Exercises in pointless inefficiency.

We just engaged in the sort of bizarre exercise in pointless inefficiency that one can only see at major international airports.

Sadly, we had to check our bags. We were well within the size limit, but 3-4 kilos over the (very strict, imho) weight limit. Oh well.

The gate agent handed us our boarding passes and sent us to a Very Long Line to drop off our bags at machine # 3. A Very. Long. Line. Seriously.

As we advanced (slowly), we could observe some of the machinations taking place at the front. One man would take a bag out of a very large pile at the head of the machine. The bag would pass through the machine. An elderly gentleman would watch the bag pass through the machine. The bag would come out the other side. The elderly gentleman would get up from his chair, walk to the bag, place a sticker on the bag, pick up the bag, put the bag on a belt another five feet away, walk back to his chair. Rinse, repeat.

We waited for maybe 25 minutes, no joke, watching this existential ballet, when an official woman of some sort came around and asked which flight we were on. She determined that we met the special cutoff for "boarding soon." She led us to the front of the line, took our bags from us, added them to the giant pile, and waved us along.

Huh?

Anyway, were here now, we have neck pillows, water, etc, and I'm about to take my dramamine. The adventure begins!