Some Clarification

Now that I'm home I do suppose some clarification as to the funny end of my Europe trip. Essentially it comes down to the murky concept of dual nationality. In countries where it's not allowed people freak out. They don't understand how it works.

So here's how the story goes.

I'd arrived at Barajas Airport with Mark (climatebearnj) and was at the check-in counter. The woman working for ICTS (the Spanish TSA) saw my destinations (Newark and eventually Toronto) along with my UK passport and essentially had a little Spanish lady freak out given that I wasn't returning to Spain or the UK or anywhere other than YYZ. She didn't understand that as a Canadian and British citizen I have the right to travel on whatever passport I please. My mistake was not renewing my Canadian passport before leaving even though I didn't have to. I was told to reschedule my flight and head to the Canadian Consulate (Embassy) in Madrid which I did in a bewildered haze.

At the Consulate the Canadian woman working on my behalf, a very attractive tri-lingual Québeq'er named Carla, called Continental airlines at Barajas and gave them heck. Punctuated and grinding Spanish heck. Even still the ICTS and therefore Continental still claim the fault lies on me for not providing them with all the documentation they wanted to see. In reality I suspect they were afraid of America given that I was stopping in Newark and passing security there to transfer to my flight to Toronto. They didn't understand that until January it still didn't matter if I was arriving in the USA as a British citizen because they still would accept ID other than my passport in the USA as proof of my citizenship to Canada. There was some bullshit ballyhooed around about not having a "return ticket" despite having flown out of Canada on the same UK passport. It's clear now in hindsight that they simply didn't not understand what was going on.

So this could have been avoided in two ways. I could have been less of a pussy and demanded THEY speak to the Canadian Embassy rather than just swallowing my pride and leaving. Or I could have just travelled with both passports, which I will do from now on.

In the end I think short of our national embassies most airport staff really have no idea about the details of travel and just air on the side of caution at every unknown. This is a pretty lame form of security that depends on imposition and submission of travellers, which I don't much appreciate. But even still there isn't much of an option is there? I've definitely learned that the hard way. Two terrible days in Madrid partying in Spanish discotheques until 5AM where I met another Canadian as well as the one and only funkybearmartin which I will elaborate about in a later post.