Saturday, September 26, 2009

Behold Edinburgh

Thursday (or Wednesday, or whatever, I'm too tired to care)

After a difficult Tuesday night in which I slept maybe five hours, we faced a hurried and emotional Wednesday. We had to say goodbye to Lara's parents and grandmother, with her mom lying in a hospital bed. We said goodbye to two cats we raised from kittens, bottle-feeding them from four weeks old. We said goodbye to our dog for who knows how long (it depends on the housing we can find). With all of this happening I honestly did not think much about my own family except to test call Skype, which I would use in Edinburgh to call them when we got there. For my test call I talked to my dad because that was who picked up. Then I got a call on my cell phone from my mom who wanted to say goodbye and hear the sound of my voice. Yeah, I felt like a jerk. I could hear Mr. T saying “Call yo' mama, fool!”

We flew out at 4:30 pm from DFW on Lufthansa (a major German airline, for those of you who are as ignorant as I was). We had not weighed our checked luggage, and ended up having to move several items around to make certain that all the bags were under the limit. We were aided by a very nice lady at the counter who made some exceptions for us. International direct flights, at least on foreign airlines, leave from terminal D. This was my first experience with terminal D. A, B, and C are basically all the same, semi-circular with shops on the inside of the circle and gates on the outside, metallic, shiny, and hectic. Terminal D was a little different. It is more squarish, with a kind of shopping mall feel to it. It was also significantly less hectic.

This was my third international flight (if you count going to and from Africa as two flights), and the shortest of the three. The flight was on-time and about nine hours. As I mentioned in a previous post, we were to lose six hours on this flight, so we thought it would be a good idea to get some sleep on the plane. I knew this would be easier said than done, since the plane left at 4:30 central time and would arrive at what would feel like 1:30-ish AM, and I don't sleep well on planes anyway. You already know how well that worked out.

Frankfurt's airport is an interesting blend of upscale, high-tech modernity and run-down, low-tech simplicity. In the B section of terminal 1 there is a really nice area upstairs with restaurants and comfortable seating overlooking the runways (with a McDonalds of all things – I really think it should be classified as a pandemic). Right outside of this area was an extended section with missing ceiling tiles and exposed wiring. It was kind of like Mad Max meets Ritz-Carlton, all the luxury one might expect in a post-apocalyptic airport.

I've heard that among Europeans, Germans are often caricatured as serious, long-faced, taciturn, and abrupt. Yep, that about sums it up. There was about as much hospitality as what one might expect from a county jail. I know it's one of the ruder aspects of American travelers to expect everyone to cater to them, but I honestly did not know how to order a pretzel in German, and we were in the freaking INTERNATIONAL SECTION OF THE AIPORT! One notable exception was one of the flight attendants, originally on Lara's side of our middle section; I moved to Lara's other side because she was much nicer than the one on my side who seemed rather put out that I didn't automatically know the drink options.

I have to admit that all the angry-looking Muslims waiting for what could have been our flight was unnerving, and it didn't help that the only response I got from my attempt to appear friendly was one of the Muslims getting up and moving away from our area. When our flight was called, I was relieved to be leaving Germany and relieved that the Muslims weren't leaving with me.

I slept most of the two hours from Frankfurt to Edinburgh, hoping that it might refresh me enough to make it through the rest of the day. At this point I didn't know what day it was, I didn't know what time it was, I honestly at one point had trouble remembering Lara's name. I wasn't really in the mood to be happy about being in another country. But the general friendliness level in Edinburgh was a stark contrast to Frankfurt. The lady inspecting our passports and visas for entry had to do some extra checking to verify our story (which I understand), but she did so in a professional and eventually personable manner. I never felt dismissed or an intrusion.

We were picked up at the airport through a service called Edinburgh Direct. The driver's name was Paul, and he was a delight. He made meaningful and comfortable conversation the whole way from the airport to our accommodations at Argyle Backpackers Hostel. I did my best to interact with him through the haze of ludicrous sleepiness, and I gave him a big tip.

Argyle Backpackers is a good example of the European youth hostel: cheap dormitory style accommodation for the most part with shared bathrooms and kitchens, aimed especially at young people traveling on a limited budget. Many hostels, this included, also have private rooms available for a little more money. It's a no frills way to stay somewhere relatively cheaply. Plus, this one was in a good location for us. Objectively, I don't know how comfortable the bed actually was, but I was asleep by 7:30 pm on what felt like the softest, most wonderful bed ever made by third world factory workers.

3 comments:

  1. What did you end up doing with your cats?

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  2. That's a great story. Sunday before we flew out, Lara's cousin called Lara's dad to ask about her mom. In the course of the conversation, it came out that there had been some cat-related tragedy fairly recently in Lara's cousin's household (they're multi-cat people). They were very interested in taking care of Apollo and Rosie. As of now, Apollo and Rosie are together at the house of Lara's cousin and her husband in Orlando, FL. Everything worked out well.

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