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I've been traveling for a while. The first lesson I learned is that people are good. In fact, they are better than I thought!
Everything started last week when I was flying to Chicago. For some reason my brain thought that arriving 40 minutes before plane departure is OK. And this is what happened. I happily entered the Toronto airport, found the terminal 3, and went to my airline's desk.
- Your passport, please. Sir, you missed your flight. We closed check-in 30 minutes ago.
- Hmmm, that's uncool. How can we solve this problem?
- Well, we cannot do much. OK, I'll put you on the standby list. This is your boarding pass. Fill in the US customs declaration and run to the gate.
And so I did. I was running through the customs, baggage drop-off area, security and then I had to stop. Some guy before me looked suspicious to the security officers. They carefully checked his hand-luggage, which took them at least 5 minutes. Finally, they finished and let me continue my morning jog. It was very healthy. Thank you! I found the gate, full of people and the desk where I could discuss my flight.
- Sure, wait several minutes. I'll ask them
...
- Sir, I've got good and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?
- Ha! Start with the good one.
- Your luggage was checked-in. You can fly!
- Awesome! What's the bad news?
- Well, there is no bad news :-)
Due to the unpredicted delay the entire plane was waiting for me. They were so nice as to check-in my bag and wait before departing. Thanks American Airlines!
After several days spent in the Chicago suburbs I arrived to Keflavik. Iceland is a lovely place but very windy, rainy, and cold. After leaving the plane and getting my luggage I headed towards the desk where they sell bus tickets. The Keflavik airport is 40 km from Reykjavik. There was a guy selling tickets and the conversation was as follows:
- Hi! If you pronounce correctly name of that girl [working there] you'll get the ticket for free.
- Sure, I'm in!
Her name was Hrafnhildur. Actually, it's much harder to pronounce than to spell. Hrafnhildur, Hrafnhildur, Hrafnhildur. The trick is that 'f' sounds like 'b'. OK, I went to see her and said Hello Hrafnhildur! She said she liked the way I pronounced it. And so I got a free ticket (worth 1950ISK = $18) to Reykjavik. That was a sweet deal. Thanks!
40 minutes later I was in Reykjavik. Then I a took local bus to my Couchsurfing host. Thrudur was very nice and told me a lot about Iceland. Can you believe that Icelanders can trace their complete genealogical tree online? Everyone can see how they are related with Eric the Red. How COOL is that? Interestingly, there were about 30 generations between her and Eric the Red who died in 1003. Anyways, Thrudur let me stay at her place for 4 days. I hadn't known her before, yet she was very hospitable. What's more. There was another couchsurfer at her place. One night the guy was sleeping in Thrudur brother's bed. When her brother found the guy sleeping in his bed, he decided to sleep on the floor! Thanks for hosting me, guys!
Take 4: Dinner Invitation in Barcelona
One evening I was hanging out in Barcelona with Lidia. She was my roommate from the hostel and she (luckily) knew Spanish. Believe it or not, but people in Barcelona speak neither Polish nor English, so it's great to know some Spanish. Anyways, we were walking around and went to the beach. The beach, however, was far away from the hostel. We were looking for the bus that would take us back. On the bus stop we met a mother with several kids and another woman. Lidia asked them how to get to the hostel. They were all speaking Spanish and it took them about 30 minutes to find the way back. I felt like in one of those latino soap operas!
When the bus arrived we all got on board. It was very crowded but the crowd was happy. The journey took about 30 minutes. The mother was speaking to me in Spanish. She was very expressive, especially with her face and gestures. I was replying in English. Of course my friend from the hostel did the job of Google translator. At some point the mother just asked for a piece of paper. She wrote her email and invited us for a dinner! It's interesting that an unknown person treats you like an old friend after knowing you for a couple of minutes.
Take 4: Dinner Invitation in Barcelona
One evening I was hanging out in Barcelona with Lidia. She was my roommate from the hostel and she (luckily) knew Spanish. Believe it or not, but people in Barcelona speak neither Polish nor English, so it's great to know some Spanish. Anyways, we were walking around and went to the beach. The beach, however, was far away from the hostel. We were looking for the bus that would take us back. On the bus stop we met a mother with several kids and another woman. Lidia asked them how to get to the hostel. They were all speaking Spanish and it took them about 30 minutes to find the way back. I felt like in one of those latino soap operas!
When the bus arrived we all got on board. It was very crowded but the crowd was happy. The journey took about 30 minutes. The mother was speaking to me in Spanish. She was very expressive, especially with her face and gestures. I was replying in English. Of course my friend from the hostel did the job of Google translator. At some point the mother just asked for a piece of paper. She wrote her email and invited us for a dinner! It's interesting that an unknown person treats you like an old friend after knowing you for a couple of minutes.
