There used to be a time when travelling was something glamorous. It was an experience to remember, because for a few hours, you were allowed to feel luxurious, rub elbows with the Hobnobs and be treated like royalty by service men and women. You were traveling – and in many instances, the destination didn’t always matter quite so much… the journey was the destination.
Well, this is what I’ve been told (or what I’ve seen portrayed on TV and film). Personally, I’ve never lived in an era when I wasn’t asked to strip down in one way or another, and no matter what I wear, there’s a 45.63% chance that I am going to set off the system’s alarm. I just consider it as a free massage and a chance to remember why staying relatively fit is essential not only for the health benefits, but also to protect me from perfect strangers taking free pokes on my fat rolls. Most of the time, though everyone is relatively cordial and the sense of violation that I feel is reduced when someone makes a lame joke about security measures. I wonder if this is what first class flyers have to go through. I mean, there’s First class, Business class and the Economy class, which is what I fly – and I have to agree with my Oma (German Grandmother) that it could possibly mean that I’m flying “third class”.
Once I’ve made it through the security check after inevitably having to wait behind the person who’s only seen an airport on television and doesn’t know what a “jacket” is when asked to remove it before walking through the scanner (seriously, why is there always a person who turns around in a circle looking confused as they look for the blasted jacket in their pockets? This drives me nuts. Every. Single. Time.), I make a mad dash to buy an over-priced bottle of water and juice for the duration of the 8-9 hour flight. I know that they will offer tiny sips of water or some other beverage on the plane, but it’s not enough to keep me properly hydrated for that duration of time. Besides that, I don’t like having to raise my hand and ask for something to drink. It makes me feel like I did when I was in elementary school and wanted to get water or go to the restroom. Then there’s always the genius that thinks that by hitting the TV screen harder is going to make it work more efficiently. Why do those people always sit behind me?! (You already know how I feel about the person who came up with that idea of installing a touchscreen TV in the back of someone else’s headrest.)
Despite all of the frustration I experience when travelling, I’m always grateful to be getting safely to where I intend to go – and I’ll be the first to admit that I take the ability to do this for granted far too often. But then, during the flight, I’ll glance around and my eyes will focus on that one person who’s sitting cramped in the economy class like the rest of us, but with bright eyes, large with wonderment and joy, camera in hand. To that person, we are flying first class, we areluxurious and the routine trip for me is this person’s journey of a lifetime. Sometimes I wonder if they’ve used all of their life savings to make that trip, the same trip that often grumble about having to take.
Training my eye on that one person always helps me to put things in perspective. It all depends on us to decide what we want to see and how we want to experience any given moment.
Which is exactly why I choose to keep this entry short and enjoy this one.
xoxo © 2012 CountryEuroCityMouse™. All rights reserved.
