The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
In-Flight Entertainment
The flight was half Coloradoans catching the first leg of a trip to the US, and half Icelanders heading home after a tour in Germany. I had been trying to watch “Gran Torino” over the shoulder of a man three rows ahead when the in-flight shopping began. The aisle wasn’t clear again until the credits. It was a feeding frenzy of tax-free face cream.
The Icelandic ladies on the flight were in the mood to shop. Most looked like retired elementary school teachers, giving me closed-lipped smiles, wearing striped shirts, hip glasses, and a highly accessorized collection of earrings, rings, necklaces, and bracelets. They perused the duty-free sweets over their chins, straining their necks as they paused “The Hunger Games” to peer at the cart. Others stopped the attendants and made them roll back a few rows, squeezing around to get their purses, showing items to their friends seated throughout the cabin. They backed over and around each other, lurching over people resting in aisle seats.
They debated the jewelry, the perfume, a gold-colored Christmas somethingorother. Pulling their jackets around them, drawing together their sketched-in eyebrows, laughing across fifteen rows, they admired all attention to detail. The show-and-tell of swag made the last hour fly by in a hum of happy chatting and new things.
–Flight from Munich to Reykjavik.
Reykjavik, Iceland
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
What a beautiful photo! Your travels are so much more interesting than mine. The extent of most of my overheard conversations happen in the checkout line at Wal Mart.
Oh, I’ve got a pretty sweet Wal-Mart story, if I do say so myself. 🙂 The oldsters. Gold mines.
And now that I’m home again, I’m going to have to really be on the watch…
https://thenicethingaboutstrangers.com/2011/12/30/get-in-someones-way/
I went to the mall this last weekend… but my picture is not nearly as cool as your pictures and adventures! 🙂
-SB
http://senatorbrett.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/totd-heavenly-mexicans/
Wow, beautiful picture and spot on observations!
I forgot to mention that they smelled fantastic! 🙂
Terrific observation.
How did you like Iceland? We went there last winter and just loved it! Awesome place! I posted some Iceland stuff in my blog (photos and such). I wanna go back there again.
On this flight, I was just in the airport. I was there in March of…hmm…after the country went bankrupt. Gorgeous. A bit like being on the moon. I’ll have to make a post of it.
Being on the moon: that’s a suitable description.
The splendors of this earth never cease to amaze me.
Agreed! We’re fortunate to have such delightful company.