Stuck in transit (OMD day 13: stars)

 

Hi all!

Today's theme for the OMD challenge is "Stars" and I bet you were expecting me to do something like Star Trek or Star Wars or a picture taken by the Hubble telescope. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but today's masterpiece is dedicated to Vienna International Airport and tentatively titled "That's not a bullet, you idiots".

I mentioned I was going on holiday, but this one will definitely not be referenced in my Day 26 mani ("inspired by your favourite holiday/vacation"). It's okay now, I'm at my destination, but getting here wasn't easy. A bit of background for my US (and probably UK, given my experience at Heathrow, when my hairbrush was mistaken for a knife) readers, you need to know that our airport security is nowhere near as zealous as yours and despite Vienna trying to play in the big league - they've built a new terminal, all shiny and black and inefficient - it's still just a modest little airport, really. So generally you waltz through security, you don't even routinely have to remove your shoes, they do their x-ray thing and you move on.

But not yesterday. Yesterday three of them huddled around the screen and pointed at things in my backpack's x-ray. They looked at it. Then they looked at it some more. Then finally one of them came and asked to open my backpack. Sure, whatever. It's always a bit annoying and I was in a bit of a hurry, but what can you do. (Amusingly, this was after they let me openly carry through a huge bottle of sunscreen because it was SPF 50+ and from a pharmacy, so they decided it counted as 'medical supplies'.) He then very slowly and cautiously began removing items from my backpack and told me they had seen two metal dots that looked like ammunition. He was very serious about it and seemed unsatisfied that he couldn't find those 'bullets', and after emptying the whole thing they x-rayed the backpack again. At this point I was getting pretty antsy because I knew boarding had started for my flight, but there was no hurrying these guys along. So they looked at the x-ray and still saw those dots. Then they examined the backpack some more. Then finally the guy came back and said "ok, you can go now. It was two zippers pulls." So apparently my backpack has zippers that look like bullets. (Note: they're perfectly ordinary zippers, you'd think every zipper would show up as a bullet then. And what am I going to do with two bullets, anyway, play Russian roulette without a weapon?)

blue holo all by itself

I didn't have time to discuss that though, just stuffed my things back in my backpack and started running. But because the new terminal has a very inconvenient layout and my gate was almost at the end of the long long corridor, by the time I got there they had just closed the gate. I tried to plead with them but they told me they'd called me over the PA several times, which I did not know, as thanks to a genius feat of engineering you cannot hear the announcements in the security check area. It was so frustrating to be turned away when the plane was still standing there!

Long story marginally shorter, I got booked on the next flight and got to spend the next five hours in that  terminal. I could have left it but there was no way I was dealing with security again! And it's not really any better outside. But terminals and transit areas do have the feeling of a special kind of purgatory - everyone there is just waiting for something to happen, wandering aimlessly along in search of something to do. I think I walked about 5 km altogether up and down those endless hallways (which, thanks to another bit of ingenuity, have moving walkways only in one direction) to get overpriced airport food and find a comfy place to sit. Surprisingly, I did find that - they have huge lounging sofas in the waiting zones at the gates, bonus points for that - and sat down to watch videos on my laptop and do my nails. I figured if I was going to have to wait for hours, I might as well have fabulous nails to show for it!

Due to the lack of nail art tools, the star design isn't very fabulous, but will you look at the spectacular blue holo? This is Stars at Night from Digital Nails, chosen for its name and its beauty. It's rather thin and you need at least 3 coats of it, but it spreads easily and dries quickly to a glossy finish. And the best part about it is that it is a beautiful blue even when it's not doing its holo thing.

I made the stars with ILNP 1st and 15th (used in my holodeck mani) using its brush and the tip of a pencil that I dipped in the polish. Not very high-tech but kinda cute nonetheless.

indoors, natural light but no sun

The rest of the journey was uneventful and apart from a number of inconvenieces caused by being five hours late I arrived well and plan to enjoy this holiday. But I'm going to reserve plenty of extra time on my flight back just in case my zippers look like bullets to the airport security here too...

Do you have any airport stories? And have you seen today's other star manis? Lots of fabulous galaxy nails and star designs!

13. Stars :

The nail newbie, really wishing she had taken the train