Friday, January 7, 2011

First day, part I

On the afternoon of January 6th, I hugged and kissed my mom and girlfriend goodbye and set off to the security checkpoint at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Thus began my odyssey. At least, I call it an odyssey. All told, I’ll have traveled more miles during this trip than Odysseus ever did. After a long line in security, I got to my gate right at 3:45PM, right on schedule. Unfortunately, however, the plane didn’t share my punctuality, as a late arrival from its previous destination delayed my departure to London by an hour. It didn’t really make a difference to me; I had a five-hour layover waiting for me in England anyway, so a small delay was nothing to worry about.

 I was excited about the flight, well, for a lot of reasons, but one of which was that I had never flown on a 747 before. To my more well-seasoned-traveler friends (Essra), this may seem silly. But after a few years of flights to and from Houston out of Lubbock on the tiny American Eagle or Continental Expressjets, a 747 is something to be excited about. The inside of the plane was smaller than I had imagined it would be; I had visions of a flying palace, beautiful winding staircase to the second floor and all. However, the seating arrangement and length appeared to be comparable to the 767 we flew on to Rome a few years ago. It was nice, however, to be able to stand up in the aisle and still have a foot or so of space between your head and the ceiling (anyone reading this who takes such a thing for granted needs to take a few trips on the aforementioned regional jets). I had paid the thirty dollars to select my seat beforehand. Yes, thirty bucks is a lot to pay for that privilege, but sitting in the middle seat in the middle row between two morbidly obese people for nine hours was not something I felt comfortable risking.
  
I sat down in my window seat just behind the wing next to a middle-aged woman and her seven or eight-year old daughter. She and her husband (seated behind us with another small child) were moving to Copenhagen from Houston. The two of them were from Denmark, but their kids had been born while they were in Texas for his job (a geophysicist for an oil company). He had taken a new job overseas so that his kids could have a Danish education. Given the state of the US education system, I could hardly blame them.

Immediately after take-off, drinks were served and the entertainment went online. British Airways (BA) has fantastic in-flight programming, including movies new and old, music, radio, television, and flight tracking options, all on-demand. I put on The Godfather, as I don’t recall ever sitting down and watching it end-to-end, just bits and pieces that taken together covered the whole movie. Shortly after I started the movie, I got a glass of red wine and some water. BA, it turns out, has free alcohol on international flights, something I thought had been discontinued. Dinner was served not long after, and, shockingly, it was actually pretty good. Prior to leaving the US, I had said several times that BA food was bound to be horrible, because British food is notoriously wretched and airplane food is never better than what you get on the ground. After the movie, I slept a few hours and looked out the window the rest of the time after that. The flight went by very quickly, despite being put into a holding pattern for half an hour outside of London and having that Danish woman’s toddler kicking my seat the entire time.

I got to London Heathrow about an hour behind schedule. After a lengthy bus ride to the proper terminal for my Madrid flight, I had to again go through security. The British are thorough when it comes to airport security. Thorough, and incredibly slow. The slowness comes in part from the fact that many of the security measures are implemented differently on random people, much in the same way that pat downs are randomly assigned in the US. For example, you do not have to remove your shoes unless asked. Despite being more convenient, this technique seems to slow down the process because each and every person must interact with the security agent at the front of the line, leading to a bottleneck effect. The slowness also stems in part from the fact that at any given moment, only some of the agents are actually doing their jobs. The rest are staring vacuously into space, texting on their cell phones, chatting with each other, etc. So, a medium-length security line that might’ve taken ten minutes to go through in the US took me more than thirty. Alas. Keep in mind, also, that this was a security checkpoint for connecting flights. People who have already gone through security at least once.

The London airport is huge and crowded. Its shopping area rivals the Houston Galleria for luxury brands; Cartier, Burberry, Chanel, Versace, Zegna, etc. have stores there. The first thing on my agenda was finding something to eat. I was looking forward to squeezing in a semi-authentic British meal during my short stay, and quickly found what appeared to be a traditional pub-type restaurant. I ordered the first thing on the menu (when in a foreign country, the top of the menu is your safest bet-- a travel tip I picked up from Houston Chronicle columnist Ken Hoffman) and a cup of tea. Ham, sausage, eggs and beans, with a mushroom about the diameter of a hockey puck. The ham and sausage weren’t bad, the eggs alright, and the beans were ketchupy and unappetizing. I didn’t touch the mushroom. Who the hell puts a plain mushroom in with breakfast? Oh, right. The British.


I’m about to board the flight for Madrid, so I’ve got to wrap this up. In short, British Airways is a fantastic airline. I’m going to try and start flying them to Lubbock from now on. London is foggy and British food is less than thrilling. Looking forward to better food and more sun in Spain.

3 comments:

  1. hahaha "and British food is less than thrilling" ... brilliant haha

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  2. I'm sorry you had a less than appetizing layover in London. Luckily I'm having a fantastic time here, which actually has some beautiful sunshine now and again. And YES, British Airways is awesome! Let me know when you have vacation in Spain, Ryan and I might try to make it down.

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  3. Katie! I'm glad to hear things are well in London. Absolutely let me know if y'all want to make a trip down here sometime! I have a break from March 31-April 4. Holy week is the week of the 15, and Seville's celebration is world famous. However, you'll probably have to pay more for airfare and will pay a lot more for a hotel. Same thing in May, the week of the 2nd. That's when Seville has a huge fair, which attracts millions of people from around Europe. One big party. But, again, it'll be much more expensive. Let me know!

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