Arrived in Italy (and 200th post!)

Currently in Earphones: "There is a Time" by Solas


Hop, thump, skid, and bumped my way into Italy over the past few days. Highlights were realizing that each leg of my flights was on a different airline, and that if I wanted to check in online, I had to do it through each company's website independently. Which would have gone off without a hitch, had the lady who checked in my bag at SFO (at the United terminal) hadn't been insistent that my printed boarding pass for my second leg on Lufthansa "wasn't valid." Never mind that it said on the pass "You are checked in, use this bar-code as your boarding pass." So I didn't get the desired "wheels-up" effect of having all my worries fall away as soon as we left the tarmac until I reached Frankfurt, and the nice lady at the gate confirmed that yes, I had a valid boarding pass.

The 10 hour hop from SFO to Frankfurt wasn't too bad, though losing 8 hours was mighty annoying. Trying to get some sleep because your plane pre-empted what you normally think of sunset by such a wide margin didn't really work all that well for me. I dozed as much as I was able, but didn't actually get sleep. Just how long the flight was was driven home to me when I realized that they were showing not 2, not 3, but 4 movies back-to-back, and THEN at least an hour of TV programming. Food was a little better than the usual toned down meals they've been serving since the airlines have been in decline. Luckily no-one was sitting next to me, so I could stretch out more than usual. Other than that, the first leg was relatively uneventful.

The second leg, from Frankfurt to Bologna was notible for two reasons. The first, they gave us some crunchy chocolate as a snack, which I've never had on any airline before (well, barring the first time I was on Lufthansa). Secondly, I had a bit of a thrill when the stewardess first asked me if I wanted food/drink in German. It was diminished a bit when I found that she asked nearly everyone in German first (except for those reading Italian newspapers), but all the same, I felt the better for not being so obviously an american tourist.

And for those who want to know, the Bologna airport is kinda like a scaled down version of our own Oakland Airport. I didn't see any terminals that had planes come right up to them (we had a rolling staircase and a bus to take us in), but it wasn't just a "control tower and a wind-sock" affair either.

I spent most of my time stumbling through the streets of Bologna with Deepti in order to get back to her apartment (well, stumbling on my part), and I slept for a few hours at a time throughout the late afternoon. I feel a bit more refreshed this morning, and will be heading out shortly to acquire some groceries so that I don't starve when Deepti has class. Oh, and a toothbrush, which I managed to forget.


Enough, More Later.
- James