Egads. Been awake now for over 26 hours straight, and I can't seriously go to bed for another 6 or so hours.
That, or else I'll wake up around 3AM and can't go back to sleep for hours. Flying 'against' timezones sucks, these days at least... When I was young and spry, I'd barely flinch at staying awake this long, hah.
Spent pretty much a full day travelling, or waiting around TO travel. Woke up roughly 9AM eastern US time, packed a little, had breakfast, packed some more, waited for airport shuttle to arrive at 1:15, spent around 1.5H bouncing and jolting around in a bigass minivan driven by slightly deranged (and completely safety-nonconscious) driver who sat unbelted with left arm dangling out of the side window, talking on a handsfree cellphone during much of the trip.
Then we queued for way too long on JFK airport - signs were nonexistant, directions almost as bad, electronic ticket machines even worse. Aren't those supposed to make things EASIER? Besides... You'd think the staff working at an airport would have done this sort of stuff before - helping people and stuff I mean - apparantly not! Must have been first day at the job for all of them, and they all spoke broken english. Service has really gone downhill in the US since last time I was there. As I recall, EVERYBODY was very polite, very helpful in the past. This time, me and my dad were met with uninterested and bored looks and even outright nonchalance time and time again, from cashiers, waiters, all kinds of people. Even those whose job it is to point people in the right direction. Started off at JFK right after landing from Amsterdam, we arrived late at night, airport was nearly empty. We asked a woman wearing some kind of helpdesk attire, whom was busy speaking to a colleague, about the way to the airtrain. 'You go there and right and out and take the stairs' or somesuch she rambles off extremely quickly in like 3 seconds, then immediately turns her back on us to continue her extremely ingrossing conversation with her workmate - whom undoubtedly was ALSO supposed to be doing something other than talking to each other. To cut this sidetrack short, her quick description really isn't what you're looking for when you've just come off an 8.5 hour long, cramped flight and is all tired and rumpled after having spent hours already on a previous flight and sitting around on amsterdam's international airport and it's now close-ish to 3AM in the morning, and you've had to queue in line for 15+ minutes for that REDICULOUS security check you crazy americans force on everybody foolish enough to come visit you...
And that was BEFORE those kafkaesque questionaires and procedures were augmented with a ban on soaps and lipgloss and deodorants and I don't know what the funk else really. Great timing that one by the way - they instituted that little gem just the day before me and my dad left SF for NY. GAH!
ANYway... We find our way to our gate, we waste time until it's time to board; and they start that nearly an hour before the flight's take-off time (which is 18:20). We sit and eat our sandwiches until we're amongst the last to get up and get in line with still plenty of time to spare until last call. During our ritual stowing procedure getting our stuff up into the bins overhead and ourselves into those much too small seats to be really all that comfortable, I'm asked by a flight attendant to take a sip of the pepsi bottle that we bought in the terminal building past the security checkpoint. I mean, get the F%¤# outta here! But alright, I don't want to get shot by swat police or something like that so I take a big gulp. Not that big a deal one might think, because I bought that soda to drink it (even though pepsi is cloy and overly sweetened sewage compared to coke), it's still STUPID, because all it does is add irritation and paranoia. What if I'd been full and not interested in drinking anymore? Do I get thrown off the plane or what? There won't be terrorists jumping out of every toothpaste tube all of a sudden because of some supposed thing having been unravelled in britain (which might just be another government-invented scare-hoax like several others), just as there weren't terrorists jumping out of every set of nail clippers or shoe heel either in the years after seven-eleven.
Also, once we start taxiing - slowly - the pilot informs us there are significant delays due to many planes stacked up ahead of us, and we end up sitting there crawling along with engines idling for another thirty minutes or so before we get into the air. No wonder the air is atrocious in NY... I mean, geez. You got traffic jams even on your airports for chrissakes! Really. Air quality is the worst I've ever experienced I think, truly terrible. Feels as if those few days I spent there shaved years off my life expectancy. Surely anybody who has walked a couple blocks through manhattan's overcrowded streets during rush hour understands we CAN'T keep such a lifestyle up, it just isn't feasible in the long (or even short) run.
Once in the air tho, the flight is very nice and smooth. The Boing 777 is a much nicer aircraft overall than the 747 that me and my dad rode west across the atlantic. It's quieter, more comfortable (to a degree anyway), roomier (again, to a degree), private LCD screens in every backrest... I do miss the adjustable air nozzles tho, I guess airlines are doing away with them to save fuel - the atmosphere was fairly stuffy in the cabin I have to say with almost all seats taken. The 747 didn't have those nozzles either by the way.
I also had a seriously obese old hag of a woman sitting right behind me at the window seat who apparantly had not understood the reason for armrests when getting in and out of her chair, for she insisted on taking a firm grip on my backrest and tugging HARD to shift her considerable bulk up or down, making my own little world literally quake for a few moments. If that monster was your granny - or even mother - I don't care. She was fat, ugly, wrinkled and disgusting. The cabin crew had to get her a seatbelt extension because she was so fat for chrissakes. At least she didn't smell...not that I felt anyway...
I should add that riding a 777 is almost a joy - apart from the dutch you get spouted in your ear from the intercom system. At least if you fly KLM, so don't do that. Fly KLM, I mean. Fly with some other airline where it doesn't sound as if the purser is constantly sneezing boogers at you through the loudspeaker when he talks. British Airways, for example. At least there people ought to talk so one can freakin understand them...
Dutch aside, we arrived at amsterdam schchchhsspcchhoolll whatever airport, I bought a Tomy Flip Flap solar cell-driven plant from one of the giftshops. It's indescribable in words, so I won't even try. It was then a bit past 01:00 EST, with neither of us having had any sleep so far. Had breakfast on the plane at eleven. In the evening!
Our connecting flight back to sweden took us another couple hours, plus about one and a half hours of flight time and then some extra here once we landed. Which brings me to my present condition. Ha.
I gorged myself on american pancakes all I could. Ate at a diner on the way out of santa cruz towards hw17 - highly recommended eaterie, the flame-broiled burgers they have there are great. Also found a nice diner not far from our hotel on El Camino that had awesome pancakes. No noticeable aftertaste of baking soda, and just a hint of sweetness, oh golly. John's famous Calzone pizza though... Well, it was nice (and HUGE; me and my dad split one), but not incredible. The NY cheese cake at the same place though... My goodness. It was divine!