On the road (in the air) to Afghanistan

There’s not too much to tell about the actual trip from Eindhoven to TK, so this won’t be a long entry… but there were a couple of highlights.

For me, the first highlight was being the last to board. On a plane without assigned seating, this means you sit at the front… in business class! I was probably one of (if not the) shortest person on the flight… but I had so much legroom I couldn’t reach my bags under the seat infront of me without crawling on the floor! Poor long-legged Michel had to go a little further back (we didn’t realize what I’d lucked into until after I sat down and he’d moved on)… but he at least had a couple empty seats together.

The flight to our first stop (an airport called Mirage at an unidentified location in the Middle East) was pretty uneventful. When we got off the plane it was already dark, but the breeze was tropically warm and we were happy to stretch our legs a little, even if it just meant walking into a small hanger to get further instructions. Or so we thought.

What we actually got was shelter from a sudden downpour / hailstorm - apparently very unusual in the Emirates but also quite entertaining because it was so loud on the metal roof that they guys trying to give us instructions almost had to stop. The downside was that all our baggage was still outside on pallets… and of course it wasn’t waterproofed (at least not against this kind of rain)… so our clothes got completely soaked.

Oh well.

This was also where everyone - including us - was assigned a flak jacket and helmet (we’re hoping not to need them) and where the soldiers picked up their weapons. You know you’re pretty far from home when flak jackets and helmets come by the pallet-box-full and weapons lie on tables waiting to be claimed by their owners.

We spent about 6 hours there waiting for the next flight (we were booked on the shorter-but-later flight that didn’t leave until 4:30 am!). Michel tried to take advantage of the small sleeping quarters but gave up after finding the only empty bed… and then hearing a woman sneeze… and realizing that he’d inadvertently wound up in the ladies quarters. I stayed up (or tried to) talking to the fellow I’d sat with on the flight over - a lovely chatty Captain working on the helicopters in Kandahar.

The flight to Kandahar… well… that was pretty unique…

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