Buy converter/adapter - AAA travel store? Target?
Compression socks (driven by DVT-phobia)
Bring Tanya: People mag, Soffe sports shorts, lyrical foot undies, calculator, leggings, sleeved summer shirts
Taste of international travel:
Just got back from Chicago. On my 2-hour leg from Denver to Chicago they put us on a 767! Excitement! Reminded me of most cool things about international travel --
- Individual blanket and pillow wrapped in plastic on seat
- Individual television screen
- Diverse channel selections on arm seat (Ask Marc and I to sing kids' choral rendition of "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore": Kids Channel, 747 to London, Air India, circa 1975 -- We will happily re-create!)
- Airplane bathroom's relatively expansive counter features pump dispenser with scented lotion
- You can do laps around plane
- Futuristic entertainment center pods with lounging chairs that fold back into beds for corporate flyers with unlimited expense accounts (they won't let me into that section but I enjoy knowing that such luxury is taking place within the confines of my little flying society -- perhaps like the pride medieval peasants took in their villages' lavish Cathedrals??? [note: possible doctoral dissertation?])
- TV channel that shows "real-time" map of your flight path with your plane pictured as cute icon covering an area half that of France
- When de-planing, have to carefully merge traffic with other rows
I don't believe in converters, buy a cheap model of whatever it is you want. Plus the appliance takes too much room.
ReplyDeleteTry Business class sometimes, it's coach people with a billion miles- blech! stay in coach- it's not that much better...
I hate that little real time thing- I will try and sleep, be offered a dozen tiny meals, and still that tiny little map hasn't moved an inch. It pains me to watch anything go t-h-a-t-s-l-o-w-l-y
love to be a part of this.
d
But you forgot the most AMAZING thing about traveling is, the INCREDIBLE staff, those tired, red-eyed Flight Attendants make you feel REALLY good about traveling that line again.
ReplyDeletethere were airplanes in 1975?
ReplyDeletegpd
Yes -- the very honest woman at AAA instructed me not to buy a converter and also not to buy the travel hair dryer they sell. "Fred Meyer has them for really cheap and all you have to do is flip the little switch to 220."
ReplyDeleteActually, I think "Michael Row your Boat Ashore" was from a trip to Florida. In case future historians attempt to piece this all together.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I remember hearing about the Rappaport Europe '75 trip... and I always took you for a thrifty bunch (...i.e. it is the law of the Bronx - "why should you pay?") but AIR INDIA? I always assumed AA, or UA - Delta... maybe? Or some now defunct airline like TWA. I have heard GOOD things about being treated like a human being (!) on Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America airlines and they have new futuristic planes... Compression stockings - do you need them only for a trip to the middle east or should I use them for domestic flights...I have lousy looking legs as it is. And maybe you could do without the hairdryer as a lot of hotels now have them installed in the rooms... and you have naturally straight hair - so what are we worried about here?
ReplyDeleteI still enjoy "Michael Row your Boat Ashore," Hallelujah!
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure Michael rowed his boat ashore on Air India to Amsterdam.
I mentioned Air India to a friend that flies to India a couple of times a year and She said "you don't fly Air India." After she said that with such certainty, I was too embarrassed to ask why. She primarily flies British Air or an American Carrier.
Marc, I am assuming that you have seen the episode of "Seinfeld" where they fly to India in coach on Air India. Of course, it is funny when it's on tv...:(
ReplyDeleteI remember the Air India flights being completely fine: each window had a cute little Taj Mahal point over it and the stewardesses had saris and were very pleasant. Let me tell you - you would much rather have Indian flight attendants than Israeli (One experience with El Al was plenty!!). Jews don't really do subservient very well. And, for that matter, than Austrian flight attendants (An 8 hour flight on Austrian Air from Istanbul to DC and they would not give us more than one small pack of pretzels each -- when I begged for more food the stewardess icily dropped one additional mini-pack into my hand. Those Austrians don't screw around -- it's survival of the fittest, baby!)!
ReplyDeleteWe went Air India because it was a National Education Association (NEA) offer we couldn't refuse. The flight was filled with teachers from all over the US. Teachers didn't make very much in those days.
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