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HAI GUISE!
May. 30th, 2010 10:43 amSo, I am home. Hooray!
Yesterday was an interesting experience in that I was in airports and on planes for so long that detached from my time sense. That was... interesting. All in all, though, it was an interesting trip - here's the run down.
I got up at 4AM. Not because I wanted to, mine you but because that was what time I woke up. I went to work and worked a full day and then I went back to the hotel to finish packing and get ready for the plane trip. I took a short nap but not much of one. Akshaya caught me just as I was checking out to hand over a small flotilla of gifts for me to take back to people over here. (Packages take about three months to get here from there....)
So, I got in my hired car and off we went to the airport, though there was a moment we were headed somewhere else. My Tamil is non-existant and his English was minimal, so it was interesting getting there but mostly just par for the course. Eventually, I got to the international departures terminal and walked in toward the door.
At the door were four men with some very impressive looking rifles. See, you need to have confirmation that you have a ticket to get into the airport. I had to dig mine out of my bag and then they let me in. Then, I had to get my check on bags pre-scanned and then stickered affirming that they had been scanned. Then I got to wait in line to check in. Once checked in, I then got to go through Immigration Control where there were more men with not as nice of rifles watching over the proceedings. From there I got to go up the escalators and through security. There are different metal detectors for men and women and women are taken behind a curtain for their personal hand waved metal scan and pat down.
Then there was the waiting in the heat. Did I mention the heat? Outside it was like wearing a hot wet towel. Inside it was like wearing a lukewarm wet towel. Pleasant, right? So, I did my best not to fall asleep waiting for the plane so I could fall asleep on the plane.
Eventually I got on the plane and was winging my way to Germany. Hoooray!
In Germany, I got to go through security again. There were no men with rifles, that I noticed, but there were a lot more cameras. In Germany my Kindle set off their bomb suspicions, which I actually appreciated and made sure to tell everyone about the next time I went through security... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I get to the gate and check to see if there if were any upgrades available. There were not, of course, but there were offers to put me on other planes since this one was over sold. Hrmmmm. I asked what they were. There was an offer of 300 Euros to fly through Denver and arrive at around 9. 9PM was a little late for me. THEN the next offer was 600 Euros to go through Reykjavik.
SOLD! Especially since they then added in free lunch on them. What? You would like me to hang out in your airport for four hours and drink German beer? For free? Sure! So, I got that all squared away and had to find the IcelandAir counter. I had to go through passport control (officaly putting me in Germany) and went to go get my tickets. Once I did that I had to, you guessed it, go through security again.
I then had a fantastic lunch and settled down to wait for my flight. As a side comment - the nice part of the Frankfurt airport is the 'going to the other parts of the EU' part, which I had not been in yet. It is very nice and mostly empty, which is not true of the other terminal (both parts.)
I have fallen in love with IcelandAir. Their seats are more comfortable, their entertainment options are sweet (They had Office Space, Sunshine and the Transporter in the movies you could choose and Beatles and U2 albums in the music and episodes of Burn Notice in the TV section.) They have these fantastic facts that scroll on the screens when you use them. "Iceland has X number of geothermic pools that provide X amount of the power of Iceland...... but that's not as impressive as the fact that the country's favorite restaurant is a hot dog stand." There were more and they were hilarious. Also in IcelandAir's favor, is the fact that their pilots don't screw around. You get up in the air and on your way quickly. None of this waiting around or slowly gaining altitude stuff.
The flight was short and lovely. Iceland is gorgeous from the air. There are so many blues and greens in the water that I was blown away. Also, y'know, snow capped volcanoes are also pretty impressive. I have decided that I would very much like to take a vacation in Iceland some day. The airport is all wood floors and warm stone walls. It feels much like Schiphol with less flourescent and less people and more 'cozy fireside'. Once there I had to go through passport control! No security this time, though.
The flight home was nice, though I slept through most of it. Very little turbulence, which was also nice. While I was awake I had a nice conversation with a man who had a fantastic Scottish accent and who seemed to be of military, or former military, bearing. Briefly glanced at his paperwork that he was coming to Seattle for some sort of consulting gig. *shrugs* I had the quickest trip through customs and Kris picked me up at the airport!
Hooray, home! I started the day at 4am India time and got home around 8pm Seattle time. Wheeeeee.
So, what's up with all of you?
Yesterday was an interesting experience in that I was in airports and on planes for so long that detached from my time sense. That was... interesting. All in all, though, it was an interesting trip - here's the run down.
I got up at 4AM. Not because I wanted to, mine you but because that was what time I woke up. I went to work and worked a full day and then I went back to the hotel to finish packing and get ready for the plane trip. I took a short nap but not much of one. Akshaya caught me just as I was checking out to hand over a small flotilla of gifts for me to take back to people over here. (Packages take about three months to get here from there....)
So, I got in my hired car and off we went to the airport, though there was a moment we were headed somewhere else. My Tamil is non-existant and his English was minimal, so it was interesting getting there but mostly just par for the course. Eventually, I got to the international departures terminal and walked in toward the door.
At the door were four men with some very impressive looking rifles. See, you need to have confirmation that you have a ticket to get into the airport. I had to dig mine out of my bag and then they let me in. Then, I had to get my check on bags pre-scanned and then stickered affirming that they had been scanned. Then I got to wait in line to check in. Once checked in, I then got to go through Immigration Control where there were more men with not as nice of rifles watching over the proceedings. From there I got to go up the escalators and through security. There are different metal detectors for men and women and women are taken behind a curtain for their personal hand waved metal scan and pat down.
Then there was the waiting in the heat. Did I mention the heat? Outside it was like wearing a hot wet towel. Inside it was like wearing a lukewarm wet towel. Pleasant, right? So, I did my best not to fall asleep waiting for the plane so I could fall asleep on the plane.
Eventually I got on the plane and was winging my way to Germany. Hoooray!
In Germany, I got to go through security again. There were no men with rifles, that I noticed, but there were a lot more cameras. In Germany my Kindle set off their bomb suspicions, which I actually appreciated and made sure to tell everyone about the next time I went through security... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I get to the gate and check to see if there if were any upgrades available. There were not, of course, but there were offers to put me on other planes since this one was over sold. Hrmmmm. I asked what they were. There was an offer of 300 Euros to fly through Denver and arrive at around 9. 9PM was a little late for me. THEN the next offer was 600 Euros to go through Reykjavik.
SOLD! Especially since they then added in free lunch on them. What? You would like me to hang out in your airport for four hours and drink German beer? For free? Sure! So, I got that all squared away and had to find the IcelandAir counter. I had to go through passport control (officaly putting me in Germany) and went to go get my tickets. Once I did that I had to, you guessed it, go through security again.
I then had a fantastic lunch and settled down to wait for my flight. As a side comment - the nice part of the Frankfurt airport is the 'going to the other parts of the EU' part, which I had not been in yet. It is very nice and mostly empty, which is not true of the other terminal (both parts.)
I have fallen in love with IcelandAir. Their seats are more comfortable, their entertainment options are sweet (They had Office Space, Sunshine and the Transporter in the movies you could choose and Beatles and U2 albums in the music and episodes of Burn Notice in the TV section.) They have these fantastic facts that scroll on the screens when you use them. "Iceland has X number of geothermic pools that provide X amount of the power of Iceland...... but that's not as impressive as the fact that the country's favorite restaurant is a hot dog stand." There were more and they were hilarious. Also in IcelandAir's favor, is the fact that their pilots don't screw around. You get up in the air and on your way quickly. None of this waiting around or slowly gaining altitude stuff.
The flight was short and lovely. Iceland is gorgeous from the air. There are so many blues and greens in the water that I was blown away. Also, y'know, snow capped volcanoes are also pretty impressive. I have decided that I would very much like to take a vacation in Iceland some day. The airport is all wood floors and warm stone walls. It feels much like Schiphol with less flourescent and less people and more 'cozy fireside'. Once there I had to go through passport control! No security this time, though.
The flight home was nice, though I slept through most of it. Very little turbulence, which was also nice. While I was awake I had a nice conversation with a man who had a fantastic Scottish accent and who seemed to be of military, or former military, bearing. Briefly glanced at his paperwork that he was coming to Seattle for some sort of consulting gig. *shrugs* I had the quickest trip through customs and Kris picked me up at the airport!
Hooray, home! I started the day at 4am India time and got home around 8pm Seattle time. Wheeeeee.
So, what's up with all of you?
