Tuesday, August 11, 2009

PAUSE: Got to Go Home

It is now 11:47 and I board my transatlantic flight at 12:30. One word on the Frankfurt airport: Its uuuggglyyy. And it was raining when we landed. But it has one redeeming quality: The Americans who travel through it. I was in desperate need of headphones. Mine had broken (as you may recall) and I’d just been traveling for a good 18 hours without music, and I was, well, desperate. So I bought some for 10 Euro at a newsstand. Bad move. I opened them up and tried to put them on -- to no avail. They wouldn’t even GO IN my ears. So I took them back and returned them. Then I went to an electronics duty free shoppe. Their cheapest that weren’t going to have the same problem were 29 Euro. So I had the 10 in cash that I had gotten back from newsstand man, and 12+ that I’d been given by someone in Israel who knew I’d be in Europe and 7 dollars. I owed 4.30 Euro and my credit card wasn’t working (his machine wasn’t working, actually. My credit card was just fine) and there was no ATM in the terminal. So I’m standing there, mortified that I’m going to have to fly from Fankfurt to Dulles, from Dulles to Atlanta and from Atlana to Seattle with no music, when the guy behind me goes “How much do you owe?” “No WAY,” says I. “Euros are like double the dollar - that’s a lot of money. I owe 4.30.” I slipped it in. And he paid for it. He spotted me something like 8 bucks that he’s never going to see again (in fairness, I offered to buy him coffee with my credit card which he declined) to exponentially increase the quality of my transatlantic experience. Needless to say I thanked him profusely. So I’ve gotten two free things today in airports. My tea in Cairo and the remainder of my headphones in Frankfurt. Lets see what happens in America.

I'm going Home.

No comments:

Post a Comment