Airport Tales #2: Duty-Free Bonding

Back at the Sri Lanka airport, on a different lengthy stopover, I find my (now regular) sleeping spot, and this time I am tired enough that I fall asleep quickly, without needing a lullaby.

Somewhere in my deep sleep, I hear old men singing Polish drinking songs.

"Jak szybko mijaja chwile, jak szybko mija czas..za rok, za dzien, za chwile, moze nie bedzie nas..."
(How quickly the moments pass, how quickly time goes by...in a year, a day, a moment, we may be here no more..)

Either it's a bad dream, or we've had an unscheduled stopover at the Warsaw airport. I sit up and shake the sleep off, but the singing continues. A short distance in front of me are a couple of middle-aged Polish men, together with a couple of middle-aged Sri Lankan men, all of them sloshed. Polish guy is passing around a bottle of vodka. They seem to have just met at the airport, but they are professing their undying friendship to each other: --You come to Poland, I take care of everything! --Next time you come to Sri Lanka, you will stay with me! The wife of one of the Polish guys is standing discreetly behind him, keeping an eye on him, no doubt making sure hubby doesn't give away the family fortune in his little bonding ritual. Every once in a while, she reaches over, puts her fingers through his belt loop and tries to tug him away from his buddies, but to no avail.

Another round of vodka, another round of Polish songs. When the bottle runs dry, Polish guy turns around and scurries back into the Duty Free Shop right next to him, which is running a buy-one-get-one-free special on liquor, and emerges with a couple fresh bottles.

I wouldn't want to be the stewardess who's gonna have to deal with this pack...

Comments

[DonnaK]

LOL 100000X. This could only happen to you. I can't stop laughing. OH MY GO !!!! ( I hate multiple exclamation points, but I think it fits here. Did you join in the singing? Were they speaking to each other in English? The universe is not only giving you pictures, it's giving you stories.

[shannon]

That is just too funny --- what a delight your travels are bringing to us all!

[Sharon from CT]

Reminds me of the time I met a childhood friend for drinks in my old hometown in NY...she's blond, blue-eyed and fair-skinned and I'm the opposite...and as we're chatting at the bar, a rowdy group of guys (who must've made it there by the start of happy hour and BEYOND!!) were talking loudly in Spanish about us. She let them have their fun for awhile, then turned and sweetly said something not so sweet in fluent Spanish (her father was So. American)....needless to say, there was a HUSH heard round the world...or at least the bar area!! The looks on their faces...priceless! Sharon