I board the plane in Beijing, noting a large number of shrivelled people falling asleep in the boarding lounge all around me. Not thinking much of it, I boarded, belted up, eyed the Dragon Air waitresses and promptly went to sleep.
We reach cruising altitude. I wake up to turn down the gross airline food. And a few minutes later, the airplane is like one big bingo club. About 40 people are standing around the aisles, in clutches of 4 or 5. They are having animated discussions. They have hideous mustaches, bad combovers, hopeless cargo pants (with sneakers); a couple of Sophia Loren has-beens were seen among the female section. Clearly, the very genesis of "Eurotrash" was in front of me - it was like Indochine, only older and on an airplane.
People were waving - WAVING, I tell you - from across the aisle to their near and dear. We are talking about a 2-4-2 configuration where the farthest one could be apart on the same row is maybe 20 feet. But hey, who knows when the bubonic plague may take your friend on the window seat on this side, so you better yell something from the window seat on the other. Not to mention the many other potential disasters awaiting airline passengers in a 3-hour flight, starting in this case with natural death.
If this was a bunch of bearded Arabs, the air marshal would have shot them down without a thought, and fed them, with some melamine on the side, to the local hogs. I think they were Italian. Thank god they disembarked and veered off toward transfers. If I never see them again, it would be too soon.
1 comment:
But they were Italian! How can you go hatin' on the Italian's like that...
I will say, though, that the Germans are highly efficient and orderly, especially when it comes to flying. The Berlin airport is so small, that you only need to arrive 30 minutes before departure... otherwise, there is absolutely nothing to do stand and stare at smoking taxi drivers!
DH
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