London, UK - Sept. 9, 2004
Thu, Jun. 21st, 2007 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterAnd now, due to popular demand (ok, two people), notes from Italy 2004!
Note: This is an entry I am typing up from notes I just found, with a few edits. Aka, I am sadly not in Italy now. Anything in brackets are comments from now.
Gah. That was quite possibly one of the most irritating traveling experiences I've had in a while, and I travel a good deal. [Clearly this was written before Murphy struck full force last year.] Well, at least I used to. I had a problem with getting the ticket because I thought it had already been paid for, seeing as how I had a giant charge on my card. But no.
Of course, it probably didn't hep that my mom somehow ended up making eight reservations or so. I used up all my cash at the foreign exchange, which was probably a good idea anyway, seeing as how the ATMs in the UK wouldn't let me get cash.
Grr. The plane ride itself was pretty nasty, even though it was shorter than the plane back home. I had been sort of startled at the check-in counter by seeing a very large group of people, all very lean and muscular. Usually there are lots of different body types at airports, so I was a little interested. Turned out to be the SF ballet company, pretty cool!
Maybe I haven't flown international for so long that I've forgotten what it's like, but the UA seats were incredibly hard and distinctly non-cushy. And they only reclined five degrees or something. I mean, it is nice not having someone's head in your lap, but on the other hand, I had a nearly impossible time sleping. Am exhausted now.
I ended up watching bits and pieces of Prisoner of Azkaban (twice) through a haze of sleep deprivation, trying to fal asleep. Eventually I got to that strange point in which I was so tired that I couldn't fall asleep. Or read. Or concentrate on movies. So I listened to my trusty iPod. Now Grey Eye Glance's "Halfway Back" also reminds me of Joan of Arcadia... I watched one ep. before leaving for the airport and liked it.
Then came the wonderful adventure of finding the bus to Gatwick. Somehow, I managed to walk past all the bs stops at my terminal to proceed to the Central Bus Station and ended up waiting inlie for what felt like forever for a ticket.
Time passes very strangely when one is extremely short on sleep. It always feels like Dali's melting watches to me -- everything is sort of warped out of shape temporally. Also, the line really was sow. Despite assurances that the bus left every 10-15 min., ours apparently only did so every 45 min. or so. Though it felt like ten hours -- my feet were still swollen from the plane and weren't to happy to be utilized at that point.
The bus ride itself was about an hour and a half. After the ride passed the 70 min. mark (the supposed travel time), I had a mini panic attack in my head: Am I on the wrong bus? Did I miss the stop, and will I be deposited in rural England somewhere?!
More hard seats and the fear of missing Gatwick conspired to keep me awake (my tailbone really hurts now), and the ride was duly spiced up by a howling baby.
I hate traveling now. Hate. This made my 18-hour flights back home from college seem like a piece of cae. Traveling alone is particularly awful because no one can watch your luggage or hold your place in line while you go investigate the other line or run to the restroom or something. I really want larger bathroom stalls so those of us traveling alone do't have to go through contortion acts to fit both self and luggage in a teensy-weensy stall. Also, I wonder why it is that all airports are the same steel grey color? They're already impersonal enough as is.
Well, I'm in the hotel room now, in (mostly) one piece. And I've showered, so my worldview is getting increasingly positive. There's nothing like sitting in an airplane for a very long time for making one feel grungy beyond all belief. That's actually kind of odd, given that on a normal day, we wear our clothes for the same amount of time and do sweaty things in them. Going to shut up now before I reveal the total amount of brain damage done by not sleeping.
Note: This is an entry I am typing up from notes I just found, with a few edits. Aka, I am sadly not in Italy now. Anything in brackets are comments from now.
Gah. That was quite possibly one of the most irritating traveling experiences I've had in a while, and I travel a good deal. [Clearly this was written before Murphy struck full force last year.] Well, at least I used to. I had a problem with getting the ticket because I thought it had already been paid for, seeing as how I had a giant charge on my card. But no.
Of course, it probably didn't hep that my mom somehow ended up making eight reservations or so. I used up all my cash at the foreign exchange, which was probably a good idea anyway, seeing as how the ATMs in the UK wouldn't let me get cash.
Grr. The plane ride itself was pretty nasty, even though it was shorter than the plane back home. I had been sort of startled at the check-in counter by seeing a very large group of people, all very lean and muscular. Usually there are lots of different body types at airports, so I was a little interested. Turned out to be the SF ballet company, pretty cool!
Maybe I haven't flown international for so long that I've forgotten what it's like, but the UA seats were incredibly hard and distinctly non-cushy. And they only reclined five degrees or something. I mean, it is nice not having someone's head in your lap, but on the other hand, I had a nearly impossible time sleping. Am exhausted now.
I ended up watching bits and pieces of Prisoner of Azkaban (twice) through a haze of sleep deprivation, trying to fal asleep. Eventually I got to that strange point in which I was so tired that I couldn't fall asleep. Or read. Or concentrate on movies. So I listened to my trusty iPod. Now Grey Eye Glance's "Halfway Back" also reminds me of Joan of Arcadia... I watched one ep. before leaving for the airport and liked it.
Then came the wonderful adventure of finding the bus to Gatwick. Somehow, I managed to walk past all the bs stops at my terminal to proceed to the Central Bus Station and ended up waiting inlie for what felt like forever for a ticket.
Time passes very strangely when one is extremely short on sleep. It always feels like Dali's melting watches to me -- everything is sort of warped out of shape temporally. Also, the line really was sow. Despite assurances that the bus left every 10-15 min., ours apparently only did so every 45 min. or so. Though it felt like ten hours -- my feet were still swollen from the plane and weren't to happy to be utilized at that point.
The bus ride itself was about an hour and a half. After the ride passed the 70 min. mark (the supposed travel time), I had a mini panic attack in my head: Am I on the wrong bus? Did I miss the stop, and will I be deposited in rural England somewhere?!
More hard seats and the fear of missing Gatwick conspired to keep me awake (my tailbone really hurts now), and the ride was duly spiced up by a howling baby.
I hate traveling now. Hate. This made my 18-hour flights back home from college seem like a piece of cae. Traveling alone is particularly awful because no one can watch your luggage or hold your place in line while you go investigate the other line or run to the restroom or something. I really want larger bathroom stalls so those of us traveling alone do't have to go through contortion acts to fit both self and luggage in a teensy-weensy stall. Also, I wonder why it is that all airports are the same steel grey color? They're already impersonal enough as is.
Well, I'm in the hotel room now, in (mostly) one piece. And I've showered, so my worldview is getting increasingly positive. There's nothing like sitting in an airplane for a very long time for making one feel grungy beyond all belief. That's actually kind of odd, given that on a normal day, we wear our clothes for the same amount of time and do sweaty things in them. Going to shut up now before I reveal the total amount of brain damage done by not sleeping.
(no subject)
Fri, Jun. 22nd, 2007 01:26 am (UTC)Then again, last year was the pinnacle (or nadir) of Murphy's Law + travel for me: five hour delay back from Wiscon, capped with a salad dressing bottle breaking and spilling in my luggage; the entire passport thing with Italy; and then the date on my ticket on the way back from Taiwan being wrong; along with multiple delays and reroutes and etc. along the way.
(no subject)
Fri, Jun. 22nd, 2007 06:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Jun. 22nd, 2007 08:00 pm (UTC)