Sitting on the runway at Heathrow I had lots of time to think about travel. Mostly about how I can't believe I used to think flying was so fun and how I should always travel with relaxing herbal supplements. I was also thinking about how great Duty* Free shops are. Airports are a shopper's (or browser's) paradise- at least for a girl like me. There are stores full of sunglasses, watches, make-up, chocolate and perfume. Fortunately I can only buy so many bottles of perfume and I never quite feel like carrying much. Although on my way back to Cincinnati I'm contemplating buying a new watch.
When I arrived in Germany I found myself wanting to say "gracias" to everyone...When I went to Paris a few times I got used to saying "merci." Then I went to Spain twice and had to get out of that habit and switch to "gracias." Now that I was in Germany I had to switch to "danke." I remember when I went to Thailand I knew I wasn't supposed to be speaking English but at the beginning the first thing that popped into my head was Spanish. With all this traveling around it's hard to keep track!
Once I arrived at my hotel I was reminded of two questions I've had over my last few trips. First, why do no European hotels have wash cloths? Do people here not use them? Second, why do all hotels have crappy hair dryers? Usually they are just boxes on the wall with a plastic tube that gives off somewhat warm air with very little power. I've resorted to bringing my own because I can't rely on hotel hair dryers to dry my hair. I should really buy myself a travel size.
My last thought was that it's a fun surprise to get your hotel room upgraded. It's only happened to me twice and this time wasn't that big of a deal. I just got a slightly bigger room with better furniture (and a better hairdryer!) but it was still nice. It reminded me of when I went to Hong Kong I got upgraded to a great room for one night. It was on a floor that needed special key card access and it had an amazing view of Hong Kong Harbor! Now I just need to figure out how to get my flights upgraded.
Maybe I will think of some more mildly interesting observations on my way back to Cincy.
*duty...hehe... (just of the "Friends" episode where duty= doody)
Thursday, May 03, 2007
observations on travel
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2 comments:
If you want to get your flights upgraded, you have to play the airmile game. Example: with British Airways, I can upgrade a full fare economy ticket to Business Class using my airmiles.
My sister has had her flight upgraded to business class twice. It really was luck of the draw. The airlines just said that they overbooked all the economy seats and they chose her to sit in business. What luck! They were long-haul flights to (Tokyo to LA) so even better.
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