Stockholm

Day 5: Stockholm Sightseeing: Today an orientation tour including the Royal Palace and Old Town. In your free time you can visit the 17th Century warship ‘The Vasa'. Tonight why not explore the cobbled streets and sample the local fare? (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Angby Camping
Breakfast: 8:00 Bus departs: 8:30

I was up this morning at 6:15 for my shower, and it worked out perfectly because I took the last empty shower stall, and when I got out a line had formed for the showers. It was interesting taking a shower where you had to pay, especially since the coin slot was outside the shower and you only got 5 minutes. At 7:30 I reported to the cook tent to help with breakfast, although I did a couple things to help out, for the most part I felt like I was in the way. At 8:30 we headed into Stockholm and at 9:00 we did a tour of Stockholm's City Hall. When we first entered the building I dropped my camera, but I wasn't too concerned since I had dropped it before and never had a problem with it, this would actually be a problem later in the day. The building was very interesting, designed to look much older then it is, it hosts the Nobel Prize banquet in the Blue Room. Much thought was put into the design, like the designer having his wife walk up and down several different sets of steps in a gown, to see which was the easiest to walk up and down.

After the town hall we were dropped off at the Royal Palace. It was a cold day with rain off and on all day. Che had spoken to the Tour Manager from the tour ahead of us, the Wind-chill was -24° Celsius in Helsinki. In Stockholm the temperature was around 8-12° Celsius, with a wind that cut right through you. Oh dear, we had to still go a great deal more North.

When we were dropped off at the Royal Palace some people got pictures with the guard from the palace, including some rude Germany woman who would not stand the couple feet or so that you had to stand away from him. She would inch in and he would yell at her, she seemed to be laughing at the whole thing. It was very disrespectful, the classic obnoxious tourist, at least she wasn't American. Anyway, from the Royal Palace I went with Marie, Kieran, Patrick, Kevin and Rob to the Nobel Museum, but first we had to find it. After studying the map a few minutes we discovered that it was pretty much right in front of us, we just couldn't find the entrance. We found the sign for the museum, took pictures with it, walked around a bit and and still couldn't find the entrance. Of course if anyone had paid attention to the sign, it had an arrow pointing in the correct direction, though it was a small arrow. We eventually did find the entrance, and got in a few minutes before a guided tour was starting. After a little while I started to not feel so good, and had to find a chair to sit in. Not sure what came over me, but after a few minutes I started to feel better, and I never felt bad again. It was a little freaky though feeling that ill while I was so far from home and my couch. I guess maybe my cold was starting to drain me.

We tried to see the changing of the guard at noon, but it was pouring rain and you could barely see anything because of the crowd. We decided to skip it and had lunch instead. At 2:00 we met back at the Royal Palace for a ride over to the Vasa Museum.

At the Vasa Museum I saved 40 SKr using my International Student ID Card, Yea! Once inside I tried to take a picture of the ship, but couldn't get my manual settings to work - I tried every which way I could think of, but they didn't work (insert bad word here) I must have broken it when I dropped it at the town hall (insert more bad words here)! Well I wandered around taking some bad pictures of the ship and then went to the movie on the ship. Too bad it was the Swedish version, it had subtitles, but I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to read them. At least I got a nap in and those who stayed awake gave me the short story when it was over. But the ship was quite large and from the looks of it I'm not terribly surprised that it sunk, it just didn't look right. It didn't look proportional. I was surprised at how many people were at the museum, it was packed! But I got myself a pin of the ship at the gift shop and met the bus at 4pm for a ride back to central station.

A bunch of us decided to go to the Absolute Ice Bar, one of the things on my to do list. Che had tried to get a reservation for us, but couldn't so we had to organize it on our own. When we got there they had a couple slots open to take the last 20 minutes of the current session, but we would have to pay the whole amount, and there weren't enough spots for all of us. In the end a couple of us went in, and then other people left the bar and the rest of the group that wanted to go, got in. It was a neat experience having a drink from an ice glass and hanging out in the silver coats they give you. It was worth the exorbitant amount they charged you, 105 SKr for non-alcoholic drinks and 150 for an alcoholic drink. But we all had fun together picking drinks and taking pictures, the bartender finally had to leave the bar in an effort to get us out of there since our time had expired.

Then it was time for some shopping. We stopped at the System Bologet (alcohol store), and I got 4 bottles of Smirnoff Ice. Then we hit the tacky souvenir stores. I got my one nephew a Swedish Flag Viking hat that I knew he would love. Then we almost had to run to meet the bus at 7:00 for our optional dinner at the Fenix Bar. I probably would have been better off missing the bus though, the dinner wasn't very good.

Our dinner consisted of several types of Herring (they all looked gross), pork Swedish meatballs, potatoes, and mouse. For dessert we had canned fruit salad. Needless to say I didn't each much, and simply consider it to be a cultural experience. I sat with Ben, Stefan, James and Tom. The evening turned into spin the bottle/truth or dare. After a few rounds of getting lucky I decided it was time to bow out gracefully before I started losing, but not before learning a bit about Tom and James. I went to another table to hang out till it was time to leave at 10 to head back to the campsite.

Back at the campsite "club 10" was hoping. Club 10 was cabin #10 where the party was the last 2 nights. I didn't stay up too late but I heard a bunch of people were hanging out with the Top Deck people. I think it was Dion who woke up in the middle of the night with a naked man (aside from the socks he was wearing) in his room, it took a couple minutes but he finally got the guy to leave. When Dion got up in the morning his socks were missing. The naked guy must have taken them, we had a good laugh at that.

Anyway, Stockholm is a nice city, though I didn't get the full feel for it since it had rained so much, I think I might have loved the city if we had nicer weather and actually got to see more of it instead of hiding from the rain.

The Airport is a pain in the ....

On January 1 I traveled out of New York's LaGuardia Airport. I found no difference in security from any of the other times I've flown from any airport. Just the typical take your shoes off and put your bag through the x-ray machine. I thought I might get a little bit of attention since I was flying on a one-way ticket without luggage (I just had a book bag size backpack), but no.

The rest of my experience at the airport was really aggravating! I arrived at the airport 2 hours and 20 minutes before my flight. Inside the terminal the flight departure signs only showed flights for the next hour and a half so I couldn't figure out the gate of my flight. I figured there was one security check point and that I would go through that and by then maybe my flight would be posted on a screen in the gate area. However, each of the concourses had their own security check point so I had to ask a TSA agent, he was pretty sure that my flight was out of gate B5. I walked around a bit and then went through security. Once through security there were NO signs listing the departing flights except for one at the end of the concourse from an individual airline, which wasn't Spirits. To further confuse me Spirits one desk was at gate B6 and that only listed 2 different Ft. Lauderdale flights that were delayed. I would have asked at the desk except that there was already a line of unhappy people and no one staffing the desk. On top of that the gate was in a crammed little corner and was full of people. I opted to walk around a bit more, and get some food. I asked a TSA agent who was inside the concourse if he knew anything, but he didn't and his most helpful advice was that I could go out to the main desk but that I probably didn't want to do that since I would have to go back through security. I decided that I would go find a seat to put my stuff down and try calling Spirit. Spirit's phone support didn't know the gate either and it was now a little over an hour before my flight.

My flight was boarding at 10:55 so at 10:50 I got up and went to gate B6 which now posted my flight, I went to the bathroom (these were poorly marked in the terminal to add to the experience) and went to board the flight. Since all I had was a backpack and I knew I was at the back of the plane I figured I would just board late so I didn't have to fight for a spot on line and sit on the plane forever. I figured maybe I would find a free seat in the plane that I could take instead of the one I was assigned. However, there was a lot of confusion with the boarding. The Ft. Lauderdale flight was leaving a half hour after mine so many people thought the line was for that flight and the announcements weren't very loud, you could barely hear them at the back of the line, adding to the confusion.

Spirit started with boarding the first class passengers and those who required assistance. Then they called some more people, though I don't think it was a group, it seemed like it was more rows in the front of the plane. Not that it mattered because the area by the gate was so crowded that you couldn't get through to the gate if you were called. Then the boarding seemed to have stopped. Then a cop went by, the rest of us got nervous then... Then a stretcher went by, not good. But the roomers were that there was a sick passenger. After 5-10 minutes they finally started re-boarding the plane. They never made another announcement and as the line got shorter people were being turned back at the gate because they were on the Ft. Lauderdale flight .

Once on the plane I found my seat 2 rows from the back, I found the seats to be really tight, when I was slouching in the seat my knees were touching the seat in front of me, and I'm short. But the flight attendant moved me up a couple rows so I could have an aisle seat with no one next to me. That was the highlight of the trip! Spirit charges for food and drink on the plane and the flight attendants weren't very aggressive about selling. I must have missed my opportunity and even my wallet and credit card sitting on my tray table didn't tip them off. Good thing it was a short flight and I wasn't hungry.

My flight only got in about 5-10 minutes late and my whole family - Mom, Dad, sister, brother-in-law and 2 nephews - came to pick me up.

Bottom line on Spirit Airways... I wouldn't rule them out, but it's not the first airline I'll look at either. They were fine for the price, but I'm not sure I would want a 4 hour flight with them where I would be more tempted to check a bag (fee), get myself an assigned seat (fee) and eat and drink (fee for a poor selection).

Copenhagen to Stockholm

Day 4: Copenhagen to Stockholm: After a short ferry crossing, we arrive in Sweden and head north to Stockholm, Sweden's capital city. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Angby Camping

Bags to the bus: 7:15, Breakfast: 7:30, Bus departs: 8:00

I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't fall back asleep so at 6:00 I got up and took a shower. The bus left at 8 for Stockholm, I was sitting with Cathy today, who I had not yet met. One of the things I like about Contiki is getting to know new people from different places. I try to change who I sit with a lot as it helps to develop relationships.

Che introduced us to what would be our day song, Hard Rock Hallelujah by Lordi, which had just won Eurovision. Although we think he chose the song beforehand he did try to imply that the idea came from a conversation some people had at breakfast about the Eurovision contest. Most people did not like this song, though it seemed to grow on most people by the end. He also explained a bit about the trip, that we're all on two different tours. One, Scandinavia, does just the Scandinavian portion of the trip and returns to Copenhagen after Helsinki. The other tour, Scandinavia and Russia, goes on to Russia after Helsinki. Those going to Russia (me) would get a new Tour Manager and Driver in Helsinki, along with a new bunch of people who are doing just the Russian portion of the tour. On this tour there were 19 people doing just Scandinavia and another 19 doing just Russia, the other 27 (minus 1 since apparently someone left for a "family emergency" from Copenhagen, we think he was really just not into roughing it on this tour) of us were doing both portions of the tour.

After an hour or so we were on a ferry to Sweden. From the ferry you could take pictures of Korberg Palace, which was used in the movie Hamlet. Because of a line for the bathroom when the ferry was almost docked I almost missed the bus. Karl did, but he walked off and was able to get back on the bus. Apparently once they wave on the bus the bus can't stay any longer. After the ferry Dion explained to us about the different jobs on the tour and other cooking related things. The options were cooky, dishy, aqua girl, aqua boy, coach packer or tent erector. I decided to be a cooky, so I would help Dion with cooking meals. After that Che went over the list of optionals for the Scandinavian portion of the trip, I decided to do all but the all you can eat pizza and 10 pin bowling, I would later change my mind and do this optional.

At 12:30 we had our first service stop for 1 hour. It was at a mall and it was recommended that we get something at the grocery store. The mall was insanely busy and the grocery store was HUGE and they sold not only food, but clothing, lumber and everything in between. I ended up splitting a package of rolls with Lis, Jilly and someone else (maybe Nancy) and got some Turkey (that's what a stranger in the store told us it was), apples, bananas and apple juice. I ate my lunch on the bus, which wasn't the most convenient thing to do, I would have to do my shopping quicker next time.

At 4:10 we had a 20 minute stop and then finished our drive to our Stockholm campsite, arriving just after 6:00. The Top Deck bus we saw in Copenhagen was also staying at this campsite, and was right behind us pulling in. This evening I would be sharing a cabin with Leah D., and Cathy. The three of us would also be cookys with Kirsteen and Patrick. After putting our stuff down Leah D and I went to the shop on the campsite to get our shower tokens (you had to buy shower tokens to work the showers). Since the tokens only lasted 5 minutes we decided to get two for each day. Then it was off to help cook.

Dion had us make a salad, cut some veggies and make chocolate mouse (dessert). While preparing dinner the Tour Manager from the Top Deck tour came over and chatted with us, she seemed to have a lot of spunk. We found out that they only had 14 people on their bus and that they had an extra day in Stockholm, but were staying at the same campsite as us in Oslo. Then we served dinner, spaghetti. It wasn't mom's sauce, but it was ok. Poor Ralph sat on the fence to eat his dinner, and the fence broke making him spill his dinner on the ground. After dinner I ended up chatting with people at the campsite, and finally made it to my cabin to find Cathy and Skye talking, I joined them and didn't get to bed till midnight. I had hoped to go to bed a bit earlier since I felt a cold coming on, but I had a nice time talking to everyone, sleep could wait till I got home. So far the group seemed pretty tight, which was really nice.

Book Review - One Year Off

I recently finished the book One Year Off - Leaving It All Behind for a Round-the-World Journey with Our Children by David Elliot Cohen, I really enjoyed this book.

David and Devi took their 3 children (9, 7, and 2 - I think) on the road for 13 months. I liked David's writing style, it felt very intimate, I felt invited into their family. The book is a series of emails sent by David to family and friends, which would explain the honest and intimate feel of the book. The writing immediately caught my attention and I was quickly drawn in by the book.

One example of the honesty of the book and the people is that David and Devi tried to home school their children, a common theme for families that take an extended trip. I'm not a fan of home schooling (aside from the whole pulling your kids out of school for a year then you obviously have to do something). It seems like many families who take extended trips around the world were at least considering switching to home schooling if they weren't doing it already, so home schooling wasn't a jump for them. David and Devi are not that type of family, they tried and failed at home schooling and put the kids into school in Austarlia for 4 months as their education. It's honest and human, and they found a solution to the problem for thier family.

What did I learn?
France is not a good place to take children. Sardinia is a good place to take children. African safari's are good for children but not 2 year olds. Take the babysitter, they help manage the kids and allow you to have an occasional dinner without the kids.

What was missing from the book?
I would have liked a little more information on the families re-entry into "normal" life.

Copenhagen

Day 3: Copenhagen Sightseeing: Our sightseeing tour includes Copenhagen's famous sights like the Geffion Fountain, the Royal Palace and the Little Mermaid. Perhaps a visit to the Carlsberg Brewery this morning. (Breakfast is included)

Hotel: Belaegningen Youth Hostel

Breakfast: 8:00, Bus departs: 8:30

I woke up very early this morning, 6:30, and decided I should take a shower as there were only 2 showers for all the girls in the building (the hostel had us spread out into 3 different buildings). At 8:30 we left for the city and started with a driving tour of the city to orient ourselves. The city seemed much nicer this morning, between the sun shining and not being lost, I almost liked Copenhagen. On the driving tour we were shown Tivoli, Christianborg Palace, the National Museum, Radhuspladsen, Nyhaven, Amalienborg Palace (photo stop), Rosenborg Palace, Geffion Fountain (photo stop), the Little Mermaid (photo stop) and had a drop off at Tivoli for those who were not going on the tour of Carlsberg Brewery. I was excited to see the Little Mermaid, but not nearly as excited as Jilly, it was like a pilgrimage to her, and that made it even more exciting.

We had an 11:00 reservation for Carlsberg Brewery, and did the self guided tour. I don't think I learned much about making beer, but the tour included 2 free beers, which made it a good deal. First I had a Semper Ardens Abbey Ale, which was awful, and decided to cut my losses and get a Fanta after that. Though I did try someone's Winter Something, which was a little better, but I really just don't like beer and a tour of Carlsberg Brewery wasn't going to change that. We left a little before 1:00 and were dropped off at Tivoli for our free day.

A bunch of us headed over to the Church of Our Savior (AKA the inside out church) for a view of the city. On my last tour I missed one or two sites with views of the cities and I regretted it, I didn't want to make the same mistake again. Che warned us that it might be closed, but fortunately for us it was open. The stairs up were rough, all those days I spent on the stair master didn't seem to make it any easier, but the view was great and worth the stairs. Right after leaving it started to rain, and where do you think my umbrella was? At the hostel, so I ended up spending 40 Dkr on an umbrella. But I did trade the umbrella with Kevin for most of a danish, cutting some of my loss. Eventually we found a place to eat lunch - McDonalds, it was raining on and off and it was quick and easy. Leah D. was confused when she ordered the cheeseburger meal and it came with 2 cheeseburgers, instead of one. Apparently in Australia a cheeseburger meal only comes with 1 cheeseburger, well I saved her by buying one of the cheeseburgers off of her. But I was apparently the only person in our little group that was used to getting 2 cheeseburgers with there cheeseburger meal, see McDonalds can be a cultural experience!

After eating lunch we headed down Stroget for shopping, then to Nyhaven and back to Magasin (department store) to look at the legos, they apparently have the largest collection of legos in Copenhagen outside of Lego Land - I expected it to be a bigger collection. I bought a lego police man to add to my collection, one more thing to check off my list of things to get/do. In Magasin we found a little Hans Christian Andersen museum where we watched a little video about his life. Then it was time to head to the all you can eat pizza place most people were meeting at at 6pm. For 66 Dkr you got all you can eat pizza and salad. Then we went to an Australian bar to kill time until our 8:30 pick up. Unfortunately we never made it to Tivoli, since it rained on and off all day, and it was a bit pricey to enter Tivoli (and more to go on a ride) it didn't seem to be worth it. We had a good time at the bar, and I got to know people a bit better, so far everyone seemed cool and the group was starting to gel.

We were picked up at Tivoli at 8:30 and were back at the hostel by 8:50. I hung out in the hallway for a bit talking to Samar, Danny, and Skye, then met Karl in the TV room for a glass of wine. On the way back to my room I got on the internet for a bit, so I could let everyone know that all was well and finally got to bed at 11. Overall Copenhagen wasn't as bad as I thought it was the first day, but for some reason I still didn't love Copenhagen, something about it just didn't grab me.

My neat orderly world

Right now I'm reading the book One Year Off, a review will come shortly. I was reading the part about Rome and how the hotel keeper was letting them park thier van in front of the hotel for the night. What surprised me was, who is the hotel keeper to say they can park on the street? Where are the police? If you let people park wherever they want and let the hotel keepers manage the parking there will be chaos!

I've been to Rome (Egypt and Russia too) and it seems people park wherever they want. All of a sudden it hit me that maybe the Romans are right and the NYers are the crazy ones. We have "organized" parking, 80 street signs for one block. Everyone's paranoid about where you can park and for how long. Parking is stressful in NYC and expensive if you misread the sign. And then you get the people who live there who decide they don't want "x" vehicle in front of their building and lobby to change the parking rules. You can't win in NYC, it's a horror show. We've made it nearly impossible to have a car in NYC, and in some ways it's a good thing. But, for people who need to park it's a nightmare. But not labor the point of parking in large cities my point is that we do so many things to make things orderly that we make them un-orderly. We have a nice orderly system, but it's got a million holes in it that it's hard to call it a system, the same could be said for taxes and medical insurance and everything else we do to make life orderly. The chaos is astounding!

My experiences traveling have made me so much more aware of the chaos we create by trying to make things simple, and fair. Would the world be a better place if we let the guy who owns the business decide who can park in the spot in front of the business? Maybe or maybe not, but it would be a lot easier to determine where you could park, just ask the guy inside...

Scandi and Russia - Getting to Copenhagen

Here is the start of my travelogue for my Scandi and Russia tour. I will try to sprinkle in some posts about other stuff since this was a 33 day trip.


Day 1: Depart the Europe. This evening I depart from JFK airport at 8:30pm on a British Airways flight bound for London, England.

I did some last minute packing today (well most of my packing), found out I had too much stuff and had to dump some of it, who needs jeans anyway?

I got to the airport early, and everything ran smoothly, so I ended up sitting around for a while waiting for the flight. On the flight I end up sitting next to a little bit of a strange guy... at one point I hit the button on the screen, and he opened my tray table for me. I still don't get it, but he must of thought I didn't know how to open the tray table. He also seemed to have missed the airplane etiquette lesson, he was leaning onto me to look out the window when we were landing. Otherwise the flight was fine. I watched Casanova and some of Walk the Line, got about 3 hours of sleep and got to eat my dinner and breakfast, which were pretty good.

Day 2: Arrive Copenhagen: After checking into your youth hotel, the remainder of the day is at leisure. Join your Tour Manager and fellow travelers for an important meeting at 6pm followed by an included dinner. (Dinner included)
Hotel: Belaegningen Youth Hostel

The plane landed in London around 8:25am (local time) and then I walked for what felt like forever to my connecting flight to Copenhagen at 9:55am. This flight had no entertainment and the lunch they served wasn't very good, so I only ate the fruit. I managed to doze off for most of this flight, which was good since there wasn't anything else to do and I needed sleep if I was going to make it through the day. When I got off the plane I got my passport stamped (yea!) and was on my way. I followed the directions I had, which were NOT to the hostel. I had to ask a random person on the street how to get where I was supposed to be. Fortunately, English is widely spoken in Copenhagen and I was sent to a bus that would take me to Central Station, naturally it started raining once I realized I was lost. I wanted to sit on my suitcase and cry at my predicament, but realized that wasn't going to get my anywhere. At Central Station I decided I had had enough with finding my way around on mass transit and took a cab. I finally got to the hostel at 3:45 and was the first one to check into my room. The hostel seemed nice enough, with 2 bunk beds, but only 2 showers for the girls in the building, the mornings would be interesting.

After settling in I headed over to the TV room and found a bunch of people from the tour. I introduced myself and was promptly asked how old I was, and was asked if I was from America, it was a little bit of a strange introduction to the group. I grabbed a chair, had a seat and everyone else introduced themselves. At the time I don't think I really retained anyone's names, but I now know I met Chris, Jacqui, Ben, Lis, Jilly, Nancy, Renae, Ted, and a couple of other people. Most people were from Australia, a couple from Canada, one from South Africa and they thought there was another American. I would have preferred more Americans, but you can't have it all.

After a little while I headed back to my room to get myself together for our 6:00 meeting and dinner. At my room I met my roomies, Kellie, Wendy and Stephanie. At the meeting Che introduced himself, Andy (the driver) and Dion (our Super Cook), and took us over to dinner - Tacos. After dinner we had a pre-tour meeting. Che told us that it was different up here (Scandinavia), and the function of the tour manager was more organizational. He also told us that it would get colder, that there was usually hot water, and after we visit the cities we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, he didn't really paint the nicest picture, but it wasn't anything I wasn't expecting. Then he collected our information and sent us on our way. Some of us hung out for a bit getting to know each other, then I sent a quick email home and was in bed a little after 10.

Hofbrauhaus

I've actually been to 3 Hofbrauhauses - Munich, Las Vegas and Pittsburgh. They're all a little different, though I've had very different experiences at each. Munich is my favorite.

How can you not love the Hofbrauhaus in Munich? The place has real live German's in it, what's not to like? But I also like that the place is hundreds of years old and although it attracts lots of tourists, it's still a place that locals go to. I'm sure the Hofbrauhaus people hate this, but I also like the painted ceilings. In the 1930's when the Nazi's were coming and in power they often used the Hofbrauhaus and they painted the ceilings with swastikas. After the war they tried to paint over them, but the red kept bleeding through. They ended up painting designs around them. What I like about this is that it's there if you look, but it's not so apparent that you feel its presence when you're there. The ceiling was recreated at the Las Vegas restaurant, but not at the one in Pittsburgh, which was a disappointment to me. But in Munich, the food was good, the beer was good and the atmosphere fun and energetic.

I've been to the Las Vegas restaurant twice, but I've always gone for lunch with my family. It's not terribly lively there at lunch time, but it's a good place for a big group. The food is good, but I LOVE the pretzels there. I guess I should get my butt there one day for dinner. My brother-in-law who is more of a foody then I am and has been there more recently didn't seem terribly impressed with the food the last time he was there.

Pittsburgh, I've only been there once but enjoyed it. It's a large restaurant and it has a quiet room incase you want the food and not the band. It also has a patio/beirgarten, there was a gravely flooring here so leave the cute heels at home. I thougth the food was good not great, but the band was good. The pretzels were not the same as the ones in Las Vegas or Munich and weren't as good. My biggest disappointment was in the design. From the outside it has the HB look, but inside it doesn't have the contoured ceilings or the designs on them. It felt like they cut a lot of corner and made it more like a "Western" beer hall instead of it's older German sister.

New security at airports?

After yesterdays terrorist attack I find a couple things interesting. Last night the TSA wait time calculator was down, I doubt that was a coincidence. And now the new security, what type? If it's just more vigilance, ok I'll buy that. But if it's just annoying passengers looking for something that they don't actually know what they are looking for, then you're wasting everyones time.

My guess is that in the next 48 hours there will be some new restriction that will keep you from bringing something on the plane. And this will just add to the issue of paying to check your bags, with more things prohibited it will just add more confusion to security checks and force more people to pay to check luggage. Ahh, the joy of air travel...

Will any of this make us safer? I doubt it, there were a lot of holes that allowed this attack to happen and banning liquids and whatever the next thing is isn't going to prevent someone with a creative mind and free time to come up with a new way to take a plane down.

Christmas in Paris

I've always wanted to spend Christmas in Paris. I don't actually know anything about Paris at Christmas time, but I hear it's a nice time to be there.

I walk down the Champs Elysees and look at the decorated windows with light snow falling. Bundled up in a wool winter coat with a hat, scarf and gloves, a light layer of snow on me. I can hear the snow crunch with each step. It's quiet and peaceful as I take in the festive atmosphere.

I go to mass at Notre Dame and light a candle for those less fortunate. I always enjoy when the Choir sings traditional Christmas songs, I enjoy it even more in French.

Ice skating at the Eiffel Tower in the evening with that magical view of Paris, the City of Lights. Christmas music playing in the background. On my way back home my nose leads me to a street cart where I buy chestnuts that have been roasting, just waiting for me.


Until I can get there and live out my image I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Myrlte Beach, South Carolina

I am going to Myrtle Beach in January for my nephew's football game. I'm only going to be there a day and a half, I hope it's enough time to get an idea of what is going on there. From the little bit of research I did online it sounds similar to Pigeon Forge, TN so this will be extra interesting to me.

I'm flying down on Spirit Air, the airline looks ok but the only reason I chose it was because it was the only airline that flew there non-stop. Otherwise I was a little turned off by the budgetness of them and all the fees they charge. But I'll be sending my computer and clothing down with my family who is driving down. Then I will be driving back with them. I can take pretty much any airline for a 2 hour flight, even if I end up in a middle seat because I refuse to pay to pre-book my seat.

Why I don't like paying to check luggage at the airport

On This Week in Travel the panel discussed paying to check bags at the airport. I think I've addressed this topic before, but I feel compelled to do it again.

Aside from not wanting to pay additional to check luggage because I don't want to pay the money, I think it's a bad policy for airlines.

1. I wasn't really tricked with your cheaper airfare cost, I add it into what the flight will cost anyway. And I'll pick the airline that isn't going to charge me additional to check my luggage even if it will cost a little more, I think that airline is treating me better as a customer.

2. Now everyone is bring luggage on the plane - it slows down boarding and de-boarding. Makes the plane more crammed with stuff that should have been checked. If I have a large carry-on it's because I have a computer and camera equipment I am not checking them and if I'm forced to because no one else wants to pay the fee to check their underwear (which I can understand) then there will be a nasty letter coming your way and possibly a loss of business from me forever.

3. People become much more crazed over boarding the plane. People were in a rush to board the plane before, now that they have to fight for overhead bin space they're even worse. It makes boarding even slower and more stressful and that atmosphere continues into the flight.

4. What about families? When there is one person traveling $15 or $25 each way doesn't seem so bad, but if you're a family of 4 or more those fees could pay for your hotel room for a night or 2, that makes a big difference.

5. When I go on vacation I like to know that certain things are paid for before I leave and I wont be paying for them when I get back from vacation, airline stuff is one of those things.

Airlines charging fees to check my bags is not going to be a final determinant of who I fly with, but I absolutely take it into consideration. If I think I can manage with a carry-on then it's not as much of a factor. But if I can get a non-stop flight without a check bag fee for a little bit more then I would be paying on another airline including the check bag fee then I will pick the one that isn't charging the fee. I like knowing that I have rewarded an airline for not adding fees (even if they don't know that I'm rewarding them, I know I am). I don't know what the price point is, it may depend on the airline, flight times, destination, or airport options.

Berlin World Cup

When I went to Scandinavia and Russia in May/June of 2006 I didn't realize it, but I ended up in Berlin during World Cup, it was a great time to go and until I can return to Berlin I'll always wonder if the city was great of if the World Cup was great - I suspect a little bit of both.

We got into the city on the day of a Germany game, as the game was ending. I'm not a soccer fan, but WOW, the city was electric! After checking into our Hostel we were taken to the area of the fan mile and I went to a nice dinner with a group of about 10 people. After dinner a bunch of us went to the fan mile. It was an absolute mad house, mostly because a game had just ended and people were starting to leave. But I wanted in, as did a couple other people. Those of us who wanted to go to the fan mile walked single-file against a fence holding on to each other, so we wouldn't get separated. For some it was too much and they turned back. Once we got through the crowd we were rewarded! The outfits people were wearing were crazy, funny hats and wisgs with the German flag colors. Everyone was happy and jovial and drunk.

We ended up dancing, not something I normally do when I'm sober (I hadn't been drinking). At one point the song "Footballs Coming Home" came on. I had never heard the song before, but everyone else had and they were REALLY happy to hear it again. Everyone was dancing and jumping and screaming along with the song, it was a definite step up in the atmosphere. Now whenever I hear that song I remember that night, I even bought the live version because it reminded me of the atmosphere of the night, instead of the studio version. One of the girls I was with commented that I looked so happy that night, and I was, I was really into the environment and having so much fun there. I still don't like soccer, but I'm certainly interested in going to another World Cup or an Olympics or other like sport that will attract international visitors ready to have fun.

One of the funniest things to me that night was that I was wearing a shirt that said "Polska." I'm a proud American but that night everyone thought I was Polish and liked that, so I adopted Poland for the night.

This Week In Travel - Podcast review

About 17 weeks ago a new Podcast started, This Week In Travel. I think the Podcast is great. It's hosted by Gary Arndt with co-hosts Chris Christensen and Jen Leo and so far I think every episode has had a guest host. It's an interesting group with a variety of travel experiences. Each week they go over the major and not so major stories in travel. The group is entertaining and fun to listen to. They don't take things too seriously either.

I enjoy the podcast because now I feel like I'm up to date on what's going on in travel. I'm also exposed to a lot of different travel writers and their lives and perspectives on travel. It's opening new doors of places to travel to, blogs to visit, and twitterers to follow. But most of all, it's fun and lighthearted while still being educational!

Naughty Paris - A Lady's Guide to the Sexy City

This is a review of Naughty Paris - A Lady's Guide to the Sexy City by Heather Stimmler-Hall

This is not a traditional travel guide, it's a fun guide to Paris written by and for Ladies. I suppose guys might find it interesting too, but it's definitely a girly book. It made me feel sexy, do you need to know more?

It starts with a review of French Culture - men and women and how they relate and interact. They're apparently quite different from Americans. I really never thought about actually meeting a french man if I went to Paris, but after reading this it didn't seem to insane, nor did the cultural differences seem so intimidating. Sprinkled throughout the book is bits and pieces of french culture, the little things that we don't always think about but will make our interactions with the French more pleasant.

The book goes into hotels, and restaurants in the city. I don't know any of these places, but they seem to be a little more out of the box then what you would find in a traditional guide book.

The book also goes into where to shop (for a variety of less and more naughty stuff), shows to see, and clubs to go to. Heather pushes the edges of "normal" places to go including information on libertine clubs, but she does this without being raunchy or offensive.

This is not your traditional guide book, you're not going to find out the best door to go in at the Louvre. But it made me feel sexy. It made me want to go and skip the Louvre.