Gross Halloween Thoughts

One of the great mysteries of flying are the number of people who take their shoes off.

Ok, that part’s not a mystery—on a long haul flight when you’re trapped in a seat for hours at a time, it can be worth taking your shoes and zoning out without the constraining factor of shoes.

The mystery, as far as I am concerned is why wouldn’t you put your shoes back on before heading into the lavatory?

From my vantage point onboard my flight to the States today, I saw more than a few people stand up and casually stroll into the toilet while wearing socks—and nothing you say can convince me that the floor is either dry or sanitary—I can just imagine the socks absorbing whatever liquids are on the floor and then keeping that icky moisture right next to their foot for the rest of the trip.

Gross.

Beyond that, I’m happy to say that this trip to the states has been relatively relaxed, unlike my last trip through the Frankfurt Airport. You may recall that the last time I went through Frankfurt I was a bit stressed: 45 minute queue for exit-immigration, then 30 for the initial round of security, followed by 30 minutes getting through the second round of security. This time, check-in was a breeze, I flew through exit-immigration, and both rounds of security in no time.

Not only that the door to the plane closed something like 10 minutes early: too bad the airport was fogged in and our pushback and take-off time meant we sat at the gate for another 45 minutes—we’ve also faced relatively strong headwinds—meaning that the landing was about half an hour late.

Still, I made my connection, so no worries.