The Tale of the Customs Official, the Turkish Delight and a Pair of Straighteners...

So after our relaxing day at the beach it was time to make our way to the airport. Fortunately the strike we'd heard about in Tiberias hadn't seemed to have happened, and didn't seem to be brewing anymore, but just to be safe we headed off quite early to the airport anyway. Just as well we did. If we thought the security measures we'd endured til now at the bus stations were bad, well, the airport was infinitely worse. We got there about 30 minutes before our flight opened for check-in, but we had to wait until the designated time before they would allow us to go to through the security queue PRIOR to checking in at the check in desk. Again, many questions about why we had stamps for Jordan (twice), Egypt and Syria in our passports. Then, all our luggage was scanned in the x-ray machine, a barcode placed on it, and then we had to queue up again at another security counter to wait to be called through individually. Standing in the queue, I was starting to get anxious. It seemed that every person in front of me had been asked to open their bags and in some cases completely remove the contents. This I found a bit alarming as you have to remember, we've been travelling for 42 days and I can't remember the last time my clothes had a proper wash in a proper washing machine! They absolutely honk! Alas, before I could find a way to spray my deodorant on the offending items to minimise the embarrassment, it was my turn to go forward. The barcodes on my bags were scanned and an x-ray picture of each bag's contents appeared on the screen. I don't know how they can make anything out of these pictures, but the next thing I knew, I was told to open my bag, take out all electrical goods (including batteries), and the customs official inspected them one by one, waving the explosive-detecting wand on them. She took away my camera and camcorder for a special scanning, and when she returned, she rifled through the rest of my bag, minging clothes and all. She took out the Turkish Delight I'd bought in Turkey, and because this was already sealed, it had to be placed in a box to be checked in separately to my bag. Go figure. I think they thought the powdered sugar on the pieces might be explosives or something. But the funniest thing was the hair straighteners. Agnieszka had these in her luggage, and the woman took them out and didn't seem to know what they were. So, Aga explained it to her - but the woman wasn't convinced, and because she couldn't test the item to make sure it wasn't some sort of explosive device, she confiscated it and said it had to fly separately on a different flight, with a completely different airline. Okay... slight problem there. The problem was, we had a flight to London alright - via a 12 hour stopover in Munich and also a change in Berlin (strangely this was the cheapest way to fly from Tel Aviv to London). Oh, and the other problem was, we were flying in to Stansted - but there are no Stansted-bound flights from Tel Aviv. You wouldn't believe how long it took to come to a solution to this situation. I said to Agnieszka to forget it, they're £15 straighteners, I'll buy her a pair in London, but she wouldn't have it as a matter of principle. So the solution the Israelis offered was that they would fly them to Heathrow, and she would have to go there and pick them up. Now getting out to Heathrow from Agnieszka's place is no quick little jump on a bus type job - its an hour and a half on the tube... and all this for a cheap pair of straighteners! Anyway, we parted with the straighteners and they were placed on their flight to Heathrow. Finally we could check in and get a boarding card. But again, more security checks - our day bags are scanned YET AGAIN, opened YET AGAIN, and we walk through YET ANOTHER x-ray scanner before we can make it to the departure lounge for a coffee. Alas, all this has taken 2 1/2 hours and we have to go straight to the gate and board the plane (we were cheeky and picked up a quick coffee to go though). And when we arrived at the gate? You guessed it, another x-ray scanner... I tell you, if I get cancer from all the x-rays I've been exposed to, they'll know it...!