Birthday Travel

I turned a year older yesterday. And due to bad (last minute) planning, I ended up spending the day travelling. But I think birthdays are associated with good travel karma and that may have broken my travel curse once and for all!

So I woke up at 5:30 am to take the subway from Lower East Side till JFK. At JFK, I checked into my flight, only to discover that I had two empty seats next to me on the plane. Success! I spent the whole way sleeping and making up for the late night. Midnight birthday celebrations where friends come together to do bourbon shots should never be avoided.

I got off at Salvador only to realise that the gate for my next flight was right next to my entry gate. (This NEVER happens to me. I always get the gate that is the farthest possible from where I entered). Also, Salvador has no security check from one flight to another. It was one of the smoothest transitions ever! So I sit down, wait and soon enough am boarding the next flight.

As I was crossing the chief steward, a random thought occured to me. I went up to him and asked if I could be upgraded. I never make such requests, but you see (I point at my passport), its my birthday today. He smiles and says Happy Birthday. Next thing I see, I am being upgraded to first class. My first time in first class on my birthday! Thank you for the present, world!

I sit next to this cute little boy of 20 and it's his first time in business class also. So we point at all the other people who are dressed pretentiously. He teaches me Spanish - Hoven* means Young Thing; Mierrda* means Oh Shit! I use all of it on the steward who is thoroughly enjoying watching us and our follies in first class. He insists that we both drink champagne as a celebratory birthday drink. I even cut my dessert as a mini cake and the boy sings Happy Birthday to me in Spanish. Not sure how it went, but I recognised the words Felis Cumple something.

It was a weird birthday. This was the first time that I spent the whole day without meeting friends or talking to family (I did meet friends at midnight, so won't count the whole 24 hours). But it ended up as quite an adventure and a lot of fun. In conclusion, perhaps once in your life, I'd recommend birthday travel.

* If I'm spelling these words wrong, I apologise!