May 17, 2012
Malpensa, 12.20pm
This trip started in a luxurious way. Fast train from Vicenza to Milan, Malpensa Express to the airport. And once there Nike, Chanel, Armani, Pandora, Ermenegido Zegna boutiques. I was used to Stansted and its Accessorize shops and dvds at 3 pounds. There I always bought something. What is worse is that there is not even a Starbucks here! So sad. I had an americano (that was basically an espresso with hot water), at 1.50€. Quite expensive the hot water here.
After luggage check I stopped to look at the departure screen. Tel Aviv. Madrid. New York. Moscow. Shanghai. London. Tirana. St. Petersburg. Bilbao. Oslo. Istanbul. Belgrade. Bangkok. Minsk. Sofia. Doha. Riyahd. Casablanca. Sao Paulo. Cairo. Finally mine. But is there a place where I wouldn’t like to go? I am always fascinated by destination boards at airports. It’s like reading a novel where I can decide how it ends.
In my pocket I found an old battery. I took it off from my mp3 reader this morning and I forgot to bin it. So I will have to carry it with me the whole trip. I can’t leave in Tanzania my Italian rubbish!
In my backpack I also found a ball that I bought for Cagliostro (my cat). I forgot I took it with me to have my cat closer during the trip.
Cairo, 6.30pm
The sun is shining over Cairo. But only if you arrive on a plane you know it. Because from the ground you can’t tell. The city is wrapped in a cloud of… humidity? Pollution? It might be just sand. There’s sand everywhere. Children instead of playing football in the parks, they build castles in the sand (this is how I imagine them). Between two lanes of the road instead of a bush there’s a strip of sand.
At the airport there’s an old aircraft. Do you think they keep it for spare parts when needed?
The stewart dropped some of my juice on the lap of my neighbour. No problem, nothing happened. I did the same with the salad dressing. A bit on my trousers and a nice drop on my tshirt. It doesn’t bother too much, I guess Tanzania dust will hide it in a short time.
Cairo, a big international airport in Africa. I would like to sit and watch people walking by, but it’s huge and it looks almost empty. Two Italian girls are heading to Nairobi. Kenya must be full of Italians. I might go one day.
7.30 pm and it’s pitch dark. We are at the same time zone as Italy and we are closer to the equator. This means that days are shorter and it gets dark sooner in Spring-Summer. A gentleman a few seats from me is reciting verses of the Koran. I like this about their religion, they are not ashamed of praying in public.
