Above Europe

Did I mention that I flew over the Alps? I really should have taken a picture when I was flying over the Alps. A-MA-ZING. Basically, when I flew from Istanbul to London after my Habitat Tajikistan journey, there was not a cloud over Europe. Seriously. Not a one. Clearest day ever -- and I had a window seat!

Because of the fancy little computer screen on the aircraft that shows roughly where the plane is on its route, I could see where we were in terms of countries and borders. Then I would bust out my Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring map to see more specifically. Oh, the mountains of Bulgaria. Oh, wow, that over there would be Sarajevo. Oh, hello, Slovenia, we'll see you in the World Cup in a few weeks. (Just kidding - I wasn't actually thinking about that at that moment, although it is what reminded me today about my flight over Europe, as I remembered flying over Slovenia.) Oh, here's Italy...wow, I think we're going right over....yup...there they are...OH MY GOD! The mountains! The snow-covered Alps! And they kept going, as we flew over Switzerland and then into France, where farmland resumed until there was water and then, England.

It took a little while to fly over the Alps. I spent the time comparing them to the mountains of Tajikistan that I had also been privileged to see from a window seat when we fled the polio left Dushanbe. The Tajikistan mountains were higher, and pointier. The Alps were rounder, and as we got to the outskirts I could spy a hamlet or two. Slovenia has some of the Alps, you know. Did you know?

So, anyway, yeah. I've been flying over mountains.