Just some thoughts and ideas going around in my head while trying to figure out where I am and where everyone else is going.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Inflight Entertainment

I was on a plane and I was bored with the movies and sleep doesn’t come easily any more, as my mother would say,” too much guilt.” Anyway as part of writing better resolution thing I took at the beginning of the year, I wrote this because there was nothing else to do…

There is something about travelling that I will never understand. Well actually I do understand but I just can’t accept it. Why is it that whenever I pack a bag, it never comes out right?

If you have ever seen the movie the Accidental Tourist there is part in the beginning where the protagonist tells the audience the art to travelling is to carry just one carry-on bag with the minimum of clothing. The best combination will be one jacket and two pants socks, shirts, socks, underwear and a good book or at least a large one that will tell people that you are busy and help keep them away from you.

I used to try that. In fact I was quite good at it. The last time that I went to London I had a small bag with just the right amount of clothing for long week-end. I laughed at my friend when we met at Heathrow We had departed the US from separate cities. He had with him a large almost steamer trunk like wheeled bag and a smaller one that hung from his shoulder. I asked him if he was the one who had actually decided to carry the kitchen sink with him. I hadn’t known at the time that he had decided to buy out half of London and then turn to my credit cards when he had run out on his.

The other thing that I didn’t know was that once I was back at Philadelphia I would be subjected to questioning by customs and immigration and then further questioning by customs and immigration once they took a look at my at my carry-on and told me that it was much too small an amount of luggage for someone to be travelling from Europe with and just what exactly had I been doing there, who with what and when. Of course he irritated me, but I tried not to show it which failed and we bothConstantine's Arch & Colloseum started circling each other as men often do when they want to show whose dick is bigger. When I told another friend what happened, he said that if it had been up to him he wouldn’t have let me back into the country.

So this time I’m heading to Rome for the weekend and I’m writing this on the flight and I’m wondering why is it that this time I have a bag that I thought that I would never be able to fill and yet it is? Why is it that I have so many more things with me than I need but I’m also starting to make a mental list of the things that I forgot to pack or didn’t even think about? I mean really, do I really need to travel with two cameras, lenses, this computer and an iPod. Well in all honesty I don’t go anywhere without the iPod, I’d rather lose a limb than that. And why is it that in a row of four seats in between the two aisles of the plane the woman next to me feels the need to spread herself out and takeover not just hers but both the of other unoccupied seats? Doesn’t she feel or think that I would like a little room too.

Maybe I should just get some sleep before I start to notice the difference between those passengers that are used to flying and those that aren’t. Like that man over in there diagonally across from me as he tries to curl forward on to some sort of flat pillow pressed against the TV screen in the back of the head rest in front of him. Poor fellow probably doesn’t realize that his seat can lean backwards and thus have less chance of a crick in the neck which he will have when he leaves this plane.

This has been more of a ramble than I thought it would have been. Oh well I’ll post this tomorrow when I arrive at the hotel I guess, unless I collapse from exhaustion.

14 comments:

  1. Traveling to Europe for the first time this summer, can't wait. Have a good trip!

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  2. Dusty Boot - Thanks, I already am.


    RunningMom - My trips are always fun, even if I do nothing. Just the whole idea of getting away from stuff for a while is always fun.

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  3. I gues paking light for a European vacation is a double edged sword. I, for one, never have been a light packer, but in recent years I have tried to pack in respect to the lenght of the vacation and it seemed to work well.

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  4. I hope to see lots of pictures.

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  5. Cincinnati NAMjA - I don't think you can ever pack too little when you are in Europe, because unless you are in the middle of the woods there is always something that you can wear that will make that moment, whatever that moment maybe, even more special.


    D - That has a familiar ring to it. I guess you wanted more than the 3 pictures that I took for this post. Maybe I'll do a post of just pictures before I leave, which is pretty soon.

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  6. I wanna go to Rome!

    Well maybe I'll go this summer... maybe!

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  7. fuzzy - If you go, go now while the prices are low, or wait until after labor day when it's still warm but most of the tourists have already left.

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  8. I've yet to go on a long-haul flight (NY and LA in summer of 2010, though! Woo!), so I can't relate too much to this, but I'm the typical "start-with-the-philosophy-of-packing-light-then-decide-to-take-the-entire-house-with-you" traveller. It's our preconditioned materialistinc minds. Ever since I got this new laptop I never let it out of my sight...

    Which leads me to another point: you're allowed to have electrical appliances while in flight?! WOW!

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  9. Sanya - As long as it doesn't look like it can do much harm, yes electronics are allowed even in the US as it starts more and more to look like Nuremberg during the 30's. Oh even though you may think LA is hot 24/7, it can get pretty cold at night because of the desert so my advice would be take all that you have, or at least a sweater or two.

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  10. LA does *NOT* get cold!!!!! (says the man who grew up in northeastern Canada....)

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  11. Have a great time in Rome. Oh the wonderful world of travelling; yes one can easily become suspect with to little luggage, it certainly rasies an eyebrow.

    The photos are so nice, it makes me want to visit Rome, but right now the prices for cruises have caught mt attention.

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  12. Fuck me!!! Seriously??
    I've always wanted to go to Italy.
    Actually I've always wanted to move there...
    Like Under the Tuscan Sun...

    Have more fun that possible.

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  13. Dusty Boot - I don't know why I didn't respond when I 1st saw your comment other than you said it all and i had nothing for you. I guess everything is relative to something else ice-man.


    Chet - Chet and the Love Boat, now that's money I'd pay to see.


    Blah Blah Blah - Under the Tuscan Sun, is that movie that came out last year or the year before? I didn't see it, but if it was about living outside of Rome where the pace is slower and easier and the emphasis on enjoying life rather than just constantly getting ahead, than I get it. That's because I did get it whenever I went outside of Rome.

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