Wednesday, August 05, 2009

To Turkey & ICM 2009 and Back

(I haven't read this through so there might be a lot of mistakes)

2009-08-04

Departure 30 minutes late. That is how the story begins at Katrup airport in Copenhagen. Fortunatly I got window seat. It’s three years now since I last flew. Although, this is the first time to Turkey. I love looking out the window. 11 300 meters ut in the air, the clouds are nothing more than fluffy white things below or beside you, or an even world of white. I also enjoy seeing the tiny, thin roads on the ground, surrounded by paches of ground fields in different colours. Seeing things are certainly a way of grasping a little bit better how big the world is and how small you are. Eg. flying above cities like São Paulo in Brazil or Mexico City in Mexico feels like a never ending experience of cities which don’t seem to end. Try to imagine all the inhabitants of Sweden in one city and double it, then you almost have a city of that magnitude.

Enough about that, I am on my way to Turkey. To do what? Work my ass off is the idea, but I like working for Amnesty even when it’s for free, which it always is. For months I waited for the judgement by the people responsible of the applications to work as volunteer at the International Council Meeting (ICM) 2009 in Antalya, Turkey. After been looking for a (better) job for 2,5 years with ”thank you for applying, but we have decided to give the job to someone else”, I hardly expected someone to actually choose me but they did.

The ground has changed from that I took off in Copenhagen. From nicely squared fields to softly changing shapes. Did I mention that I 1668 km closer to my destination than when I left? In other words I am 47 minutes away from Istanbul, and leaving the clouds behind, where I will change to another flight to get to Antalya.

There is a lake below that has the colour of gold and turqoise, shaped like an artwork. The nature is different here and even if its is about -55 degrees up here, it will be at least 25 degrees down there. The (frost) is clouding my view over the turqoise sea and halv moon shaped coast lines.

Late departure hence a late arrival. Of course the terminal I had to go to to Antalya from Istanbul was far away. I was so late to the airport bus that it was only an Englishman and I on it. Do you think that the plane left on time? It took another 25 minutes before the plane acutally took off. Yet again I have a seat close to the wing. I must say that the following text on the middle of the wing feels unnecessary: ”Do not walk outside this area”. I promise I will not walk on the wing. At all. Ever.

1 comment:

Moema said...

Sounds exciting, sis! It´s good thast you won´t walk on the wings of the plane, hahahah...;-D