Travel Blog entry #1 - Security

As I was getting in line for the security inspection at the [Ben Gurion] airport, you know, where they x-ray your bag, the man in front of me started to take off his coat, belt and shoes, when the x-ray machine operator told him in a really thick Israeli accent “no, no, there is no striptease here”, to what the man responded with an incredulous “what do you mean”, the Israeli security guard then said “we don’t do that in Israel, no need, here fine.”

That’s cool, I thought to myself without making too much of it; but life can surprise you sometimes with this kind of little things. Got on the plane and four and a half hours later I landed in Paris, got off the plane and started to try to make sense of the crazy disarray of how the Charles DeGaulle airport is built. I finally figured out that I had to take a bus to terminal 2E, when the bus finally showed up, the doors of the building opened to let us out and to let us feel the freezing cold outside (0°C or 32°F). To my surprise, the bus was as cold as the outside, no heating! And every time it stopped, the lady driver would leave the doors open to let nobody in and us freeze inside! It sucked! I don’t think any of the airport terminals are really conditioned, it’s so freaking cold!

I finally got to terminal 2E, got my boarding pass for the next flight and got in line for the security inspection. Oh boy! French security is retarded!!! A line of about 10 people took about half an hour! They made everyone

take out of their bags laptops, phones, ipods, mp3 players, cameras, camcorders, disk on keys, phone chargers, any cables or anything electronic related. Other things that had to be put in those plastic trays to be x-rayed were: coats, hats, belts, shoes, jewelry, change, etc. It took for freakin’ ever!!!

Then I started walking around the terminal to find out that there isn’t a single place where you can smoke, and worst of all, the whole airport smells like perfumed fart! Everywhere smells like fart, just with a little perfume on top, it’s disgusting!!!

But after those two completely different experiences in security screening, I have to say that I still trust about 50 times more the relaxed, super high-tech security check in Israel than the slow but “thorough” security check in France. I know that the plane leaving from Israel won’t get highjacked or explode in mid air, while the plane that leaves from Paris, well… who knows? And if you’re wondering about rudeness, the French turned out to be way more assholes than the Israelis… at least so far.

Bottom-line, can’t wait to get out of stupid Frenchland, where they charge for the internet and a cup of coffee is 5 Euros!

The only good thing that I found in this place is that there are a couple PlayStation3 demonstration stations where you can actually play for free… mostly non violent demo-limited games, but hey, it’s free PlayStation! Gots to play!

(Still smells like fart)