Jet Lag and Long Trips
Sep. 11th, 2003 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kybearfuzzBrace for rant!
The trip to the airport was early and somewhat dangerous. Italian drivers are a bit scary. I was cringing a little here and there.
Alitalia, the Italian airlines, was disappointing. I climbed aboard and immediately realized that I got stuck in the exit row seat, meaning that all of my carry ons had to go in the overhead. Okay, I figured. I can get it down after take off and I probably wouldn't need my backpack as I'd be watching movies and listening to the radio. Oh, how wrong I was.
First, this row could not recline, the electric control panel on the armrest that controlled the radio and lights was gone and covered by tape, and the stewardess was giving the guy across from me pure hell for keeping his bag between his feet. Not a good way to start an eight-hour flight. The movie was announced to be "The Italian Job", which I hadn't seen, but had planned to rent. Well, once they tried to start the movie, something happened and they couldn't play the film. So there I was -- no radio, no movies, no book, and only one crappy paper to read. I still had about seven hours to go.
I had one respite left -- drawing. I pulled my notepad and pencils from my bag and started to draw something. That's when Bitch Stewardess began closing all of the windows so people could get some sleep, including mine. The flight was not full, so I decided to find another seat with working electronics so I could listen to the radio and have an overhead light that worked for drawing. So much for that. All of the free seats were taken up by people who stretched out to sleep on them. So I trudged back to the wasteland that was my row and closed my eyes to catch some sleep.
But not much, an Italian five year old decided he was going to run up and down the aisles. His poor parents had little control of him. I did knock off for about 45 minutes and woke up with a stiff neck. After about five hours of pathetic clock watching, we finally landed. I never want to fly this airline again if I can help it. It was sheer misery. Thank heavens for the two male attendants or I would have had no eye candy at all.
I landed in Boston and everyone there was extremely friendly. Had one cute pocketbear Italian cop give me directions, had a real woofy Customs agent who looked like Stone Cold Steve Austin give me some help with transferring my bags, and had a very perky airline clerk just chat away with me while waiting in line to recheck my bags. I don't know what they take to stay so happy, but I'd like a year's supply. I may have to check out Boston again sometime.
Finally got to Cincinnati a little early. A buddy from work picked me up. We went out for dinner and she caught me up with what's happening at work. I finally got home about 8 PM (that 2 AM Italian time). My neighbor who watched my house is really great. He even cut my yard and trimmed my tree for me. A great guy, I need to get him something for that.
Needless to say, jet lag is settling in and I doubt very seriously I'll be up before noon tomorrow. So concludes the foreign trip in it's entirety. My journal entries will be less frequent from here on I think, but I do plan to keep it going. I also need to post some of my pics from this trip. Tomorrow, that is.....
The trip to the airport was early and somewhat dangerous. Italian drivers are a bit scary. I was cringing a little here and there.
Alitalia, the Italian airlines, was disappointing. I climbed aboard and immediately realized that I got stuck in the exit row seat, meaning that all of my carry ons had to go in the overhead. Okay, I figured. I can get it down after take off and I probably wouldn't need my backpack as I'd be watching movies and listening to the radio. Oh, how wrong I was.
First, this row could not recline, the electric control panel on the armrest that controlled the radio and lights was gone and covered by tape, and the stewardess was giving the guy across from me pure hell for keeping his bag between his feet. Not a good way to start an eight-hour flight. The movie was announced to be "The Italian Job", which I hadn't seen, but had planned to rent. Well, once they tried to start the movie, something happened and they couldn't play the film. So there I was -- no radio, no movies, no book, and only one crappy paper to read. I still had about seven hours to go.
I had one respite left -- drawing. I pulled my notepad and pencils from my bag and started to draw something. That's when Bitch Stewardess began closing all of the windows so people could get some sleep, including mine. The flight was not full, so I decided to find another seat with working electronics so I could listen to the radio and have an overhead light that worked for drawing. So much for that. All of the free seats were taken up by people who stretched out to sleep on them. So I trudged back to the wasteland that was my row and closed my eyes to catch some sleep.
But not much, an Italian five year old decided he was going to run up and down the aisles. His poor parents had little control of him. I did knock off for about 45 minutes and woke up with a stiff neck. After about five hours of pathetic clock watching, we finally landed. I never want to fly this airline again if I can help it. It was sheer misery. Thank heavens for the two male attendants or I would have had no eye candy at all.
I landed in Boston and everyone there was extremely friendly. Had one cute pocketbear Italian cop give me directions, had a real woofy Customs agent who looked like Stone Cold Steve Austin give me some help with transferring my bags, and had a very perky airline clerk just chat away with me while waiting in line to recheck my bags. I don't know what they take to stay so happy, but I'd like a year's supply. I may have to check out Boston again sometime.
Finally got to Cincinnati a little early. A buddy from work picked me up. We went out for dinner and she caught me up with what's happening at work. I finally got home about 8 PM (that 2 AM Italian time). My neighbor who watched my house is really great. He even cut my yard and trimmed my tree for me. A great guy, I need to get him something for that.
Needless to say, jet lag is settling in and I doubt very seriously I'll be up before noon tomorrow. So concludes the foreign trip in it's entirety. My journal entries will be less frequent from here on I think, but I do plan to keep it going. I also need to post some of my pics from this trip. Tomorrow, that is.....
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Date: 2003-09-12 03:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-12 06:09 am (UTC)