Good Samaritans Abroad

Aside from the troubles with certain authorities, my travelling journeys were quite seamless. This is largely due to many good samaritans. I discovered sooo many people all around the world that were willing to help me! Do you know how amazingly encouraging this is? 

My very first hour of travelling I was sitting in the Halifax airport waiting to check my bags, when an older woman came over to talk to me to make sure I was content. Her husband too came over to comfort my lonesome self and he gave me a little toy airplane to accompany me on my flights. This, ladies and gentleman, is merely the first instance of several marvellous encounters I had with strangers. 

On my first flight I sat next to a women and her little boy and littler girl who were moving to Dubai. The woman's husband had been promoted to a very important job and so the whole family was on their way to meet him. They were on my next flight too. My flight to Frankfurt was about 8 hours and I was cramped beside a larger french man, who did not, for the record, want my Air Canada three bean salad. Sitting beside him was fun, because the flight attendants assumed my first language was French. I chose the poulet over the pate, when I was asked. My next flight was to Basal, and it was pretty intimidating, you didn't hand in your boarding pass and passport, instead there were scanners with no instructions. I scanned my information and went through the gate....where a bus was waiting. I had no idea what was going on, and it didn't seem like anyone spoke English. I turned to a man with a backpack who looked friendly and I asked him why we were on a bus. I realize now that it seems incredibly silly, but am I to blame? I really was expecting transportation with wings. He explained to me that because it was such a small airport they had to shuttle us to the plane. During the ten minute ride I found out that he was from Rhode Island (I kept the Miss. Congeniality references to myself). He was going to visit his daughter who was studying in Switzerland, and they were taking a vacation together. His brother used to live in Nova Scotia and teach at the Agricultural College. So many connections were made, even half way across the globe. 

Arriving at Basal was not at all what I expected it to be. I expected to rush out the door and see my best friend holding a big sign with my name on it. I expected people eagerly waiting to greet loved ones, but instead I found an almost empty airport. I looked around for Kaly, but to no fault of her own, there was no sign of her. I asked the lady at the help desk if there were any other waiting areas that I could look for her, and very coldly asked if she was waiting on the French or the Swiss side. The airport is on the boarder? There are sides? I asked her how I could look for my friend on the other side of the glass barricade, and so after some confusing instructions I made my way to the Swiss side. Where to my surprise Kaly was not in fact standing. Huff. (At this point she was actually walking over 4 km in the cold). I thought I better go back to the French side, because there were more people over there, but there was no way to get back to the other side of the glass wall, and I tried going outside but there were huge barricades and security guards. I sat in a chair, I walked around will all of my luggage, and I sat again. After about an hour and 20 minutes I started to get a little emotional, I was after all, what I thought, stranded in a foreign country. People literally just stood and stared at me while tears ran down my face. I felt so uncomfortable already that their gawking didn't even faze me. Not long into my packet of pocket tissues a lady came over to see what she could do. There was a bit of a language barrier, but I slowly explained what was wrong. She offered me the use of her phone, helped me to have a name paged throughout the entire airport, and sat with me until she absolutely had to leave. The women at the info desk were much more responsive to her, and they called Kaly who informed us that she was only five minutes away. My good samaritan encounter at Basal was my favourite, while everyone else stood and starred or ignorantly rushed by, this lady came to my aid. I gave her a huge hug and she smiled as I walked away with the reunion that eventually met my expectations, even down to the detail of the sign with my name. 

While in Europe there were many small acts of kindness. A man carried my suitcase up a staircase filled with stairs, without even offering. Another man lifted my suitcase off of a train for me. (I'm seeing a trend here; I might need to learn to pack more lightly.) A man on a train helped Kaly and I to realize that were were definitely on the wrong one, and a conductor gave us quick and clear directions on how to find the right train, which we made, after running at full speed, with seconds to spare. 

On the way back to Canada there was a lovely Russian woman who helped me find a fountain to fill my water bottle. She didn't know any English, but she still really wanted to help me, so she woke up her daughter, who knew....a few sentences, and in the end we found a fountain. It was a fun adventure. 

Once in Montreal there was an older couple that reminded me to re-check my baggage, a man that helped me get my "not-so-light" suitcase off the baggage carousel, a purple sweater wearing lady who shared my lost-ness when our flight was the only one listed without a gate number, an employee that asked if I needed guidance, and the lovely French man at the info desk that looked up my flight's gate for me. Let's not forget the guy from Poland, and the extremely kind Arabic lady who sat beside me and tried her very best to communicate with what English she knew. "I'm Arabic, going Halifax" was repeated quite a few times, but it was nice to have some interaction while we waited for our delayed plane. She was very grateful that I watched her bags while she ventured to find the washroom. She later even told me where the closest one was. We became such good acquaintances that the flight attendant helping her board even thought that we were flying together, which when I think about it, isn't such a strange idea after all. We are travelling together, each and everyone of us. Every person I mentioned was travelling with me, and I with them. That's why I believe it to be so important to recognize these experiences and create these experiences for others, because even though we may all be heading in different directions at different times, we're all travelling together on the journey called life.

These Pictures were taken in Freiburg right outside the Student Housing.