So I have been here for 3.5 months now and it is time for my first leave. Those of us here for a year get two leave periods (much to the chagrin of our American colleagues who get but one) of 18 days with three days of travel on each end of the trip. For me that means that February will be spent almost entirely away from Afghanistan. The process of going on leave begins the day before your flight with the pre-flight briefing. At this event the leave staff and personnel support people spend about 40 minutes telling you not to look cross-eyed at the airport staff or they'll punt you off the plane. They also explain the alcohol policy which is two beers per man per day after you leave KAF and before you actually get to your leave destination. I gather some soldiers got rather "chateau'd" after a stop off in Cyprus and so the rules were made abundantly clear to us. Not that I was about to pound down a 40 oz of vodka at the first opportunity anyway.
The next phase of the op is waiting for the plane. We fly on C-17 cargo aircraft onto which a pallet or pallets of seats have been placed where the cargo normally goes. I am not sure if it's the revenge of the short, or that they bought these seats surplus from the crappiest charter airline in the world, but the 6.5 hour flight to Cyrus and the 4 hour flight to Germany in those tiny seats rank among the top ten worst flights of my life. For the second leg my aisle seat, which has kept me from going insane on the way to Cyprus, was stolen by some Air Force type, who then spent most of the flight on the flight deck. I was left to hunt among the spare seats and eventually found one on the inside of a row well back. We did eventually get to Germany where I was accorded VIP status. This meant that I rode the 500m from the aircraft to the terminal in a Mercedes instead of a bus. After getting my bag, I was driven to the hotel, this time in an Audi A8, no less. It was a diff
erent hotel from all the other Canadians going on leave, so VIP status also means isolation. The hotel was in Trier, a beautiful little city in the Moselle Valley. I spent the remainder of the day roaming its historic streets and taking pictures. Trier was the capital of the Roman Empire after 300 AD or so and was founded in 14 BC. It has the largest Roman gate North of the Alps and is also the birthplace of Marx. I thought I had found his birthplace and took a picture of the house - it was a real estate office, which I thought would be a delicious irony. Turns out it was the wrong place and Marx's house is a museum.
erent hotel from all the other Canadians going on leave, so VIP status also means isolation. The hotel was in Trier, a beautiful little city in the Moselle Valley. I spent the remainder of the day roaming its historic streets and taking pictures. Trier was the capital of the Roman Empire after 300 AD or so and was founded in 14 BC. It has the largest Roman gate North of the Alps and is also the birthplace of Marx. I thought I had found his birthplace and took a picture of the house - it was a real estate office, which I thought would be a delicious irony. Turns out it was the wrong place and Marx's house is a museum.A long day was ended with a sausage on a bun bought from a street vendor, and 13 hours of sleep. The next phase of the trip will see me on my way to South Africa.
