Croatian Chronicles:
Discovering My Roots

Flight to Croatia (9/30 - 10/1)

I now have a reason to become wealthy -- 1st Class Travel!

There I am in the SF airport by the United departure gate waiting for the boarding line to ease up a bit. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, I hear my name called. Since I had my boarding pass, this surprised me, but I dutifully followed the voice to its owner. "Ahh, Mr. Garma, follow me". And I did, down a private walkway into the First Class entrance to the plane. "Have a nice flight", she said smilingly.

I'm near a window, sitting in a multi-position-enabled lounge chair that's set at a 30 degree angle to the windows, so that you can see through 5 of them. The lumbar roller is rolling out my stress spots. My carnivorous friends take note -- I'll be ordering the Tilapic fillet with cornbread and pomodoro sauce. I know this is an unusual selection for me, but I'll need something heavy to absorb the Vincent Giradin Santeny Cru La Maladiere 2001 Burgundy. The appetizer sampling has too many samples to mention.

Somewhere behind me, far far away and hidden, are the regular people. Since this is a full flight, I can imagine how they're all stuck together, since I used to be a regular person myself.

Life does have its ups and downs and my moment of Aristocratic splendor ended abruptly in London when I had to stand in the customs line for one bloody hour just to get to the part of the airport where I could continue United's indulgence in the United Lounge. There, I showered and past some time reading as I waited for Croatian Airlines to carry me aloft to the land of my forefathers.