WARNING: non-sequiturs and a bit of stream of consciousness writing below
10a So, I was up at 5a today. Boo.It’s 10a now and I am sitting in the Detroit Metro airport. I can’t get a wireless connection here so I’m typing this in TextEdit. I’d rather use a pretty word processing application but I don’t even think this machine came with any of that software loaded. WTF?
If any of you have been through this airport (Jayne!), it’s actually much nicer than it was 10+ years ago. I am sitting in front of the funky water fountain in the the main terminal and the Northwest overhead tram is parked and picking some peeps up. Since I’m here so GD early before my trans-Atlantic flight, the flight info is not yet displayed on the departures screens throughout the airport. Sure, I could ask what gate to go to but it’s super early and it would be stupid to be sitting there with my thumb up my ass all damn day. While I’m usually quite good at said maneuver, I’d rather not inflict such pain on small children that happen to be passing by. Besides, it’s a ritual that I have a beer in an airport. Granted, it will probably cost me $25 but whatever. I am unemployed and homeless; what else am I supposed to do?
And by the way, there are birds in here. Yes, birds. I guess they like hanging out by the water and the trees. There is some irony of getting shit on in Detroit.
Oh, and as expected I had to pay a fee for having one of my checked bags be over the weight limit set by NW. I was only 12 pounds over–does anyone want to hazard a guess at how much that cost? Ninety farking dollars. Yeah! I was assuming it would be more fifty-ish but my assumption was quickly proven wrong at the ticket counter. WAH!
According to the NW inflight mag, I’ll get treated to a Kiera Knightley movie on the flight later. Hoo-fucking-ray. She was alright in ‘Bend It Like Beckham,’ but what’s the deal with her doing all these Jane Austen-y type Brit flicks? Ok yeah, I get it; you’re English already. Next.
Some douchebag is pacing behind me talking on the phone about Costa Rica & Hong Kong. He’s going on about how CR doesn’t observe Daylight Saving. Fascinating conversation, man.
1123a Jesus, it’s only been 90 minutes. I have since relocated to another spot but nonetheless time is going by slowly. For those curious, I ate a delicious McMuffin purchased from the Golden Arches. As industrial as their products seem to be, they are tasty. One cannot deny this. I’m curious to know how different the Czech brand McD’s will be. Shitty? I hope not. The fries were made by the hands of Little Baby Jesus. This much I know to be true.
Sucks I can’t hop on freebie wireless here. I can pay $8 and get service for the day but that’s kind of ridiculous. A day without Facebook is going to be a difficult one but I think I can cope. I have other methods of self-entertainment. In fact, I just made a really stupid video on iMovie.
The flight to Amsterdam isn’t even boarding until 3pm. God. Three and a half hours more of sitting. My ass will be sore. A full day’s worth of sitting ain’t good for my delicate keister. At least it’s almost noon so I can start drinking. Too bad I had to pack all the little bottles of liquor my sister gave me. Otherwise, I’d toss one down my gullet. That’s how i roll.More typey after Miller time.
115p Two Sam Adams Winter Lagers later….Two beers including tip? Twenty bucks.
I finally found my gate info but I’m 2 gates down because everyone else had the same idea about plugging in and charging up their products. I gotta have the juice, man
422p Up, Up and Away.. my beautiful balloon…In the air from Detroit, flight time 7 hr 15 min to Amsterdam.There is a screaming/crying baby a few rows back. Now would be a good time for those noise reducing headphones.
Ok, the woman in the seat directly in front of me just put her seat all the way back thus forcing my tray and laptop into my fat lard middle. Fun. I think she’s a stupid European, anyway.
For anyone interested the distance between DTW and AMS is 3900 miles.More later. I want food now.
645pMan, these people are really quite efficient with the beverage and meal service. It was all complete within an hour and the cabin lights were quickly dimmed. As everyone knows airplanes are not the most comfortable places certainly when one is considering the option of sleep. Although the seat next to me is vacant and this row is all mine, the constraints of comfort (or lack thereof) are something I am contending with. My attempt at sleep was nil so I’m updating the blog entry.
According to the inflight information provided on the handy little personal viewing screens, we are somewhere over NE Canada–around Newfoundland, I think. It’s certainly remote as I see no lights for any cities below. Damn. Canada must be a cold and boring place tonight. But, I’ve heard Toronto is a cool ethnically diverse city. Wouldn’t mind visiting there sometime. Of course, Vancouver would be cool too. If I hadn’t been doing this move, I was considering my next solo trip for the summer of ‘09… fly into Portland, hang out for a bit, rent a car and drive up the NW coast through to Seattle and then on to Vancouver. Instead, I’m having an awesome European adventure which frankly, will probably be better than a 5 day domestic trip.
915p Ok, again my attempts at sleeping on this thing are futile. Normally, I am neither a light sleeper nor one who has difficulty falling asleep. I’m far from an insomniac so what gives? I attribute this to the uncomfortableness of trying to sleep while sitting up. Grrr.
Someone just sprayed perfume. Ok lady, this is an enclosed metal tube that we’re all stuck in for 8+ hours. Try keeping your whore juice to a minimum when in close proximity to others for extended periods.
Geography update–checking the digitized flight map, I’m now somewhere over the Atlantic between Iceland & Ireland.
Distance traveled: 2950 milesOutside temp: -48FMPH: 585Altitude: 40,421ft
Perfume lady is at it again. Somebody reeks of vodka. Yes!I
t’s going to be difficult to get used to a 24-hour clock. And this metric thing and temperature conversions are going to constantly weigh on me.
Friday 349p (Prague time) Screaming baby returned. With a vengeance. Seriously, that kid was out of control and not really even ‘crying.’ Bad parenting.
My flight arrived in Amsterdam earlier than expected and when going through customs & security I got a thorough frisking. No seriously, we’re talking thorough. When I went through security in Knoxville, I took off my belt & shoes per US screenings. I removed the belt in Amsterdam but somehow I set the damn detector off. When I was pulled to the side I got probably a full 60 second frisking/groping. I say groping because the inspector seriously had some hands in the pants action as well as serious cuppage of boobs. It was a bit of a disconcerting experience.
Schipol International Airport has some of the best looking employees. This includes the woman who felt me up. To me, it looked like she should have been selling fragrances behind a counter rather than patting down shifty-eyed travelers. All the airport cops were young, hot and toting guns. Of course the gun thing isn’t something I’m accustomed to seeing.
I hopped in a tram that took me far away from the main terminal to my KLM flight bound for Prague. I arrived at 850a and quickly got my gigantic fucking bags and headed out to wait for my pick-up.We drove right through Prague and over the river and I could see from a distance the big castle on the hill.
Hooray!I finally arrived at Biscupcova 3, Praha 3 around 10ish this morning. Oh and the street addresses come after the street name. Google baby, Google. This particular area of town is the ‘Brooklyn’ of Prague.
Since I hadn’t exchanged my US currency at the airport, I knew that was a priority. I changed some money at the bank with a teller who I didn’t exchange courtesies because I don’t speak Czech! With today’s exchange rate, I have 4,183 Crowns. Translated 192USD.
I also went to the corner market-sorry, I don’t know the Czech word just yet. This store is literally about 30 feet from the door of the building and they have various beverages (incl. beer & soda) as well as fruits & dried goods. I wouldn’t necessarily say the contents of the store are like a typical convenient store in the US but the concept is similar. Again, I had no verbal exchange with the woman at the register. I bought a big carbonated water -orange flavored if you are curious as well as a Czech beverage which I had read about. Kofola looks like a regular Coke or Pepsi. Although I try to stay away from caffeine, I decided to get something to help me stay awake and adjust my internal clock. Although this stuff looks like a regular ‘pop,’ it tastes vaguely of Jagermeister. It is rather herbal & medicinal tasting. It’s not horrible, it’s just different.
715pSo, my roommate (a temporary one as she is going to her own flat tomorrow) is a woman who has already been through this program and is now working here in Prague. Nice! She’s given me the heads up about some things so I appreciate that. Strange though is that we have much in common in the ways of where we have both lived. Before she came here she was living in Louisville; she’s also lived in upstate NY but by far the strangest is the Ohio connection. I mentioned that I had also lived in Cleveland. As it turns out we both lived in Chagrin Falls and actually attended the same high school. Mind you, this is a high school of less than 400 enrollment. And, we both left CF after our sophomore years. Her parents still live there and actually they live in a condo between my old church and the high school!
I went back to the little mini-mart a few moments ago to get some more stuff. See photo below. Come on, you knew the beer was coming soon! I’m having some of this tea right now and it’s actually quite good. While I prefer caff-free stuff, I can’t read the packaging so oh well. If I get all amped up, I’ll know I bought the wrong stuff. The ‘Chipsletten’ are some kind of Euro Pringle that are super salty. Me likey. And yes, it’s all about the carbs tonight. Good times, good times.
The little bottles of booze my sister gifted me have also been unwrapped from the rolled-up Martha Stewart ninja style packing and I am proud to say, none of my shit broke. My work was proven effective after all!
Sorry that I have nothing more interesting to report but I’m going to Tesco tomorrow so stay tuned!
Clicky for bigger.
Sorry this entry wasn’t very interesting but once I get out on foot more, I’ll have more fun details & photos to post.
Oh and the random pic of a building is just some residential building a few blocks away. I don’t know what it’s called but I thought I’d throw it in there.
