Alkmaarder

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When you’re traveling alone and check in for a flight you never know who you’re going to end up next to. That’s why I always check in early and choose the window seat. If nothing else, you can look out the window, admire the view. Sometimes you get lucky and end up to someone who can keep you nice company during the flight, making the time goes faster. However, the short - one hour - flight between Amsterdam and Copenhagen isn’t exactly the ideal trip to make long term friends with strangers, so a lot of people try to use the time to make up some sleep and take a nap.

This is exactly what the young girl next to me decided to do. Will never know her name, but found out she’s from Alkmaar north of Amsterdam, going to see her boyfriend in Denmark. A warm smile towards her neighbor for the next hour - me - and she’s off to dreamland. She tries to lean against the rest, but she’s too short. So, next she tries to hold her head straight up and nap. No good, it keeps on falling to the side. Head to the right, snap and straighten it up. Head to the left, snap and straighten it up. Maybe she subconsciously realizes her head is entering unknown territory, and pulls out. Maybe this is how she always sleeps. Cute in an awkward way, but seemingly very uncomfortable.

Being the gentleman I am, offer her to switch seats, so that she can lean against the window. Politely she turns down with the motivation that looking out over the wing would make her even more uncomfortable. So the twitching and swaying continues throughout the trip. I could never have imagined that watching someone trying to sleep could be this entertaining, but it sure as hell beat reading the in-flight magazine…

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