Thursday, September 13, 2007

Leaving. On a jetplane!


To go. It´s the most important thing. No matter how. On foot, by car, by bus, train, boat or plane. Rockets I didn´t test yet. But if there´s anyone with experience in the area, please, fell welcome to share it.While travelling, there´s nothing like walking. To really know a place, to  make your feet touch each and every centimetre of the unknown. But there are distances that feet can´t reach. Either because they´re too tired, or because the time is too short. It doesn´t really matter.So, nothing better then hit the road driving. Taking control of everything. Of your time of departure, of arrival, stopping as many times as you want. Listening to whatever kind of music you choose, as high volumed as desired with no one to complain. And you can sing and yell or just keep as quiet as possible. There´s nothing like driving.But sometimes you don´t have an available car. So, between the bus and the train, I pick the train. But in Brazil, that´s not an option. So, let´s talk about the bus. You just sit there while the guy in front of you reclines his seat into your lap and the child sitting behind is kickboxing the back of your seat. When the bus makes a quick stop, after a 40 hour trip and a four hour mechanical problem in the middle of the cold night, there comes the jackfruit salesman. With a half opened jackfruit.If you´ve never heard of a jackfruit, just know that it has a terrible smell that in that occasion, just spread all over the place. Horrible.But sometimes, there are no other solutions. And there are people, like a friend of mine, that enters, sits and sleeps immediately. Even if a meteor would fall by her side, she´d only wake up on the destination. How lucky!Well, if there´s the train, there´s nothing to think about. On the train you may walk around and strech your legs, eat, go to the toilet and sometimes you don´t even have to pay it. You can also just admire the landscape through the window and perhaps, talk to the person sitting beside you, if he or she is interesting.By the way, in the Netherlands, there´s a paper on the trains where it´s possible to post adds and look after people you´ve meet in a trip sometime before. If I still recall what it said, it was somewhat like this: "I´m from The Hague and she´s from Breda. We had such a pleasant trip, talked about everything, especially about (something very specific that would let her recognise him), but I arrived and we couldn´t exchange phone numbers. I wish I could see her again." After that, that was some information about how to leave a message to the guy on the newspapers main offices. Could you picture this in a bus in Brazil?
Well, moving on, going to the boat. It´s wonderful, but very limited. But with the sun shining and the wind... Facing the waves is one of the few adrenaline situations that I like. What about a ship? Well, like a friend would say, c'est la classe! And a cruise, oulálá!Counting pros and cons, if it is for me to get out of where I am, I´ll go. But my only problem is my biggest addiction: airplanes.
People can say whatever they want, that planes crash every once in a while, that accidents with planes are more fatal then with other transports, there can be the child bumping against my seat or the drunk guy´s stincky feet in yopur face. There´s nothing like flying. I can´t help being on the ground for too long. I need to be in the air. See everything from up above, go further and faster. Nothing can go wrong. "If the cabin air system should fail, oxygen masks will be released from the panel just above your seat". Is there anything more comforting then knowing that your seat can float? It´s the risk you gotta take to discover new things. I have to get a plane urgently!

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