Getting there is half the fun!

Did I sound convincing when I said that?

It’s about midnight local time as I am writing this, which means that you are all still be at work. I’ve just taken a nice long shower and took some advil for my headache, and am, unfortunately, feeling very awake. So here’s the quick recap of my journey.

Airport #1: Dulles. Everyone who complains about delays at airports through check in and security has never flown out of Dulles on a Thursday at 1pm. Being the good passenger that I am, I arrived the recommended two hours early. There was one person in front of me to check in, and no one in front of me to go through security. How anti-climactic.

Airport #2: Newark. A fun game to play is to try to pick out the Americans versus the Europeans. While there is no universal rule when it comes to this, I found that a general guideline is that the Europeans are more likely to be quieter, wear more trendy clothes, and have hair that makes me nostalgic for the days of Pat Benetar and Joan Jett. The Americans are more vocal and are more likely to be wearing color coordinated velour jogging suits (I swear – I saw three of these. Though it could be more a trait of New Jersey than the US. Maybe it’s unfair of me to generalize).

Airport #3: Brussels. All messages are in four languages. I get to sit through Dutch, German, French, and then English. And people can smoke at these little smoking stations that are all over the airport. Other than that, I can’t really remember what happened while I was there waiting for my flight. It’s all becoming a blur at this point.

Airport #4: Nairobi. I should say runway #4 because we don’t actually get off the plane. A very nice Dutch guy was sitting next to me on the flight and he got off here. We got to sit a few minutes and listen to some very skittish German tourists talking to an Italian ex-pat living in Kampala about the murders of British tourists near Gulu (in the north. No panicking folks, I’m not going there) a few days ago. They hadn’t heard about the incident so they were going through a serious inquisition of the resident, who appeared to not know too many details, yet spoke with great authority and so made it sound like he did.

Airport #5: Entebbe. This has been a long two days of traveling. I have a dull headache, and I think I probably slept too much for my own good. My visa looks really pretty in my passport though. No silly little stamp for these people – I get a fancy sticker that fills up the whole page this time.

Now I am at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel. I’m intrigued to see what beach I wake up looking at. It’s considered a "five star deluxe hotel," but I couldn’t get the hot water to work in the shower. Hmm. But the room is comfortable, and the bed is nice and big, so I’m going to try to get a reasonable amount of sleep. I may try to make a day trip to Kampala tomorrow. Then we will fly to Arua on Sunday.

Good night. :-)