Smiles & Tears

Hamburg is a beautiful city…that has many ancient buildings and beautiful churches ..and a large lake that is in the centre of the city….that makes it ideal place to have long walks … especially that our hotel was near by the lake in the centre of the shopping arcades…with the restaurants and coffee shops just blocks a way …..although the weather was freezing cold…nevertheless I enjoyed the shopping and the sight seeing along with the long walks that we had along the lake…and there are few attractions worth visting like musical plays...and I just loved the city’s layout…even if I didn’t like it’s people that much!... we even went to another city called Linburg… a nice place although I find it its more like a village then a city……it’s a bit quite but very beautiful …..a perfect place to relax or have a picnic or just stroll around its quite streets and enjoy the scenery …and I learned that having a navigator in the car helps a lot to get you easier to new places …


German people

They are so unfriendly…I have never been across such rude and unfriendly people in my whole life ….and funny is how they assume that everyone should know their language!..like they expect everyone to know it!…and when you talk in English ..they give you that rude look!!..and the way they treat others is so annoying …its realy frustrating not to understand a language ...even in the shops when it’s near closing time the salesmen/women would speak so loudly like they are kicking you out of the stupid shops!..and strangely they have this habit to stare at you!...both genders do that…I mean whenever we were out or dinning I would see someone staring at me…and believe me it gets very uncomfortable…

They never smile at you even their old women/men…they look at you proudly even when you give them your best Colgate smile!!...the only people who would constantly smile and speak English were the 5 *hotel staff where we were accommodated…me think they were trained and paid to smile… imagine a school to teach them how to smile!.....and only one old woman got very friendly and she approached me in one shop and asked me where I was from..and from her accent I am sure she was Greek.....she was very friendly and we had a short chit chat about the weather and she talked about her son and how he is living in a hot country like Thailand..


a second thing I have noticed that every time I would say Al7amdolilah or mashaAllah…they look at me in a sudden way!..it was kind of funny really…I never realized how paranoid they get from mere mention of lafth aljalalh Allah…I used to laugh about it and humur maybe they expect me to blow my self next!!!..how stupid!...Despite of all this I enjoyed my self very much throughout my stay ..unaware that i was about to face yet another tiresome and humiliating experience in the flight back home!


The Racist Journey Back Home

Although I was feeling very sad to leave my man alone and go back home but I was happy too to go back to my kids and my beloved Muscat…I was afraid of another military type of search so I decided I would only wear the hijab in the flight that takes me back home..so every thing went smoothly and I got the normal search..and my flight from Hamburg to Frankfurt was ok too..so after few hours of transit I finally got into the plane that was heading back home so I wore my hijab thinking that nothing would go wrong now that I am in the plane..but guess what! I was so wrong!!.. first the German hostess totally ignored me while she was serving the drinks as if I wasn’t there..so I called her and politely asked her if she thought I was invisible?!.. Smilingly she said sorry I didn’t notice you! I am new!!!..new! what this has to do with her ignoring me while she passed me by three times…and how can she be new when she seems older then me!!...and it’s not that I am a tiny child I am a grown up woman..and wasn’t she the same person who greeted me and said hello when I got seated before I wore my hijab!!..so how she couldn’t notice me!!..anyways I got angry when she asked me ‘so can I now get you something’ ..i said no! and I gave her a piece of my mind ..i told her you are very rude and I would report you, she kept on saying sorry…but that time I got so upset that I felt like crying..so she sent another hostess ..a Turkish man..he apologized on her behalf and said that she didn’t do it intentionally and not because I was Muslim !! ..now where did he get this idea from if it wasn’t discussed !..he said he was Muslim too..duh so?!!..he even offered me chocolates!!....he got on my nerves too cause he was talking to me as if he was talking to a child!! i told him I will report this incident …I was really fighting back my tears at the time…and I would have reported this!... only this woman became so paranoid so she would come and go asking me smilingly again and again if I needed anything…anyhow ..i forgot about it and then I heard another hostess making fun and laughing too!..ok I couldn’t understand her German and I didn’t see who she was… but I understood one word ‘Muzlem food’!!.. as when i booked for my return we requested for halal food and it seems she found this very funny!..so obviously she was laughing about this ..what astonishes me that there was a Hindu man and he was served vegetarian food so how come she didn’t make fun of him !!!..furthermore I was so upset that I just couldn’t eat ..so there I was lonely ….hungry and exhausted as I can never sleep in the plane no matter how hard I try… as we approached Muscat after having a one hour transit in Saudi..i felt relieved at last… and felt forgiving ..so I said bye and salam to the hostesses… I even smiled at them ….and since I was the only Omani in the flight and as soon as I found a porter I was the first to get out the airport …to be welcomed by my sister and my kids..and finally I thought this is the place I would never give up not even for a million rial ..i would never change my citizenship not even for the most beautiful countries..this is the place I belong to…home sweet home…

Conclusion

German will never be in my favorite list for holiday’s destinations …and I will never travel by Lufthansa airline not even if they had the cheapest fairs or even if they were the last airline in the world…