Whumph. Back again.
Dec. 30th, 2005 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estiriseI'm alive, and I'm back. (Or is it the other way around?)
Sweden was pretty good, apart from the fact that I'm a California gal and don't do well in the cold. (Thankfully, I spent 75% of it inside my parents' place.)
First of all, SAS/United (Star Alliance) turned out to be pretty cool considering my travel dates. I was the only traveller going to Stockholm via Chicago, or at least the only one that showed up more-or-less two hours early. I did much better than the people trying to get on the flight an hour and a half before me, who were all lined up for rebooking because they didn't bother to read the webpage or use common sense and realize that it's not a good day to dally. I regret that my battery charging thing didn't get to my place until I retrned home, but that's another matter. (Also met a gentleman in the security scanning section who was born in Selma, Alabama! Cool!)
Chicago - dang, for an international airport, they have so got to put restaurants past the security section! Also, they forgot to warn us that due to American paranoia after 9/11, all passengers had to have their passports rescanned, and at least the Americans had to fill out a form with their name and (optionally) their contacts. Bleh. What's the freaking point?!? I saw these US-Visit machines all over the place, and I suspect that's what the foriegn travellers had to use.
On the other hand, the flight over to Stockholm Arlanda was very cool, since the plane had movies, music, and *games*! I had fun playing the matching game, and the trivia game beat my pants off. They even had Centipede - an arcade game from the 1980's.
Stockholm - I like Arlanda airport, which is good, because I got to spend three hours in it with my Dad, who came down to make sure I got to the city where they live, as my knowledge of Swedish leaves much to be desired - plus, he had the train tickets. I'm sure the staff spoke some English, but I was so embarrassed with my lack of Swedish that I didn't even try.
Christmas - My half-sister (and step-sister to be, odd to think) wanted an American Christmas dinner. So, my mom came up with a fairly American one, including eggnog and pumpkin pie. The eggnog and the pumpkin (canned) had to be imported and brought up from Stockholm. My half-sister brought Julmust, which is a fruity carbonated drink only sold in December. Mom and Dad didn't like it, but even though it was caffienated (and therefore I shouldn't be drinking it), I figured it was Christmas, and drank it. We opened presents on Christmas eve (Dad's tradtion is Christmas day, mom's is Christmas eve, since my half-sister and her boyfriend were coming up for Christmas day we compromised and did presents Christmas Eve).
Most of the visit was spent just relaxing with my parents. The days up there are only about five hours long (six if they're lucky), so pretty much everybody got up when they wanted to and went to bed when they wanted to. (My parents are retired, so they don't have to be anywhere.) We watched "National Treasure" one night, went to see "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (in the theater - most all english-language movies are subtitled, not dubbed, in Sweden), played several board games, lazed around, and in my Dad's case, tried to fix up a computer. Dad and I had a wild time dissing the Windows OS. (He uses Linux, I use a Mac.) About a day before I left, I got Dad's permission to download Firefox onto Windows (it's his system, I didn't want to do anything without asking to make sure, he wasn't making me) so that if I had to browse in Windows, I'd at least be using a safer browser. Now all we have to do is wait for the Java site to get corrected so mom has her Java to run her Yahoo games, and we'll have her all switched over. I also had to correct some vulnerabilities with my three 1.1 efiction archives (Inkwell 3.0, which runs 2.0, is safe). Recoding parts of php files is *not* my idea of fun.
Got sent back to Arlanda airport on the 29th. Had to wake up at 4:30 (and I swear my parents slept in, they swear they didn't) to get on the 6:10 train to the Airport (9:10 arrival time). Train was a little bit late, but I still got there in plenty of time to take my flight out. I had the foresight to buy some stuff at the store, so I was well-equipped for food, albeit mostly junk food. Swedish security is some of the nicest I've ever run across - not every day you get to see a military man striding around the terminal very nicely asking if somebody's lost their bag!
Due to snow, ice, and rain, my plane to my next destination, Heathrow, didn't leave until an hour after it was due to start. They did manage to cut the arrival to Heathrow down to only 30 minutes, but the flight crew had the sense to ask the rest of the plane's passengers to wait until the six of us going to San Francisco to disembark, as we had to run to catch our next flight. (For some reason, the connection my mother had booked gave me 1 hour 15 minutes to get through Heathrow airport security! I didn't think I'd get to my plane in enough time, but I swear Heathrow seems more relaxed than it did in the 1980's... secure, yes, but more relaxed than, say, most American airports.
Once I got on my flight from Heathrow, everything calmed down again. No games on this flight, but movies and a map. Ran my Palm's battery down a bit, watched movies... and movies... and movies. And the flight map. I must have seen parts of "The Island" five times, along with most of "Chocolate Factory" and "X-Men 2" once or twice (which wasn't on our schedule, they must have been having problems with "Ice Age" halfway across).
Customs in San Francisco... ugh, I hate Customs, I hate customs forms, we Americans are so darn paranoid it's not funny. Fortunately, Customs didn't have a problem with my snack food, probably because it was snack food.
Managed to find hotel, despite being addled enough to have to check my reservation five times for the hotel *name*. For my future reference, it was the Clarion, which is right next to the Westin, where I've been to a con twice in a row. Sent email to mom to assure her I'm okay, took bath, and crashed.
... woke up at 6:30, figured I was in no hurry, took an hour to get out of bed and another hour to get myself together, checked out and to the airport to catch BART. Got back to town about 12:45 or so, managed to catch my bus, and was so tired that I missed a chance to get next month's bus pass. Go me. Did manage to get money and pick up my furry from the vet she was being boarded at, though. The taxi driver had no problem finding the vet, mostly because it used to be his vet.
Cat forgave me once I gave her food and water. Will have to shop soon, hopefully it will be raining less tomorrow. (It pretty much rained in SF and here, all day.)
I do know my future plans are as follows:
1. Remember to bring medication other than asprin for myself next trip.
2. Pick up enough Swedish so I can speak it at least basically and don't sound like a total idiot next trip.
3. Book Amtrak tickets if I need to so I'm not walking in the rain in SF.
4. Save up money, get my ML(I)S degree, move to Canada, and get Canadian citizenship. With all that's going on, I really don't want to be an American citizen anymore, and apparently Canada needs librarians.
Sweden was pretty good, apart from the fact that I'm a California gal and don't do well in the cold. (Thankfully, I spent 75% of it inside my parents' place.)
First of all, SAS/United (Star Alliance) turned out to be pretty cool considering my travel dates. I was the only traveller going to Stockholm via Chicago, or at least the only one that showed up more-or-less two hours early. I did much better than the people trying to get on the flight an hour and a half before me, who were all lined up for rebooking because they didn't bother to read the webpage or use common sense and realize that it's not a good day to dally. I regret that my battery charging thing didn't get to my place until I retrned home, but that's another matter. (Also met a gentleman in the security scanning section who was born in Selma, Alabama! Cool!)
Chicago - dang, for an international airport, they have so got to put restaurants past the security section! Also, they forgot to warn us that due to American paranoia after 9/11, all passengers had to have their passports rescanned, and at least the Americans had to fill out a form with their name and (optionally) their contacts. Bleh. What's the freaking point?!? I saw these US-Visit machines all over the place, and I suspect that's what the foriegn travellers had to use.
On the other hand, the flight over to Stockholm Arlanda was very cool, since the plane had movies, music, and *games*! I had fun playing the matching game, and the trivia game beat my pants off. They even had Centipede - an arcade game from the 1980's.
Stockholm - I like Arlanda airport, which is good, because I got to spend three hours in it with my Dad, who came down to make sure I got to the city where they live, as my knowledge of Swedish leaves much to be desired - plus, he had the train tickets. I'm sure the staff spoke some English, but I was so embarrassed with my lack of Swedish that I didn't even try.
Christmas - My half-sister (and step-sister to be, odd to think) wanted an American Christmas dinner. So, my mom came up with a fairly American one, including eggnog and pumpkin pie. The eggnog and the pumpkin (canned) had to be imported and brought up from Stockholm. My half-sister brought Julmust, which is a fruity carbonated drink only sold in December. Mom and Dad didn't like it, but even though it was caffienated (and therefore I shouldn't be drinking it), I figured it was Christmas, and drank it. We opened presents on Christmas eve (Dad's tradtion is Christmas day, mom's is Christmas eve, since my half-sister and her boyfriend were coming up for Christmas day we compromised and did presents Christmas Eve).
Most of the visit was spent just relaxing with my parents. The days up there are only about five hours long (six if they're lucky), so pretty much everybody got up when they wanted to and went to bed when they wanted to. (My parents are retired, so they don't have to be anywhere.) We watched "National Treasure" one night, went to see "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (in the theater - most all english-language movies are subtitled, not dubbed, in Sweden), played several board games, lazed around, and in my Dad's case, tried to fix up a computer. Dad and I had a wild time dissing the Windows OS. (He uses Linux, I use a Mac.) About a day before I left, I got Dad's permission to download Firefox onto Windows (it's his system, I didn't want to do anything without asking to make sure, he wasn't making me) so that if I had to browse in Windows, I'd at least be using a safer browser. Now all we have to do is wait for the Java site to get corrected so mom has her Java to run her Yahoo games, and we'll have her all switched over. I also had to correct some vulnerabilities with my three 1.1 efiction archives (Inkwell 3.0, which runs 2.0, is safe). Recoding parts of php files is *not* my idea of fun.
Got sent back to Arlanda airport on the 29th. Had to wake up at 4:30 (and I swear my parents slept in, they swear they didn't) to get on the 6:10 train to the Airport (9:10 arrival time). Train was a little bit late, but I still got there in plenty of time to take my flight out. I had the foresight to buy some stuff at the store, so I was well-equipped for food, albeit mostly junk food. Swedish security is some of the nicest I've ever run across - not every day you get to see a military man striding around the terminal very nicely asking if somebody's lost their bag!
Due to snow, ice, and rain, my plane to my next destination, Heathrow, didn't leave until an hour after it was due to start. They did manage to cut the arrival to Heathrow down to only 30 minutes, but the flight crew had the sense to ask the rest of the plane's passengers to wait until the six of us going to San Francisco to disembark, as we had to run to catch our next flight. (For some reason, the connection my mother had booked gave me 1 hour 15 minutes to get through Heathrow airport security! I didn't think I'd get to my plane in enough time, but I swear Heathrow seems more relaxed than it did in the 1980's... secure, yes, but more relaxed than, say, most American airports.
Once I got on my flight from Heathrow, everything calmed down again. No games on this flight, but movies and a map. Ran my Palm's battery down a bit, watched movies... and movies... and movies. And the flight map. I must have seen parts of "The Island" five times, along with most of "Chocolate Factory" and "X-Men 2" once or twice (which wasn't on our schedule, they must have been having problems with "Ice Age" halfway across).
Customs in San Francisco... ugh, I hate Customs, I hate customs forms, we Americans are so darn paranoid it's not funny. Fortunately, Customs didn't have a problem with my snack food, probably because it was snack food.
Managed to find hotel, despite being addled enough to have to check my reservation five times for the hotel *name*. For my future reference, it was the Clarion, which is right next to the Westin, where I've been to a con twice in a row. Sent email to mom to assure her I'm okay, took bath, and crashed.
... woke up at 6:30, figured I was in no hurry, took an hour to get out of bed and another hour to get myself together, checked out and to the airport to catch BART. Got back to town about 12:45 or so, managed to catch my bus, and was so tired that I missed a chance to get next month's bus pass. Go me. Did manage to get money and pick up my furry from the vet she was being boarded at, though. The taxi driver had no problem finding the vet, mostly because it used to be his vet.
Cat forgave me once I gave her food and water. Will have to shop soon, hopefully it will be raining less tomorrow. (It pretty much rained in SF and here, all day.)
I do know my future plans are as follows:
1. Remember to bring medication other than asprin for myself next trip.
2. Pick up enough Swedish so I can speak it at least basically and don't sound like a total idiot next trip.
3. Book Amtrak tickets if I need to so I'm not walking in the rain in SF.
4. Save up money, get my ML(I)S degree, move to Canada, and get Canadian citizenship. With all that's going on, I really don't want to be an American citizen anymore, and apparently Canada needs librarians.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-31 05:44 am (UTC)All that aside, I'm glad you had a decent time. I've been to lots of places, but Sweden isn't one of them. Perhaps I shall manage to get there someday, though Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England (again) and Japan are the priorities at the moment.
I'm also glad you're home safe, by the way.