Well I had a great weekend in Montreal. I spent quality time with my girl and we saw a few good movies, The Martian and Spotlight.
But now back to the latest bout of immature travelling that should be done right after college, but I am late with a lot of things. I left downtown Montreal yesterday around 6:30 am for a 9:00 am flight. Upon getting to the Montreal airport, a woman at the kiosk for Air Canada tried to help me check in, but she couldn't find my 3rd flight to Jakarta (where I wanted to check my bag through). So she told me to stand on line and wait for an agent. (aren't those kiosk people supposed to save time?-I was just going to wait on line in the first place)
I watied on line for about 20 minutes. And got to the representative. She first told me that she couldn't find my 3rd flight, and could only check my bag to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I told her that wasn't really acceptable-because I didn't have a visa for Saudi Arabia, and if I couldn't access the baggage claim without going through passport control first, then I c ouldn't get my bag. I was going to ask if I could check my bag only for the first leg to Toronto, and give my bag to the Saudia airlines folks there-but all of a sudden she was able to find the flights and check my bag all the way to Jakarta. That sounds sort of suspicious-I have to just hope my bag will be there!
Then I took the first flight, a one hour (roughly) flight to Toronto. There I waited a few hours, and caught the flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The 11 hour flight was on Saudia airlines, and it was a nice flight. The food was very good, and I think I was the only non-Arab onboard. Just about every woman on the plane wore a hijab, and the plane had a prayer room in back where men prayed. Apparently a lot of men we're going to Mecca.
The plane had a nice entertainment system with lots of option, including movies, documentraries, etc. Much of what was shown was censored.For example, in the movie Vacation, which I saw in Europe, a beginning scene where Russ Griswold is a pilot and his plane goes out of control was omitted-which is understandable. But there is more. I saw the movie The Karate Kid onboard-the original with Ralph Maggio. You wouldn't think there was anything to Censor in the quintessential 80's family flick, but you are wrong. Elizabeth Shue, who must have been around 14, is seen playing soccer in shorts-a no-no-so Shue's legs we're blurred out.
I also watched a few documentaries. One was on the American railroads, and the subject was a old coal-miners town in Colorado. The town had a bar that has been there for something like one hundred years, and the owner of the bar was interviewed. He mentioned that back when the bar opened in the 1800's, there we're many businesses to serve the miners, like lots of bars, and houses of ______ (the sound was silenced).
I also saw a documentary on Mcdonalds-which was interesting. The CEO of Mcdonalds described how the food was fresh, and he went into the breakfast menu. He mentioend what went on an Egg Mcmuffin-except he didn't say bacon-(because the sound was silenced once again-I guess because pork is taboo).
Right now I am in the transfer lounge at the King Abdullaziz International Airport in Jeddah. I have 8 hours between flights. Seems like standard fare here (it was 8:30 am when I got here and the guy next to me has been waiting since 10 pm).. I wanted to take a look at the duty free shops-but that would require going through security and I wasn't sure I could get back to this transfer lounge. The guard here seemed to discourage me from doing that. Not much different then detention in school. As a matter of fact, this transfer lounge is just like the library in the Breakfast Club. People sleeping, talking, watching Catwoman on tv with Arabic titles, and being discouraged from leaving until their flight boards.
