5: Salve! Hello!

Original Post Date: 1/24/2011 6:45 pm EST

I am surprisingly cold abroad this Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Unlike other aircrafts, this plane (and other Lufthansa airplanes, I’m assuming) has no passenger control switch to adjust the cool recycled air blowing on my head. Thankfully they provide free blankets, so at least my legs are relatively warm.

Bess and I are duo-seated by the aisle, with an empty seat to my left and the passingway to her right. There’s an abundance of room, which I totally love at this point. Throw in an airplane meal and I’m set. I do really love airplanes and airports. As we were perusing around the Hudson News magazine section, I told Bess this. Flash forward a couple hours and we find ourselves not even half way into our flight. Having already watched Eat, Pray, Love (well, at least the Italy section on my part—Bess is watching the rest now), I’m wondering what else one can do on a flight. I suppose there’s always the possibility of sleep, but considering it’s only 6:50 pm EST at this point, that seems a little senior-citizen to me.

The duty-free cart just passed by with slender German flight attendant ladies softly saying, “in-flight shopping” with their Bavarian accents, calling like sirens from the North. And I muse on this because that’s all there really is to do on a 7-hour flight. Well, I guess I could try to learn some Italian from the CDs Bess let me download to my ipod. That would be the best thing to do, however, after enjoying (as much as anybody can) a glass of red wine, or two, I’m feeling more inclined to not exercise my brain’s language center. The lights have just been shut off in the cabin—indicating sleepy time, although I’ll stay awake for a few more hours. It is a strange thing to fly into another time zone; one seems without time and the constraints of such, when in the air.