Back at home

When I was at security check at Paramaribo airport, security officer asked me where I was coming from. When he heard I'm from Finland the next words from his mouth were : "Jari Litmanen". Indeed football seems to be universal language, I replied "Clarence Seedorf", because they were playing together at Ajax Amsterdam and Clarence is from Suriname. And I saw him smiling. This was the end of my security check. He just waived me to continue forward.


I was boarding to "Audrey Hepburn" MD11 plane and after 8 hours landed at Schiphol airport at Amsterdam. Schiphol is very large and busy airport. It's fifth largest airport in Europe after London Heathrow, Paris CDG, Frankfurt and Madrid. The airport is home to 582 different companies and employs over 65 000 people! It's a gateway to 262 global destinations and every year about 100 couples get married at airport and jet off to their honeymoon right after the service. THIS IS LARGE SCALE TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS!

The difference to airports and local carriers on Caribbean is enormous. When flying from island to island by LIAT, the stewardess of the flight knew at least half of the passengers and they were changing the news and gossips before and during the flight like good friends. E.g. on the flight from Antigua to St. Kitts, there were one person, most probably airport staff, waiting for the ride. They gave him a seat from the cockpit, because flight was already full. The athmosphere were cozy and relaxed and flights short.

I noticed the same small scale friendliness on countries and cities / villages. The more smaller the country was the more cozy it felt and more friendly the people were and the more safer the country was. The same applied to cities and villages. As a general rule this applies, but there are exceptions as well. Buenos Aires and Montevideo were extremely pleasent for such big cities.

I miss that small scale business, which is providing service much more personal and humane than those large scale global companies, who are just thinking how to grow even bigger and how to maximize the profit on short term.

Less is more!

And it was wonderful return back home. Now I'll enjoy leisurely life...