the trip; amsterdam

the trip went unbelievably well. no luggage got lost, there was no delay, and no problems at the nigerian airport with the customs officers. the only thing that i would have wished to change was the sprained ankle i got while carrying a suitcase down the stairs. it sort of spoiled my plans of running around amsterdam for the whole day. amsterdam is one of my favorite cities in europe. i spent some time there every year since i was little and until i moved to poland i could have said that i knew it better then lodz, my parents home town. that's the town where i ate my first oyster. i don't remember the incident because i was around five. in the past, klm would offer a free hotel and meal to all it's passengers that could catch a connecting flight the same day, which meant that we qualified for a free vacation every year cause there was no way we could get from poland to amsterdam early enough to catch the flight to nigeria. well during one of the trips my mother listened to a waiter in a restaurant and ordered me a grilled steak instead of kiddy food. the steak had a succulent fresh oyster on top. the waiter regretted his kind advice cause the moment i had the oyster in my mouth i sent it flying through the table straight at him. that was my first experience with those salt water creatures but not the last. A few years later I repeated the try, in Antibe, but that’s a story for another day.

A few other things have changed since the beginning of my flying days. I remember when smoking was allowed onboard. The tail end of the plane was reserved for smokers but the smoking section and the non smoking section were never divided in any way to block the smoke from crawling into the front. Another thing that I remember and in a way miss was the tradition of clapping after every landing. It was a way for the passengers to express their thanks to the pilot for a good landing. Nobody does that anymore and it’s a pity.