10 years ago today, Jan and I were returning from our month-long Mexican vacation. It was one of the best holidays I have ever taken; and that’s taking into account that the temperature (and resulting tempers) were so high at one point in Merida that we actually broke up for a few hours. But I digress.
Facing The Moon Pyramid
On September 11, 2001, Jan and I boarded an early-morning transatlantic flight from Mexico City to Barcelona via Amsterdam. The flight path had us traveling up along the east coast of the US before crossing the north Atlantic and heading back to Europe. We passed over New York City at approximately 7:30 a.m., roughly one hour before Flight 11 crashed into the north face of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. We, of course, had no idea. Nor was there mention of the incident at any point during our flight, which makes very good sense.
We landed in Amsterdam to switch planes for our connecting flight back to Barcelona and, as we were passing through airport security, the girl checking passports noticed that I was American and said to me, “We were just talking about your country.” Oblivious me wryly asked, “Oh yeah? Good or bad?” To which she coldly replied, “Bad. Very bad.” And she proceeded to share the little information that they had received at that point, namely that airplanes had crashed into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Tired and confused, I did not know how to process this information so I thanked her for the news and was on my way… to board another plane.
I remember Jan asking me if I thought they were mistaken and I decided that they must have been mistaken because the World Trade Center and the Pentagon aren’t anywhere near each other. They’re in completely different states. With about 200 miles between them. Yes, they were definitely mistaken.
Other passengers must have also heard something before boarding that flight to Barcelona with us, yet not a word was spoken the entire journey.
We landed safely and made our way home. All I remember next is spending the next six hours in front of the television with my mouth open.
Mistral & I were in Sardinia at the time. We also spent several hour in a local pizzeria staring at the tv screen in disbelief. Life changing moments.
I was just finishing lunch with the motley crew of Terry, Sukh, John, and a flatmate of Terry’s at the time. My flatmate at the time, Darren (American) called me on my blue shoe phone and said to turn on the TV. I told him I was in a restaurant, and he said something like “They’re bombing the States.” Darren was a jokester, and I wasn’t sure whether to believe him. So Terry called her boyfriend Angel who said absentmindedly that, yes, something was happening.
We left the restaurant and as I walked from Psg de Gracia all the way to Rda Guinardo, I felt my stomach in knots and I woke up my dad and told him; my sister was awake and said she saw ‘something’ on TV, and I told her to wake up Mom, as it’s something big. By the time I got home, Darren was sitting in front of the TV, more somber than I’d ever seen him, tears streaming down his face. We spent the rest of the afternoon mouths agape, like you.
Blue shoe phone!!
I still have that thing if you want to buy a retro phone… from AirTel and with a screen that looks like an IBM circa 1986.