A Fresh Start

The eagle has landed, dear chums, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll start at the embarkation. A couple of hours before the flight was due to take off, the gate was opened for pre-flight cross-examination.

Who are you? Where are you going? Where is Barry (i.e. asking questions about what’s in my passport)? Did you pack your bags yourself? Where were your bags on the journey between your house and the airport? What’s the capital of Uzbekistan? What’s the seventeenth digit of pi?, etc., etc. I passed the test, eventually, and was allowed through to the lounge to wait and wonder who my glamourous companion would be.

My travelling companion on the flight was Helga from Berlin. Tall, blonde, slim … I’m in luck, I thought. I’d had some Ukrainians sitting next to me in the departure lounge and I was desperately hoping I’d not be sat next to them as there’s clearly a soap shortage in Kiev this year.

Helga certainly didn’t reek, but the fact that empty seats meant we could spread out and have an empty seat between us may have helped. It certainly may have helped her feel a little more comfortable about being stuck with a short, fat Welsh bloke for eight hours, anyway. In spite of the empty seat, she couldn’t keep her hands off me - twice I was given a sudden nudge when I was drifting off to sleep. Accidental, of course, in that she couldn’t help herself :-).

I was a little taken aback when she pulled out some knitting. This was on two counts. Firstly, I didn’t think youngsters knitted any longer (though I didn’t realise just how young she was at this point). Secondly, I’d have expected dangerous items such as a pair of knitting needles to have been confiscated at the security check. They were keen enough to confiscate my lighter, after all (although matches are allowable for some stupid reason.

We chatted intermittently and established that she was travelling on to Toronto from Detroit (so I shared the wisdom I gained in June with her).

“So what are you doing in Toronto? Is it a holiday?”

“No, I am there for a year?”

“Ah, college.”

“No, high school.”

High school? Just how young is she?! I think she’s there to help the student with their German. Either that or I completely misunderstood. German classes at her school are certainly going to be popular among the young men, I can assure you. My German is rather dusty after 20 years lack of use but didn’t cause any major misunderstandings.

We got into Detroit bang on time and even the immigration and customs queues were relatively speedy. Less than an hour after touchdown Mohamed Bile was whisking me from the airport to the hotel. That was an experience. High speed lane weaving as he dealt with call after call on his mobile … I was rather relieved to get here in one piece!

Nice, fast internet in the room for $10 a day, which is a bonus. Just need to get out there and take some snaps to make it worthwhile now. Assuming I can stay awake (though I’m feeling less tired than I’ve ever felt crossing this way. That said, I may shut my eyes for an hour or so for a power nap before my first exploration. I’ve already identified a couple of places to visit tomorrow so expect and exciting update tomorrow night.

Toodle-pip for now,

Em³