3rd Leg — Amsterdam to Copenhagen
Clouds are pretty. They look more exotic when one is over a different part of the globe. If I were a pilot, I would be soooooo tempted to bob and weave through the tallest puffy ones as I flew. (”Attention, passengers. We’re flying at an altitude of— WHOA! There’s a good one.”) I took a balloon ride once. It was amazing how quiet everything was, despite the height. You could hear people talking from a vertical distance in the same way you could from a horizontal one. I kept thinking of Superman floating up above the clouds, soaking in the rays with his eyes closed, trying to listen for trouble. I wonder if he even needed the super hearing to do so.
The power outlet proved to be a bust. There was one, but it didn’t actually have any juice. Just as well. I remember why I hate air travel (well, one of the reasons): the cramped seats. The Amtrak train ride I took a couple weeks ago was by far the most comfortable public transportation I’ve ever had. Plenty of leg room and a feeling like I’m sitting on a cushy chair instead of a folding one. I mostly read my own paper (again) and took more notes. There was a nifty on-demand in-flight movie system, but I declined the headphones to force myself to work a bit on the presentation. Not having a computer hampered the actual power pointing, but I feel like I know pretty much what I should say.
One of the few perks of being a vegetarian showed up on the flight. Northwest surprised me by handing me my veggie dinner before anyone else. Logically, this was to make sure I got one and didn’t have to eat around the chicken (ahem, Informatics graduation dinner), but I pretended I was special. I was done with my yummy rice thingy before the actual chickens made it to my seat. Unfortunately, they didn’t clear my tray for quite a while, so I had to pull out a small book to read.
I managed to sleep a little on the plane. Time is all goofy for me (it being 8:16a to my eyes, but 2:16a to my computer), but it felt like the I-can’t-stay-awake wave of fatigue that hits me about 11p every night now. I leaned into the window in an uncomfortable way and got through the second half of the Atlantic crossing in some unconscious state. Some big turbulence shook me awake with about 2:30 to go in the flight, and an early-arriving veggie breakfast did the same about an hour later. Still, I feel rested and rarin’ to go to Copenhagen. In two more hours.
The Boingo 24-hour internet access I bought for $7 in Chicago didn’t have quite the punch I was hoping for. While this ATTINGO network here in Amsterdam does recognize Boingo, apparently all I got was 24 hours of U.S. and Canadian internet. The rest of the world cost me another 10 Euro (whatever the hell that means), but I figured it was worth it. I’m second-guessing that again, though, given that my laptop is showing 59 minutes left on the battery. I bet they have the weird plugs here, too.
One more death-defying trip into the air coming up. …