If you are travel-savvy, then you will know, from the subject, what this post is about. If you are not travel-savvy, then this image should help:

Vancouver International Airport is an airport I got to know very well yesterday. Very well. Too well. I like airports, I find them interesting places to people-watch. Vancouver Airport is very nice as well - and by that, I mean that it is very clean. It’s an airport that is both very modern in design, yet remembers its history. For example, this is what greets you as you enter immigration.

Two, terrifyingly massive statues that replaces the need for a sign that says ‘Don’t mess with us’. Incidentally, the picture implies that between those statues at the immigration kiosks is just a beautiful blue expanse of carpet for people to mill around, possibly eat a picnic, and maybe play a game of football. In reality, it is entirely made up of tape barriers, arranged in a zig-zag that would rival Disneyland - but that wouldn’t have looked nice in the tourism brochures.

All in all, Vancouver Airport is a very pretty airport, and I was looking forward to my trans-atlantic flight from there (I flew from Reno to Seattle, and then from Seattle to Vancouver, for anyone playing airport bingo). However, my stay was not as straightforward as maybe I would have liked.

My previous flights had all been fairly uneventful, so I was in a bit of a daze when I got off the plane from Seattle (which, is one of the shortest flights I have ever taken - about 15 minutes). Coming from America, meant that we were an international flight, so it was necessary for us all to go through immigration. The high-powered businesswoman who had sat next to me on the plane and I unintentionally raced to be the first one to get cleared - but after 15 minutes of walking, and no sign of the immigration kiosks, we both got gradually slower and more tired. In total, it took twenty minutes worth of walking to get to Immigration. I cleared it without a problem (for once!) and found out that my luggage would be appearing on Baggage Carousel No. 32.

Naturally, the Carousel closest to the immigration kiosks was No. 1 - so yet more walking was required. While I was waiting for my bag, a number of slightly bizarre things happened. 1) The high powered businesswoman I sat next to on the plane stood next to me at the baggage carousel. Not particularly bizarre, but instead of wearing the suit that she had on in the plane, she had got changed into a Marilyn Monroe-style scarlet dress with unrealistically-high stillettos. 2) Above the Carousel was a TV screen showing the news with the sound turned off and no subtitles. On the screen, one news item showed two caterpillars, then a man smearing grease on a pole, followed by images of people stood on the roof of their campervan hosing down a tree. 3) That same screen regularly showed still images of some salami, a budgie, a bonsai tree, and some eggs with the caption ‘Be Aware’. 4) My baggage appeared on Carousel No. 21 - a flight from Salt Lake City.

That wasn’t the end of the strange incidents, however. After much walking through customs, and much wandering around the Domestic Departures terminal. I eventually found the way to the international departures area. Which, not surprisingly, was quite a long walk away. By the time I got to international departures, I was quite tired. I had two suitcases and my carry-on was digging a trench in my shoulder. So, I was well-pleased to find that the check-in desk for my flight was located in Domestic Departures. So, I walked all the way back again.

Now, I could continue to talk about how my orange juice was confiscated by security for potentially being a dangerous liquid (while I was drinking from it!), how my gate was at the other end of the terminal, and how every shop in the airport closed at 4:30, while my flight departed at 8:15. But that would just be too negative. So, instead I will just mention that my flight over was very uneventful, I landed safely, and my bags were some of the first to appear on the Baggage Carousel.

Bon Voyage

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 8:46 am and is filed under Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.