Muse back!
July 28, 2008 / Monday
LED -> FRA -> SFO
Saturday night, I could not sleep. I was not one bit tired. My body was just buzzing with night before a big trip energy. (Yup, I was quite ready to go home.) I haven't really felt that since I was a kid; I remember I used to lie awake until the wee hours on nights before ski trips.
So, instead of sleeping, I picked up my phone every half hour to check the time. Between phone checks, my mind raced with all the non-English interactions I've had with various people while out and about these last two weeks. I could remember all of them in great detail. I guess it really was a great effort for me to try to communicate in Russian.
I'd set my alarm for 3:30 AM. I checked the time at 3:00, then at 3:10, and one last time at 3:20. Enough of this waste of rest. I got up, showered, ate, packed up the final few pieces, and met the driver downstairs a little after 4:00.
St. Petersburg Does Not Sleep
I was surprised to see a decent number of cars and pedestrians out and about at 4:15 AM. There were a good number of restaurants open, most of them with people inside. St. Petersburg at that hour is about as busy as San Francisco at 10:30 PM. How sad, San Francisco.
Pulkovo Airport
Pulkovo Airport, land of lines. I walked in, stood in a security line, got frisked, and proceeded to stand in a long check-in line. While in the long check-in line, I noticed that the airport is home to quite a few mosquitoes, some of them scarily large. I also noticed a lot of people getting their bags heavy duty saran wrapped. What's up with that?
There was a woman there with a money belt on... outside of all her clothing. Valuables protection fail!
I checked in and went to go wait in the passport control line. After that, another security line to get into the boarding area, which involved more scanning and frisking. The boarding area had less room than we had people, and there was much standing until we all stood in yet another long line to board the flight.
Picked up a USA Today on my way to the plane (Lufthansa provides a really nice assortment of international newspapers) and smiled when I stepped into the cabin. Home, soon! Yay!
We pushed off from the gate before our scheduled departure time. That's a first for me.
Hallo, Frankfurt!
Rolled into Frankfurt, stopped somewhere far from the terminal, and waited a while for the buses to come pick us up. The cabin smelled like body odor. That's one thing I'm not going to miss. Deodorant may not be natural, but it's great when you're in a small space with lots of people.
I'm not fond of this whole bus to and from the terminal thing at Frankfurt. German civil engineering fail. I'm surprised. Germans are supposed to engineer good stuff!
I remembered that there was a security checkpoint between terminals, and that they had ultra sensitive metal detectors. Getting through the checkpoint was a big pain on the trip out, so this time I emptied my pockets, took my mostly non-metallic watch off (to my surprise, it tripped the metal detector last time), and made it through beep-free. The security guy looked surprised and pleased that they could actually let someone through without frisking them.
I found myself wandering around Terminal A while waiting for my flight this time. It's much nicer than Terminal B (which was a dump, IMO), but has fewer food options. Good thing I'd eaten on the plane prior to my arrival.
I saw my first grossly overweight person in two weeks, a lady at the gate for the flight to San Francisco. She complained loudly in her American accent that she could not stand in the (five person long) line at the gate counter. Yup, it was starting to feel like home already.
They cleared out the boarding area to do passport and boarding pass pre-checks. I stood in a giant line, then had to stand in another line because I was coming in from Russia. One more line later, they scanned my passport and let me through. I wonder what that was all about.
When it was time to board, they announced that boarding would be by seat row, but because there was no one to check boarding passes (that had already been done), 90% of the passengers got up and pushed their way onto the plane. Awesome.
The Flight Home
The first thing I noticed once I settled on the plane: this Lufthansa 747 was outfitted with Recaro seats. It's a performance flying machine! The other thing I noticed were little cupholder things you could flip down instead of the entire tray table. Brilliant.
On my flight out, I had a seat with a wall in front. This time, I had a seat with a wall in back. I could still recline my seat, and there was no one behind me to bump or kick or otherwise disturb me. Nice.
They served us lunch. Beef stroganoff. That made me chuckle. It tasted tough, like leather gloves. Maybe it was!
Thanks to a guy who was nice enough to trade seats, I ended up sitting next to two girls who (1) could not sit still and (2) gabbed with each other the entire flight. I think I got up about 10 times during the flight to let them out. (And 10 more times to let them back in.) I always get an aisle seat because I drink a lot of water and need to get up a lot; before this flight, I'd never encountered anyone who's had to get up more than I do. Gee, thanks a lot, nice guy.
I finally gave in and bought an inflatable neck pillow. That was really nice. Hooray, happy neck! Well, except when I fell asleep and my head dropped forward. Still, better than a crick in the side of my neck.
A good number of hours into the flight, they showed a computer animated video of in-seat exercises we could do. The problem was, the video showed a single seat with lots of room on all sides. If we'd actually tried those moves in our seats, we'd have bumped our heads and smacked our neighbor's heads. Maybe I should have followed along so I'd have an excuse to smack my gabby neighbor's head.
They started playing cartoons after they ran out of movies, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers came on! It was the episode with the Boobie bird mom who needed to rescue her stolen baby Boobie egg. I love that one. So cute. :)
With about an hour to go, I started smiling. When I looked at the flight map and saw that we were over California, I started grinning. I should have been pretty tired at that point, but I was too excited to notice.
HelpAlliance
Toward the end of the flight, they showed us a video about HelpAlliance, a charity organization started by Lufthansa employees. They have little envelopes available on international flights to collect spare change left over in foreign currencies. I thought it was a brilliant idea, and promptly emptied my pockets into an envelope. Too bad it was rubles and not euros, but still, it was something.
The flight attendant was excited to get an envelope from me. That made me sad, because it meant that other people weren't donating also. Come on, people, it's spare change in a currency you no longer need. It'll just take up room in your house. You could be vaccinating kids, providing them with blankets. All for almost no effort.
Right after I handed the envelope over, I realized that I should have saved some rubles for Aaron. I'd saved myself a set, but had forgotten that he collects coins too. (Sort of, we both have a pile of coins in a little corner somewhere.) I felt bad, so I gave him my coins. I'll have to find an excuse to go back so I can get another set.
Hello, SFO!
As the plane turned north and descended for its final approach into San Francisco, the outside temperature dropped. I thought this was funny, because usually when you descend the temperature goes up, but then, that's San Francisco for you.
I'd been worried that I'd get home after all this travel just to have to stand in a bunch of lines, but there wasn't a single line anywhere. I walked right up to passport control and was through in less than a minute. After I picked up my bag, I zipped through customs with no wait either. Then it was up to the parking shuttle waiting area, where a long term parking bus pulled up as I arrived. There was no wait to pay for my ticket, and no wait to exit the parking lot. I guess I'd accumulated a goodly amount of queue karma at Pulkovo.
Home Sweet Home
The first thing I did when I got home was shower. Something about air travel makes me feel dirty. I found a parting mosquito bite on my left arm, number 48. I didn't break 50. I can't believe it. One final cheer for Mosquitall: Hooray!
Aaron came over, and we had lunch at Yiasoo, where I still can't manage to get a falafel salad. The last time I went, I ordered a falafel salad and got a steak salad. When I went to try to clear it up, the guy nodded and said, "salad". Um, okay. Yesterday, I ordered a falafel salad from a woman who I thought understood me, but then I got my dish and it was a falafel sandwich. WTF, Yiasoo? I give up on you.
Got home and fought sleep, but gave in to a half hour nap at 6:30. I dragged myself out of bed and made myself stay awake for another two hours, then gave up at 9 and slept for 12 hours. I could have slept more, but it's a workday. I think I'll give myself another 12 hours tonight.
July 28, 2008 12:09 PM | St. Petersburg