will be trouble. That is also why Israel has remained quiet until today, but finally they have decided to officially support Mubarak. I don’t think Egyptians and other Arabs in the region will appreciate that support.

Anyways, going back to the streets of Cairo, Adam tells me that it is amazing to see the amount of empty cans of tear gas in the street. He says there are thousands; anywhere you look you find them. However the streets of Zamalek have been kind of calm the last few days because protests are downtown and not in their island.

They have been able to leave the house a few times without being at risk. They had to buy food and water, also some alcohol as he admits after 5 days without internet, without phone, and trapped at home, you start getting very bored. ATM machines have no money, thus there is no access to cash. Nevertheless, most shops are closed.

At night everything is different and dangerous. They have not left the apartment at all after the curfew. Lets put it this way, the protests are peaceful but there are people taking advantage of it. Since there is no police in the streets there are people robbing houses, hotels, shops etc at night. Neighbors are organizing themselves in groups to protect their private property in whatever way they can. There are gunshots at night and it is terribly scary, especially in a rich neighborhood as Zamalek.

Mr. A tells me that mosques instead of calling to prayer they are sending safety messages, asking people walking in the streets at night to be sure to identify themselves so that their neighbors don't take them for burglars. 

Mr. A also tells me that at night, well, as soon as the curfew starts (today 3pm Cairo time) he can see people in the streets with knifes, sticks and even samurai swords!! These people are the ones protecting their private properties.

It is a fact that Egyptians are being kind and not aggressive. This is not against tourists, not at all. Actually people are not at risk because of the protesters, the risk comes from those vandals that are robbing houses and shops and taking advantage of the chaos.

Please note that it asks for protesters to carry a flower to show they are protesting peacefully.

Things are out of control now and thus our office decided yesterday that Mr. A and the whole team should be evacuated. The US government, no disrespect, isn’t doing much. They might be saying on TV that they are, but as far as we are concerned they are being useless. It is true that it is a complicated situation, but I can tell you things aren’t being taken care of properly. For instance, when Mr. A called the embassy a couple days ago he was told to call Washington DC to deal with it. Keep in mind phones were working on and off, and of course an international call is a very expensive one. Other people called the embassy and got an answering machine advising them to visit the embassy’s website for more info. Keep in mind Internet has been down for almost a week now!

So our office decided they should all leave the country together and booked them tickets for today. They left their apartment as soon as the curfew was off this morning since they knew getting to the airport would be difficult. What they didn’t expect was that the toughest would actually be getting inside the airport.

Thousands of people are trying to access the terminal, many of them don’t even have a ticket but they are so desperate they are trying everything they can think of to get on a plane.

After a couple hours they made it inside the terminal, checked their bags and went to their boarding gate. This sounds easy, but it was a lengthy and tiring process. They were told there was no guarantee they would take off. And indeed their flight got canceled.

A bit later they were told they could perhaps take a different flight which was supposed to take off many hours earlier but it had been delayed. They didn’t make it to that flight either.

As of right now they seem to have tickets in a plane that could take off in 30 minutes. No one knows where their bags are, but that is just the last of their concerns.

So cross your fingers and lets all hope they will be out of Egypt tonight.

As for the Egyptian people, courage!!

* Hopefully Mr. A will be here tomorrow and we can add some of the pictures he has taken in Cairo.