KORY'S TRAVELOG (KARTR STORY)

Blog number 462 **** 06 January 2011

Prolog; Kartr is my son. Kory is Kartr's long time friend. Kory took a trip to France, sending e-mails back to Kartr now and then. What follows is the exchange of e-mails between them that were sent to me by Kartr.

KORY; I made it to France. Wow that flight sucked bad. I had my knees in the back of the seat in front of me for 10 hours. I used my trench coat as a stench filter. I draped the coat completely over my head. It worked for the most part but I still almost gagged a couple times.

You wouldn't believe how bad some of the people smelled. How can anyone be that offensive? The smell was burning my nose.

I made my connecting flight in Amsterdam. The food was pretty good on both flights. After I landed someone at the airport here in France asked me if I needed help and I told him that I wanted to go to the Best Western Hotel. The guy explained how to use the courtesy phones. The shuttle was there within five minutes.

I had dinner in the hotel restaurant and I must admit the people here have been very friendly so far. Other than the stink feast on the planes, this has been a pretty good trip.

KARTR; Are you telling me that (1) the French only smelled on the plane or (2) they all smell but as long as you're not closed up with them you don't suffer so much?

This is astonishing - the fact that you were moved to comment vocally tells me the seriousness of the stench. It must have felt almost life threatening in its nastosity. Why can't people just wash up?

KORY: I don't think they were French, I think the couple were German. They were also extremely overweight. I think I was smelling fold funk - that funk that hides under folds of fat when you don't wash under there for a long time.

It was on the first flight from Dallas to Amsterdam but strangely enough I smelled the same funk on the flight from Amsterdam to France but on a much smaller scale. It must be a European thing. I have not smelled that smell here in France yet.

You would not believe how pretty the girls are here. I mean there are almost no ugly girls at all.

I went to a church that was probably built in the 1600's, I gave 5 Euros to an old gypsy woman on the steps to the Catholic Church. She started to cry and kissed my hand. I thought that pretty intense for about $7.50 US.

When you walk down the street you have to look out for dog poop. It is everywhere. I had read that but forgot until I stepped in some.

Back to the stench, yes it was horrible. My first thought was WTF, am I the only one that has a problem with this? How does someone get to a point that this is acceptable? I remember loading a fat German woman into a helicopter in Hawaii years ago and she smelled the same way. I felt so sorry for the other people on the flight. I had to hold my breath the whole time I was helping her with her seat belt.