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Leiden Central II

So here it goes_yes the story of my odyssey (not really. nothing seemed to rhyme better). After long hours of waiting on the airport at the Jinnah terminal Karachi I boarded a plane for the city of Abu Dhabi; right at the eastern edge of the Arabian peninsula. The flight was comfortable and took three odd hours. As soon we became airborne food and refreshments were served; much to the disappointment of my fellow travellers who just wanted the taste of the prohibited. Anyways we landed at the airport, which was not very impressive, in the night. The building is designed to be a big tent with a central pillar. There was lot of hush hush on the airport. I needed a transfer to my next flight which I got after some na noo. I had about 4 hours before my flight for Amsterdam left the airport so I wandered around, in the airport of course.    The duty free shop is quite big and there were mostly people from the Subcontinent roaming about. Picking a thing or two from here looking at a thing or two elsewhere.
There was this handsomely large liquor shop within the building. And since the flight to Peshawar was about to leave in a little time most of the bearded men from Pakistan were hurriedly buying some good liquor, which of course they might have trouble finding in the land of the pure. Such sights of hypocrisy are painful indeed but one gets used to them when one realizes that there is a little bit present in everyone of us. I wanted a picture with a goodly looking stack of Vodka but this never happened as the sales person was not inclined unless I promised that I bought a bottle or two.
   After 4 long hours of waiting I boarded a flight for Amsterdam onboard a KLM 747-400. The interior was spacious and the flight crew helpful. The food was warm and fresh and my fellow traveller an experience in itself. The instant we boarded the plane we were welcomed by unwelcome and weary gazes of many whites who abounded the flight. None, however, was impolite enough to express his/her feelings in words. My fellow traveller was a dutch who was so drunk by the time that I got the honour of travelling with him that he was slumped onto his seat and talking continuously. His feet stinked and he used them freely to spread his personal aroma to the sorroundings of my delicate otherwise naive smell buds. He told me that he was an engineer in an oil company and frequented air travel for almost every reason. He told me that he chose this career when he was done with his high school and one day he was sitting in his home and his dad happened to ask him what he intended to do then. Then did he feel the necessity of taking up a job that could earn him money or else. He was convinced and took up his present job, jumping companies as he leaped forward in his life and not so in his career. He was awarded another beer for his valiant story telling which he gladly accepted. I for that took the opportunity for accustoming myself to the new land. All in all the chap was a simple one who amused me a lot and in the end taught me the singular word of dutch that I know 'Dak U'.
   After seven hours of flight we saw the first aerial images of our destination which were not so amusing as the city was covered in clouds. We were able to make an on time landing and after some time the plane came to a halt on gate E4.
Dak U is Thank you.

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