indigo_rose99 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
indigo_rose99) wrote2008-01-19 11:00 am
indigo_rose99) wrote2008-01-19 11:00 am
A day on the... road? air?
There are advantages and disadvantages to my current day of travel.
On the bad side, the difference between getting up at 3am to work out before my flight and 4am without working out to make my flight is negligible. Sucks either way. I got about 4 hours of sleep. And at 4am, the hotel does not offer free coffee. My store of fruit was simply not as invigorating.
It turns out that going from one EU country (France) to the same EU country (France), one must display a passport frequently. The difference in going from one EU country (France) to a different EU country (England) seems to be entirely in the length and slowness of the lines to display said passport.
My Air France flight from Paris to Birmingham turned out to be business class with all of the food perks. I ate my entire lovely meal, and part of my neighbor's. Hey, when you eat breakfast at 3:40am, 10:30am is a Long Time Later! Plus, the ingredients were either very British (meet and cheese) or listed in English (yay, flight to English-speaking country!).
After landing in Birmingham, the how-to of getting to my next flight was even more mysterious than some of my international landings in LAX. It turns out that (no one told me!) I had to fill out a landing card, even though I am not staying in England. Further, it turns out that I had to pick up my checked luggage, then go outside and pretend I had just arrived at the airport and check myself and it in all over again!
I was somewhat entertained in the non-EU immigration line (Slowest. Line. Ever. Stupid thing wasn't even that long! But we got one guy working us, and every single person seemed to take 20 minutes!). By the time I got to the front, I could actually hear their conversations with my fellow line-waiters. Evidently I was a rare native English speaker in the line. One guy they bitched out for not showing them his British military ID along with his (foreign) passport. They tried to explain to him that his status in England's military actually gives him free entry, but just his passport (scary country? I couldn't tell.) would get him endless delays. One woman did not speak English at all, and the guy was very suspicious of her being over on a spouse-of-a-student visa. These guys were clearly taking their jobs seriously. Though... they were not very nice about it. I could tell that they spoke more quickly than was comfortable for non-native speakers.
In Birmingham, I was desperately grateful for my wallet-related forethought. Last night, I went down to the hotel front desk and got change for a 50Euro bill so I could pay the taxi this morning. I kept that in my wallet, put in some AmEx travelers check in $$ for conversion when I arrive in Scotland, and then put in my stash of English pounds. It didn't occur to me that I might actually want the pounds in Birmingham to get lunch, but that worked out nicely.
No, I got the pounds out for Scotland. About 5 months ago, I was talking to one of my students (we were in Ireland, but he was from Scotland) about the monetary unit of Scotland. He said it is "Scottish pounds." I asked if this were the same as English pounds, having some left over from one of my previous trips. He said, "Yes and no." This confused me. Either it is the same currency in both countries, or it isn't. Right? He laughed, and tried to explain. After about 20 minutes, I said, "So what you are saying is that officially, pounds is the currency in both countries. English pounds and Scottish pounds are both accepted in Scotland. English pounds are accepted in England, Scottish pounds are accepted reluctantly and suspiciously."
And this is why I pulled out my English pounds for this trip.
On the bad side, the difference between getting up at 3am to work out before my flight and 4am without working out to make my flight is negligible. Sucks either way. I got about 4 hours of sleep. And at 4am, the hotel does not offer free coffee. My store of fruit was simply not as invigorating.
It turns out that going from one EU country (France) to the same EU country (France), one must display a passport frequently. The difference in going from one EU country (France) to a different EU country (England) seems to be entirely in the length and slowness of the lines to display said passport.
My Air France flight from Paris to Birmingham turned out to be business class with all of the food perks. I ate my entire lovely meal, and part of my neighbor's. Hey, when you eat breakfast at 3:40am, 10:30am is a Long Time Later! Plus, the ingredients were either very British (meet and cheese) or listed in English (yay, flight to English-speaking country!).
After landing in Birmingham, the how-to of getting to my next flight was even more mysterious than some of my international landings in LAX. It turns out that (no one told me!) I had to fill out a landing card, even though I am not staying in England. Further, it turns out that I had to pick up my checked luggage, then go outside and pretend I had just arrived at the airport and check myself and it in all over again!
I was somewhat entertained in the non-EU immigration line (Slowest. Line. Ever. Stupid thing wasn't even that long! But we got one guy working us, and every single person seemed to take 20 minutes!). By the time I got to the front, I could actually hear their conversations with my fellow line-waiters. Evidently I was a rare native English speaker in the line. One guy they bitched out for not showing them his British military ID along with his (foreign) passport. They tried to explain to him that his status in England's military actually gives him free entry, but just his passport (scary country? I couldn't tell.) would get him endless delays. One woman did not speak English at all, and the guy was very suspicious of her being over on a spouse-of-a-student visa. These guys were clearly taking their jobs seriously. Though... they were not very nice about it. I could tell that they spoke more quickly than was comfortable for non-native speakers.
In Birmingham, I was desperately grateful for my wallet-related forethought. Last night, I went down to the hotel front desk and got change for a 50Euro bill so I could pay the taxi this morning. I kept that in my wallet, put in some AmEx travelers check in $$ for conversion when I arrive in Scotland, and then put in my stash of English pounds. It didn't occur to me that I might actually want the pounds in Birmingham to get lunch, but that worked out nicely.
No, I got the pounds out for Scotland. About 5 months ago, I was talking to one of my students (we were in Ireland, but he was from Scotland) about the monetary unit of Scotland. He said it is "Scottish pounds." I asked if this were the same as English pounds, having some left over from one of my previous trips. He said, "Yes and no." This confused me. Either it is the same currency in both countries, or it isn't. Right? He laughed, and tried to explain. After about 20 minutes, I said, "So what you are saying is that officially, pounds is the currency in both countries. English pounds and Scottish pounds are both accepted in Scotland. English pounds are accepted in England, Scottish pounds are accepted reluctantly and suspiciously."
And this is why I pulled out my English pounds for this trip.
no subject
i know that, with all your food bars, the last thing you need is something else to carry in your luggage... but is it worth bringing a couple teabag-style instant coffee singles for those 4am mornings?