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<not yet finished..> FridayIt is easy (for a Finn) to get into the United States but getting out may sometimes prove more difficult. First Statosphere fucked up the shuttle. I had reserved a transportation for 5:30 at the conscierge and the guy told me where to be, being the stupid Finn I had him even mark the spot in a floorplan. I was there in good time but no shuttle did appear. At 5:45 I rang the front desk and asked what's up. After a little conversation I heard I was in the wrong place. Brilliant! Good thing I didn't bribe the conscierge at the time of reservation, not really an appropriate place for a tip. :) The next shuttle would have been available after an hour; I did not have time for that and did not feel like hauling all my luggage to the front desk and starting a fight over whose fault this was so I just ended up taking a taxi. Easy to do and no biggie since in Vegas the airport is so conveniently close to the city that there was no huge financial loss and I got there probably in about same time I would have with the shuttle. But in principle I was not happy. Silver card gave me access to the much shorter queue, a real relief. I got to check-in desk quite quickly actually and got my boarding pass... or so I thought at the time anyway. Then I headed for the departure lounge and eventually got in after the standard queueing for the security check -- this time around I did not look like a terrorist enough to warrant the extra inspection. I settled for a forties-imitative diner to have a quick breakfast. Nothing earthshattering but it filled my tummy. Eight bucks less hungry I moved my physical being to the gate to grab a few more pages of my book. Finally the boarding started and specific rows were asked to board first. To get my number, I took a look at my "boarding pass" and noticed that actually I did not have a boarding pass at all, just a waiting pass. The plane was overbooked. It would have been nice of the check-in guy to bother to mention that but no real damage was done since, after all, I did get aboard, some time after most everybody (not the very last one though). Vegas to DC was a four-hour flight. I had already become convinced that on US domestic routes anything else than roasted peanuts or mini-pretzels ever gets served, but this time they did pull a rabbit out of the hat and supplied passengers with something bearing a resemblance to bread. Not bad really. They even went several rounds with the drinks. -- After four hours in DC, same rumba -- asking for volunteers and so on. Unfortunately this time there was one too few and I, being the last to check in (why couldn't they do that in Vegas??), was ordered to take a later flight. So I chose to stay the night in Dulles instead of taking a later flight via London. In hindsight that may have been a wrong decision since Dulles proved out to be so far from the US capital that it would have taken either a $60..70 cab or 2 hours of shuttle-bus-metro, either of which did not feel suitable so I ended up taking a leisurely evening at the Holiday inn, sauna, dinner and an early night. The sauna was one of the funniest I ever saw -- a unisex ("..please wear proper attire..") sweat lodge located in a carpeted(!) corridor between the male and female dressing rooms, with a door so narrow that the average American (apologies...) would have trouble slipping through that. No way to cast water onto the stove either (though that may be a cultural difference -- but no löyly is quite boring). A real Finnish Helo stove though. :)
SaturdayIn the morning I could have used something to do but even the closest mall was a bit too far so after an exaggerated breakfast I ended up attacking the unfinished music folder I had with me in my carry-on baggage (the rest was in Finland by now... but I got an overnight package from SAS with a mini shaving foam, mini deo,.. the T shirt was of normal size though, I believe). I even managed to negotiate a late check-out in order to not spend so much time at the airport. Time to get to the shuttle to the airport. For some reason the twice-an-hour shuttle decided to skip the 3 pm which I was planning to take. Well, no hurry, I would have plenty of time anyway. The next one did happen although that had to be verified. At the check-in, to my amazement, I'm told they are already boarding the plane, what the ****? Nobody remembered to tell me that the same flight is departing an hour earlier today because Europe is going to daylight saving time whereas the US will do that a week after. Brilliant! Anyway, this time the security did not choose me as a special terrorist candidate so I escaped the thorough investigation, got to the gate in reasonable time and wasn't even the last one to board the funny gate vehicle that took us to the plane.
Sundayungodly queue in Cph |
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