28.09 - Getting to Kona

Almost packed for the trip :)

Good morning Kopli! It is four in the morning on 30th of September 2013! … it means something like you are awake at the worst possible hour. So it seems. Good thing about 4 in the morning is that it took only 17 minutes to get to the airport :)

This was the only positive thing though. On the request by the Estonian team already in Hawaii I packed the club flag into my backpack. It resulted on the flag poles sticking out of my bag for perhaps 50cm or so. I wasn't very worried as I was planning on getting the whole thing saran-wrapped at the airport. But what do you know, baggage wrapping did not open till my boarding time. Oh well, got it checked in. Lady at the desk did not even bother to secure them anyhow, barely even looked at the bag and shrugged "well as long as the poles don't fall out". No they don't if no one grabs on to them. Luckily I found the poles still in place during the immigration baggage check in Washington DC, although I forgot to count them so I'm not sure if all of them are present :)

Now a question to you - if you do check-in over the Internet, do you use a mobile boarding pass or you actually take the trouble of printing the boarding pass out? Recently I have just started to use the mobile version and am very found of it. Until this time. Tallinn Airport security check does not recognize mobile boarding pass. Was showing them the QR code image sent by Lufthansa that I had downloaded to my phone, the poor guy tries to read it by just looking at it and goes "there is one of those big square missing in the center!" Really :O ??? Can I get my eyes upgraded to be able to tell that just by looking at the scribbely dots? Then he walks over to the scanner and shakes my phone underneath it (like you do when you try to scan a bar code), that didn't work of course. He looked at me weird when I tried to tell him to hold the phone still so the image can be recognized. Nope, no go. He made me to open the e-mail, which was fine as there was wireless. Uh oh. Finally he let me pass the security check.

I had fully forgotten of how painful it is to fly for 20+ hours in a row. First flight went quick, Tallinn-Frankfurt. Had quite a long layover in Frankfurt. Those long breaks at the airports are the killers. Boarding and immigration in Frankfurt was nicely organized and this time they did not do this horrible interrogation where they ask all sorts of personal questions from you trying to make sure one doesn't plan on marrying anyone while there with the goal of staying in US for the rest of the life. Phew. Flight to Washington DC seemed horribly long. Just awfully long and never seemed to end.

When I was flying across Atlantic during college years (oh it was so so long ago :) ) then there was no luxury of choosing your own movie to watch. They would start a movie and all had to watch the same one at the time it was showing. Nowadays there is the luxury of your own private TV and movies selection. Oh the joy. And there are actually many good movies to see. Time does not pass any quicker though unfortunately.

Immigration in Washington DC was a lot better than last time when I flew through Atlanta. In Atlanta there was a huge hall, seemed like the size of football field, filled with packed lines of people that barely moved. I was standing in line for almost 2 hours. This time it took a bit over 30 minutes, few interrogation questions about my work and what I do in US and off I was. It was a great relief to find my bag in one piece with the flag poles sticking out just as I had packed them!

Every time I arrive at US I get this nice homey feeling. The smiling people, Wendy's (not that I ever ate there, but the sign is just so so countrysidey :) ), bagels, souvenir shops, drinking fountains and small talk with fellow passengers. I do miss this culture at times so much. A&W signs make me want a root beer float, I can't wait for the first Domino's peperoni pizza with cheesy bread, the bagels with flavoured cream cheese, free refills of natural flavoured ice tea at any eating place, questions about the kind of dressing you would like with your side salad, late night shows from TV and the commercials even. The malls, the movie theaters where you don't have assigned seats, the papers with gazillion separate sections, those huuuge Barnes and Noble book stores… aaah. It is great to be here!

And on to the next flight I went. 5+ hours in a packed plane to San Francisco. By this time my legs were sore, swollen and muscles were cramping up, butt was sore making it difficult to sit still, back was killing me, eyes were so dry that it hurt to blink, ears were hurting from the earphones and constant pressure changes... I was hungry and tired and all I could think about was at some point laying horizontally :) I dreamed of a shower and then of a breakfast. On this flight there was no luxury of a private TV, the movie went on and you better watch it as otherwise you die of boredom. I think I pretty much passed out for the last hour of the flight. I don't know how I managed this as my body refused to be in a sitting position any longer.

Thanks to the flag poles sticking out of my luggage I ended up staring at the luggage belt for 45 minutes in despair that they had managed to loose my bag. I was so tired and all I could think about was the shower waiting for me at the hotel. Finally I stumbled over to the luggage service where they announced that the bag has been scanned in the luggage area so it should be coming shortly. But it wasn't there on the belt! I started to walk around between the other luggage belts and by accident noticed my bag standing by the door of over sized luggage :) Yay!

It was 21:17 when I closed my eyes. My phone informed me that I'd get 8 hours and 8 minutes of sleep - it was clearly lying, my sleep lasted for no more than 2 minutes before the alarm went off.

On the way to the airport I happened to sit next to one elderly lady at the shuttle: "There is this one last thing I want to do before I die! You see I'm 88 years old and I'm flying to South Carolina to visit my daughter. I got my cane and off I go." She has this big smile on her face. Little bit of time passes and she continues with a cheerful voice "Just this last Friday I went to visit my brother-in-law at the hospital. So while I visited him, he died!" The lady is chuckling. "Well he was very sick. And I thought I can't make this trip now, but luckily they are able to postpone the funeral until I'm back." All I could sigh was "Oh good, I'm glad you are able to go and visit your daughter". "Oh yes" she continues "and you know what is great, they will push me right past all the security lines in my wheelchair. I specifically asked for a wheelchair!" :)

Art exhibition at San Francisco airport - early morning art doze done!

It was a great surprise to find free wireless at San Francisco airport. Art exhibition was another nice feature in this early morning adventure. Flag poles of course were not liked by the baggage loading person during check-in, had to explain the poles to the manager after which they thoroughly wrapped my whole bag into plastic :)

Bye bye California!

Flight to Kona was already a piece of cake compared to yesterdays marathon. Noticed some athletes in Skinfit and High5 clothing :) and then lots of elderly people just taking a week of to make a quick trip to Hawaii.

Welcome Kona!

Thank you Jane and Aho for greeting me at the airport!

Aah, and one more idea for 4am activities - in the office at 4:30 :)