The Cheaper Flight

Today, yesterday I suppose, I made my first transatlantic flight. My destination: London.



As we all know air travel is not nearly as simple as that automobile travel which we Americans have come to rely on so heavily. No straight shots down the interstate or scenic views, just 39,000 feet in the sky on a bus hurtling toward the next port of call, being warned about upcoming bumps in Dutch, a language you definitely don't understand.



I chose Dutch, or rather Dutch chose me, on this little adventure for the price. I could have flown stop-free in English, my native tongue (on most days at least) and paid for the convince but I'm planning other adventures and am saving up, but I digress... flying Dutch was an experience, the plane was good the flight was nice, the guy next to me? whole other story.


Now it would be silly for me to fly a Dutch airline and not end up in Amsterdam, so I, for the sake of not looking silly landed in Amsterdam and waited. The funny thing about their airport is the security: you go through security at your gate. Fine, makes sense especially with connecting fliers, problem is they only open the gate an hour or so before your flight is scheduled to leave. I had a three and a half hour layover.


Have I mentioned I'm cheap?

I spent €3 on Internet but that's pretty outrageous so I sat on the floor. By the time I boarded my plane had black hands from my seat, very black (if you've ever seen me you know that anything past pink is amazing). I had grown used to the stick of "waste" as they call it Amsterdam (for another day: the many names of trash).


I mused while I dirtied my hands, why would the trash smell so foul? Why was the floor so grimey? I had been sitting on the floor at Dulles, it had been clean, and the US isn't known for its obsessive cleanliness as some places are.


Since this story ends in a city and it began in a clean airport I just want to know, why did the middle have to be filthy?