Wednesday, August 09, 2006

The journey to JFK


One of the many passageways within the labyrinthine Frankfurt-Main Airport

After my brief stay in Berlin, I was moving on from Europe. I got to Berlin Tegel airport in the morning, along with lots of Swedes and other football fans flying home. First I had to fly to Frankfurt, an airport I’ve visited a number of times, without ever visiting the city itself, before I got to go through some of the most stringent security checks to board my flight to the US. A lesser person may have felt violated by the thorough padding down everyone got, and I think I must have shown my passport at least 5 times and my air ticket once or twice before I was allowed access to the gate. The Germans do like to do everything by the book.

Left: View of Greenland, Right: Northern Canada


I was looking forward to the flight. When I checked in at Berlin, the Lufthansa guy had given me one of the best seats on the flight – an emergency exit row window seat. It felt great stretching out while all of the people in rows around, cramped in their seats throw murderous glances my way. I could see them thinking – “Why did she get that seat…” Flying during the daytime meant that I got to see Greenland, and all of the north Canadian coastline, before arriving in New York. It was pretty spectacular. Flying into JFK airport, we flew over Long Island before touching down, just in time for me to get fingerprinted at immigration and starting the long trip in to Manhattan on the subway…

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