My dad has been running an airport shuttle service the last couple of days. He took my mom and sister to the airport for their trip to Barcelona, and last night he took me for my trip to Berlin. I have to go to Berlin every couple of months because otherwise I'll get Leia withdrawal symptoms. I had school yesterday even though it was Thanksgivanukkah, and cooked, packed, and shaved after that: I had a little list of things I needed to do before my flight and crossed it all off early.
On the way to the airport my dad took me to dinner at Agenda, a gas-station sushi restaurant in the middle of nowhere that I've never heard of before. It is packed even at 2100 because the sushi is good. We had two sashimi-style dishes and four tasty rolls for a reasonable 300 shekels: that's 60 euroes, and my dad said, "That's a lot, we should have left it in shekels!" After I arrived and rested Leia and I ordered sushi for lunch from the place on her street, two combinations and some yaikitori for a little over 20 euros. In the California Roll someone forgot to unwrap a surimi stick from its plastic film and we had sushi with plastic.
Brussels Airlines can go on my list of "airlines that don't completely suck" which includes most of those that aren't American. The trip wasn't flawless but could have been even worse than it was. Security lines were long, full of pushy religious people. When I finally checked in at the baggage drop-off (I had selected my good aisle seats in advance) they said that even though my carry-on suitcase was nearly empty it had a stiff frame so it wouldn't fit into the overhead bins. It turned out they were right: with a crowded flight it would have been difficult to fit it among the rest in the small bins. I had to check it, which meant getting the empty bag "checked" at security again, and take nearly everything out of it to stuff it into little plastic shopping bags from the stores there. To do that I needed to twice push through a long line forming at the desk to leave and get my things. I got a larger plastic bag at the duty-free to carry all the things with less juggling. If only I had taken one of my smaller bags I could have had some proper carry-on.
The seat map said there was no seat in front of mine, but there was, so it was the same as any other, but there was still room for my legs. I sat next to a Haredi man who reeked of aftershave instead of body odor, so I can't really complain. I willingly gave up the armrest to the middle seat, but his elbow kept spilling over it into my chair. That's just greedy. On that flight I did as much of today's homework as I could and then napped with my headphones on and the aid of some wine.
In Brussels I bought some Guylian and stared longingly at all the other fine Belgian chocolate and beer. They sold a "welcome breakfast" of Leffe and a hot dog at a bar there but I didn't have time to enjoy it and make my connection. My 1-hour connecting flight was "business class flex" which I think only means I had more freedom to change it, but also allowed for priority boarding. After everyone else queued up I diffidently approached the priority boarding line and the woman stopped the big line and said, "HALT! Someone important coming through! Business class? Go right ahead sir!" That was such a rush - it felt awesome and unfair.
My seat was in the 3rd row on the side with 3 chairs, because they don't fill the middle chairs there in business class, so my neighbor in the row and I had an empty seat between us to store our stuff and a spare tray table so our drinks and strudels wouldn't be too near our laptops. I enjoyed little squares of nice Belgian chocolate on these flights too. Like the armrest etiquette, here we were trying not to take over more than our fair half of the middle seat. We landed around 0800 so during that flight I got to experience a beautiful dawn breaking above the endless skyscape of fluffy clouds. The camera didn't quite capture it but my neighbor tried. I was one of the first off the plane but that didn't turn out to be an advantage.
Berlin Tegel airport is tiny but confusing: it's arranged like a circle of micro-airports, each gate with its own empty passport booth, still baggage claim, empty customs, and arrivals and check-in area all right at the individual gate. I had never seen something like this so didn't expect that stepping out of the airplane would put me directly at the arrivals hall to meet Leia, without even seeing where to collect my luggage. It took me some time after Leia asked, "Where are your bags?" to realize that I was supposed to have a place to get them before, and it didn't help that the guard didn't speak English and wouldn't let me back in to wait for my suitcases. We had to wander around that maze of an airport until we could find the hidden customs shipping container where the baggage would be taken for everyone who walked out without seeing the tiny conveyor at the gate - more people make that mistake than you might expect. That took nearly an hour not for the suitcases to be moved (they beat me there) but for the person to come and release them into my custody. I had to call him on a little phone from the container and the first thing he said to me was "I'm going to need more patience from you sir!" If I had patience, I wouldn't have gotten into that mess in the first place!
When they finally gave me my bags Leia got to meet Sebastian, a plush stuffed lobster sent to her by our friend B. for an unbirthday gift. She thoughtfully greeted me with a bottle of water and had chocolate-coated biscuits waiting for me at home to have with my tea. Leia worked from home and had her last day of Deutschkurs (German class) tonight, and I napped on-and-off while she worked and took cuddle-breaks.
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