There are places in the world, or occasions in those places, where things just don't seem to make any sense. One, for example, is the flight experience. I was in the bathroom in the Barajas Airport, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the soap dispenser was at one end of the long platform of some six sinks so that if you, like me, was using the sink farthest from that end, you have to walk over with your wet hand to get some soap. It's as if no one was thinking when designed that section of the bathroom, or no one was thinking when hiring someone competent to do the job.
Then there's the line. When they first announced that they would soon board the flight, 90% of the passengers decided to stand in line, despite the announcement that they would board in sections. Not all the passengers are driven by stubborn refusal to listen, but you just need a critical mass of these deaf people to get the rest of the lot, including me, to join for the (as always) irrational fear that somehow the customs here was to ignore established rules. Why not? I have seen many rules flaunted in many regions of this country, why not this rule that didn't make immediate sense to the people here. It's not only the fault of the minority critical mass of temporarily deaf passengers. The people in charge saw how long the line was but did nothing more after that first announcement to tell people to sit down. On my flight to Madrid from the US the airline personnel there told the people as they were lining up to sit back down as it didn't matter where they were in line. It worked and when the critical mass was reduced, the whole line fell apart.
Before this line there was another line, even more interesting. Two weeks ago, on Christmas Day, a terrorist attempted to blow up an airplane with bombs on his shoes. That set off alarms and drama throughout the world. So now all US-bound passengers had their entire carryon luggage checked thoroughly, and they each get padded down. It's a bit of an overdo; not even the Israelis do that. But more to the point is that this won't last long; it's just a way for the government to show they are serious, or for this government to show the US government that they wouldn't be blamed for anything even if a terrorist could infiltrate the airplane. But what terrorist would attack within two months? More likely they would attack once the rules are relaxed again and the memories of the dramas fade. A person can act irrationally and foolishly, but a collective of people can do even weirder things, and sometimes much more destructive.
This particular Spanish airline is the only one I consider close to being a no-thrills airline, which should not exist on a trans-Atlantic route! Sure, they serve food, but it's nominal food. The main course is barely edible, and each item, including the drink cup, is noticeably smaller than items on every other airline I've flown on on a trans-Atlantic flight. It's as if someone from the corporate board came and inspected everything they can cut cost on, including the drinking cup size. It's the only trans-Atlantic flight I've been on where you have to pay $5 for your earphones to watch only five movies onboard.
So in a way, it's good. You shouldn't be eating so much on a flight as the cabin pressure isn't conducive to digestion and you really should be resting instead of expending energy on your digestive system. And for the latter reason you shouldn't be watching any movies. Flying should be an austere experience. People should just be giving sleeping pills while waiting on their futile line boarding the plane, so that they could just sleep and wake up when the plane arrives at its destination. That way, you don't even have to compete for the bathroom.
The flight attendants are something. They are always talking to you with a smile and very friendly. But that's only if you get their attention. I waited in vain for someone to notice my attendant call signal. The only one who noticed it was the guy sitting next to me. I just wanted a cup of water, and when I decided to ask the attendant giving out tea, who amazingly didn't ask me about the lit signal, she said water would be forthcoming. I am used to getting water whenever I needed as water is probably the only thing you really need to have a good flight (flying is a very dehydrating experience). "Forthcoming" meant another good five minutes for my very thirsty throats. The guy next to me lighted the signal too, but amazingly, an attendant walked by and, without asking either one of us what we wanted, just turned it off and walked off. Both of us were too shocked to shout out for her attention. More of this anti-attentiveness ensued.
Flying involves being with a lot of people and being powerless. I count myself lucky that there are no weather or traffic-control or other godly forces that caused any delays, which would have resulted in dramas that inevitably ended with the passengers being on the losing end. There's heavy snow in England and some flights were canceled so I saw huge lines of people waiting in front of the EasyJet ticket counter. When you have so many people at the mercy of a tiny number of airline personnel, it's no wonder the strangest attributes of a collective human society turn into mini-dramas. Incompetence, inattentiveness, selfishness, pettiness, all get bloated and reverberate within the confines of the airplane, or the airport. For that reason flying is the worst part of any travel, no matter what kind of travel. You could be going on some cruise with a boat load of weirdoes, or on a lonesome journey through remote mountain villages; one common denominator is that you most likely have to take a plane, and you will become a unit in this collectivity of humanity and share much more than that fraction of the drama that can incur.
