Sunday, October 12, 2003

11:10 - Frankfort. Couldn’t sleep on the plane. Watched too many of the lame movies. Found myself in Germany shagged at 06:00 local time, but 22:00 home time (i.e. past my bedtime anyway). So we sit here for another seven hours before boarding the flight to Kuwait.

Security is heightened today. In Minneapolis, I was selected for a more detailed screening. My checked bags got to be x-rayed, saving me the hassle of having them hand searched. Plus, I got to lock them afterwards and check them through to my final destination. At the pre-gate security, I got a more thorough bomb detection wiping and additional checks of my carry-ons.

At the ticket counter, the man ahead of me was checking his hunting rifle for a trip to Canada (Minneapolis IS an International Airport, you know). The hand searcher looked completely lost as he inspected the case, very hesitantly touching the gun and never checking to see if it was loaded. They’re just tools, you know – like really loud, long range hammers.

In Frankfort, we’re lost in the terminal and looking for something to entertain us. There’s little available seating to wile away the hours, and the seats at the gates are reserved for boarding passengers only. At one point, George just walked through a gate adjacent to one of these boarding areas en route to a more comfortable seat than we had in the Blazingly sunny “Beerlift” snack bar. Once discovered, he was ejected along with the fifty boarding passengers who had already been processed that far. A rather embarrassing announcement accompanied the ejection. Maybe they used the word “Dumkoff”, but my German isn’t that good and we were already making a quick exit from the immediate area.

Even though we haven’t left the terminal, we still had to go through security again to scan the carry on. Dean got to remove his shoes. George got to turn on his machine. Brian got the bomb detection vacuum treatment. We all got an overly “friendly” pat down (and up) with metal detection wand and hand.

And we wait some more, dragging through the late morning.

This airport is truly a German thing. Way industrial. Metal fixtures. Metal Tables. Metal chairs. No window shades. No comfortable place to sit.

Shit. I’m whining and complaining now. What’s Baghdad going to be like?