Traveling stories

Well...I knew I would have at least a couple of stories about my travels during my solo trip to visit Will. Here goes...

First, on Saturday as I'm headed to Berlin on the train the conductor stamps my Eurail pass twice for Saturday. The pass I was using is good for six days of travel between Austria and Germany. I had already used three days before setting off to Berlin and had three remaining. Since I've been here, the conductor comes by, asks to see your pass and if he/she is the first to look at it that day, they stamp it with the date. Saturday was a little different.

The first conductor stamped my pass as usual on the train from Innsbruck to Munich. The trouble started on the train from Munich to Nurnburg. For some reason, that conductor looked at my pass and stamped it again, this time smudging the date so much so it was basically unreadable! I changed trains in Nurnburg to get on another going to Berlin.

On the train to Berlin, the conductor comes by looks at my pass and stamps the fifth spot on the pass. Yikes! Luckily I was paying attention and caught him before he left my car and explained, at least the best I could with the language barrier, that he had double stamped my pass for the day. To my surprise he was apologetic and 'fixed the double stamp' with a handwritten note. He told me not to worry that it would be fine. Yeah right...but, he was right. I had no problems on any of the trains back from Berlin to Munich to Innsbruck on Tuesday!

Leaving Tel Aviv was another story all together. I think I was singled out because 1) I had only been there for a little less than 48 hours; and 2) I had a backpack as luggage that they thought was going to be my carry-on. To even check into your airline in Tel Aviv, you have to stand in line to have your passport checked and then send your bags through a metal detector. As I was standing in line, a female 'guard' approached me and started asking me questions. The questions were relentless and much like I would think the police do if you're ever questioned. She kept asking me the same questions, phrased just slightly differently to see if I would change my story. Then, she took my passport and walked away.

When she returned, she brought another female 'guard' with her. At that time, they asked me to step out of line and follow them to a desk. Of course I complied and was again interrogated, but this time by both women. I could tell they wanted me to slip up and say something incriminating, but I didn't. And...they asked me at least three times if I had been given a bomb to carry onto the airplane. Seriously, I knew where I was and knew enough not even to buy any souvenirs to bring home because my stay was so short. This interrogating took almost half an hour until they decided I could go and have my bags scanned.

So, I went to scan in my bags and was again directed to the same desk I had just visited, but this time told to stand in line. When it was my turn, I was again interrogated by two female 'guards.' This time however, they pulled the image of my scanned bags up on their computer and realized that my purse hadn't scanned well. One of them told me that she had to scan my purse again and I could either go with her or wait at the desk. Quickly my mind flashed to all of the movies and stories I'd heard about with people being arrested for 'things' found in their luggage. So, not wanting to spend any time at the Tel Aviv jail, I insisted that I not only go with her to scan my purse, but that I bring my backpack with me. She was not happy about that to say the least, but I knew if I left the bag the very first question asked of me when I returned was has the bag been out of my sight and I wasn't willing to let that happen.

The woman rolled her eyes and eventually understood she wasn't taking my purse anywhere without me and my backpack! She was even less amused when we got to the metal detector and I refused to go to the end with her until I watched my purse actually go through the belt. But, I didn't trust these people with anything and I certainly wasn't going to give them any opportunity to slip something into my bag.

Finally, we return to the desk and one of the women takes everything out of bag down to my dirty clothes and then proceeds to go over my entire bag with this wand thing with a towlette on the end. After she's finished going over my bag, she takes the towlette to a machine. Who knows what that does. After she's finally convinced I'm not a terrorist, she repacks my bag and tells me I can go stand in yet another line to check-in.

This is probably the most inefficient process I've seen in my life, but I guess they manage to catch some undesirables in the process. The moral of the story is, when flying out of Tel Aviv, make sure you get to the airport with plenty of time to go through the process because they will question you until they are satisfied you're not a terrorist. AND...they could care less if you make your flight. I will say it was a ridiculously nice airport and once I was through the passport line and into the terminal there were plenty of nice shops and places to eat!