i’m heading to north america tonight. i’ll be in canmore, alberta shooting xc skiing world cup races for a week, then home in grand marais for two weeks. 60+ inches of snowfall already this winter!? sweet.
i got the cheapest ticket home that we’ve seen yet. $1650. yeah, cheap is relative when it comes to travel to/from africa. but in this case you get what you pay for. i have a 12-hour layover in amsterdam and a 12-hour layover in jfk. making wheels-up in entebbe to wheels down at msp 44 hours. yummy.
it gets better, though. my flight leaves here at 10:55pm and considering i was up at 5am this morning to see paige off on her flight to arua, that’s 18 hours after i got up this morning. i land in msp at 10:15am and in the interest of getting adjusted to the time zone, it’s a good idea to not go to sleep until that evening. if i can make it to 8pm, that adds another 10 hours on that end of the trip. 18 + 44 + 10 = ouch. adding some perspective, this morning i got up at 8pm central time tuesday. if this trip goes as planned i won’t go to bed until 8pm central time friday.
i write in the hopes that when all is said and done i will have ended up crying wolf about all this and can get on one of the three direct ams to msp flights, making this the 21-hour trip that it usually is. fingers crossed…
i think we’ve written a bit on this blog on traveling here by plane. contrary to the above, getting here from minneapolis is a snap. two legs, both on airbus a330, seats are pretty new, lots of movie choices on the personal screen, three hours in schiphol airport gives you enough time to spend $10 on a coke and a bag of cashews, arrive at 8pm so you can go straight home and sleep. yeah, this doesn’t figure to be one of those times.
1 response so far ↓
1 Administrator // Jan 17, 2008 at 10:25 am
i guess i can’t change flights because i have checked luggage. is that always the case? how have i traveled (a lot) for the last 10+ years and i did not know that?
my favorite part about schiphol airport amsterdam is the almost minute-ly loudspeaker pages that end with, “…immediate boarding please. you are delaying the flight. we will proceed to offload your luggage.”
i checked my card reader, otherwise i would post some airport pictures. maybe this gives me an excuse to get a bluetooth card reader in the electronics shop?
smoking is prohibited here, which is new since i was here last october. so that’s a good thing. not even designated smoking lounges. they used to be able to smoke at these bar sort of things here, not even enclosed. what would two-packs-a-day-guy be like after 44 hours without a hit? i think he may commit an offense and tamper with the lavatory smoke detectors
i slept for much of the flight here after i watched superbad. hilarious. i like the guy that’s also in knocked up. seth rogen? i think that’s him. actually, he’s got a great track record of funny movies.
oh! my three flights are seats 11j, 11a, 11a. and you thought the title was just a bit of poetic license.
ok, out from AMS.
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