Monday, May 31, 2010

Turbulance Guy (TG)

Maybe he was hung over or high or maybe he was just terrified.
He was definitely messing up everyone else's WA (sense of well-being).
Actually, he was scarier than the turbulance itself. 
TG is a greasy, grungy looking rocker dude with a trucker hat and an attitude. 
His carry-ons were his amp and guitar.    

Picture this:
A plane-full of tired travelers on an evening flight from Helsinki to NYC.  Add in dinner, some mediocre in-flight entertainment and TURBULANCE a few minutes after said dinner between Greenland and Newfoundland.  After the first few bumps, the seat-belt sign came on.  After a few more pretty good bumps, the flight crew got buckled in as well.  At this point, the pilot announces that we've got about 45 minutes of pretty bad turbulance ahead of us. 
Then TG started moaning - and cussing - and screaming - and trying to get out of his seat.

WTF?!  Everyone knows that when the flight crew is belted in, you'd better be too! 

Mind you, the bumps were bad, but there weren't any altitute drops, so the husband and I were still feeling pretty secure.  (Finnair ain't got nothin' on Aeroflot!)  Not too terrifying, except we both really had to pee.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Pix (for those who asked)


This WTF moment brought to you by......


The Wrong Noodle Bar.....




Workmen Against High Fives.....


SPAM Energy Drink... Mmm... Pork Shoulder flavored energy...



Made you look twice...


And the Estonian Pot Head



(And you thought only the Japanese had issues with Engrish!)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

So we just walked right in to Finland...

Seriously.  Our plane was at the very last gate on the far side of the airport in Vantaa and so we walked... and walked... and walked some more... and a bit further, got a passport stamp in less time than it takes to read this, walked some more... and then we were outside just like that. 

We spent more time walking than we did actually "entering" the country.  If you've ever gone through customs and immigration at a busy airport you know what that means.  It has never, ever, EVER gone that quick, not even in the old days going to Canada.

Anyway...it's been a few years since we visited any of the Nordic countries, particularly in the summertime, and I had forgotten how awesome it is here.  Clean, sunny, friendlier than most places.  If we didn't have to get back to our jobs we'd stay until it started to get cold again.

We're catching the ferry across to Talinn, Estonia in a couple of hours so we'll have to blog about that later this evening.

Näkemiin!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

We're ready to leave...

... but the wife's voice has already left.   : Perkele!

We've both been sick for the last couple weeks and the wife lost her voice 2 days ago.  Not a good thing since she makes her living as a phone agent.  Also not a good thing as she's the one who handles the travel negotiations with airline agents, gate keepers and flight attendants.  If she can't talk by tomorrow morning, it's on the husband to step up to the burocracy - oh joy.

First hurdle: convincing the airline people that 2 people can go a week in a foreign country with just what they have in their carry on luggage.

Second hurdle: getting from LaGuardia to JFK in less than 3 hours.  (Hence the deliberate lack of carry on baggage.)

Wish us luck!