My adventure has ended and I find myself back in my normal world at the Toronto Airport waiting to board a flight back to Winnipeg.
Early this morning I arrived at the Tel Avid airport four hours ahead of my flight as I had been advised that the security procedures at the airport were very strict and time consuming... and understatement for sure. You can't even check in with your airline without having to go through a huge security lineup where you are interviewed and selected for further screening... I, being a single guy in my thirties and traveling alone, was the perfect candidate for further screening. As I waited to have my backpack scanned I was promptly interviewed by an Israeli security agent. Never in my life had I had to explain my family last name and the background it came from. As the agent looked at my passport, flipped through the pages, and read my name, she quickly called a second agent who then proceeded to ask me to pronounce my last name, what it was its ethnic background, and if it I was sure it was Spanish once I informed her it came from Spain. The line of questioning continued before I was selected to go into a second round of questioning and supervision of my backpack after the x-ray scanning. After having had all my stuff taken out of my bag and swabbed some 10 times, I was finally allowed to go check in at the AirCanada Counter.
After checking in, I was taken to a second lineup where I would be scanned and my carry on luggage put through what looked like a supercollider, not an x-ray machine. The only positive I saw of this extra scrutiny on me was that I got to skip the very long lineups where most people were, I had my very special security section.... I felt important :-)
So after what seemed like an eternal 11 hour flight I find myself at Toronto's airport, just waiting to finally get back to Winnipeg late in the night.
Early this morning I arrived at the Tel Avid airport four hours ahead of my flight as I had been advised that the security procedures at the airport were very strict and time consuming... and understatement for sure. You can't even check in with your airline without having to go through a huge security lineup where you are interviewed and selected for further screening... I, being a single guy in my thirties and traveling alone, was the perfect candidate for further screening. As I waited to have my backpack scanned I was promptly interviewed by an Israeli security agent. Never in my life had I had to explain my family last name and the background it came from. As the agent looked at my passport, flipped through the pages, and read my name, she quickly called a second agent who then proceeded to ask me to pronounce my last name, what it was its ethnic background, and if it I was sure it was Spanish once I informed her it came from Spain. The line of questioning continued before I was selected to go into a second round of questioning and supervision of my backpack after the x-ray scanning. After having had all my stuff taken out of my bag and swabbed some 10 times, I was finally allowed to go check in at the AirCanada Counter.
After checking in, I was taken to a second lineup where I would be scanned and my carry on luggage put through what looked like a supercollider, not an x-ray machine. The only positive I saw of this extra scrutiny on me was that I got to skip the very long lineups where most people were, I had my very special security section.... I felt important :-)
So after what seemed like an eternal 11 hour flight I find myself at Toronto's airport, just waiting to finally get back to Winnipeg late in the night.
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