off to the turning space

well it wasn't easy getting here - but then, why should it be?
shuttle bus to Pearson broke down: we waited in the parking lot of Tim Horton's in Jordan, sunny but grim just the same . . . what goes on here? the rivers of?







Finnair: half-empty, we stretch out across seats
the large older and muscular Russian woman barks at anyone who tries to move her precious duty-free alcohol . . .














Vantaa - such a beautiful, small airport, but 6 painful hours of waiting waiting waiting for my connection . . . and at baggage inspection the Russian woman lost her bottles in the grip of the young woman at the security inspection . . . oh, and the other: was this a tease? or nostalghia of something that never happened?

Lufthansa: packed to the gills, industry everywhere . . .

Munich - grey, wet, smokey, and as if on another planet - an intermediate space of conspicuous consumption crying out from the boutique shelves . . . and then that guy having difficulty walking . . .

we get into the bus to take us out to the Air Dolomiti turboprop on the wet tarmac . . . he is rolling in his seat, turning green - we ignore him . . . and just as we stop at the plane he cries out "Everybody: Help Me - I am paralyzed and cannot move!" He lashes out at a well-heeled woman who tries to help, says he's Francais (!), can't describe how it feels - because it doesn't (!!) and declines my naive offer of language assistance in this southern corner of the German-speaking world . . . .

they drove him away in the same bus - the ambulance in pursuit, and that was the end of him.
on to the cute green cardboard boxes placed in front of me with great care by the striking Italian flight attendant, resplendent with little cellophane windows that framed the single roll of prosciutto that was to tide us over . . .


the sky over the Czech republic was ethereal
with a smoky damp 9 o'clock sunset
the airport shiny and new - vacant
(customs officer was not interested in us, not like the last time . . .)
the young driver was there to take us into town in his late model Skoda berline coach at a bristling speed

and the decisions begin