Continuing with the Gulag

Last Sunday I flew from Nice to Amsterdam, thence to Minneapolis and finally back home to Phoenix. Economy class.

If you've done any long haul travel in economy class you know the drill. Not much leg room. Not much elbow room and a long wait for a free dunny (toilet). Thankfully the flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis is only 9 hours. But on this particular flight I was reading (quite by chance inasmuch as it wasn't planned) those chapters of Volume 1 of 'The Gulag Archipelago' that deal with prison transport. Reading Solzhenitsyn's account of prison transports across the USSR in the 20's, 30's and 40's put modern air travel into perspective. He describes in excruciating detail the cramped conditions, lack of drinking water and limited toilet opportunities that millions of people went through against their will. Compared with his descriptions the miseries of modern air travel are nothing.

I'll always prefer business class or, failing that, Singapore Airlines Executive Economy; but I'm pretty sure I won't bitch in future about it taking 46 hours to travel from my house to Baguio City, Philippines.