Airport Tidbits

First of all, isn't tidbits a great word? It's cool like smorgasboard. By the way Mark, I ate from a real smorgasboard in Sweden. I know you're jealous.

I thought today I'd provide you with a thought or two more from my travels. Maybe it was just me, but I sure thought this was strange. When I was flying out of Sweden, our plane was delayed a bit by air traffic control, so we were just sitting out on the runway. I was trying to distance myself from the philosophers, so I was staring out my window and what do I see. First, let me tell you that I'm at the smallest, most ghetto airport I've ever been to. It was like a landing strip with an attached outhouse. Ryanair is the only airline that flies out of this airport. The whole thing is secured by nothing more than a chain link fence. This chain length fence is only about 50m from the runway. I think you could reach out and touch the plane's wing if you were standing by the fence. And that my friend is what people were doing. Not touching the wing, but gathering at the fence to stare at the plane. Twelve people. And they weren't just there by happenstance. These people had lawn chairs and binoculars. It was the day's big event for them I guess. "Hey hon, hurry up with that. The plane takes off in thirty minutes. We've got to get our seats. " It was kind of an eery feeling being on the plane with those people watching like something spectacular was going to happen. I felt like I was on the wrong plane and instead of going to London, this plane was going to take off and do some loopty-loos or barrell rolls. Fortunately for me it turned out to be a regular flight. Hope the people on the ground weren't too disappointed.

And as an interesting sidenote, I was looking for a sandwich to take with me on the airplane but without success. The things people eat up there are quite disgusting. Pickled fish??? I did find two interesting options though, both which were tuna. One sandwich was named "Moby Dick" and the other was named "Honky Tuna". I got a good laugh out of that. One Honky Tuna and a Coke please.