arcanamundi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
arcanamundi) wrote2009-02-16 06:46 pm
arcanamundi) wrote2009-02-16 06:46 pm
Indy-Toronto-Paris-Berlin
Traveling while sleep deprived sucks. I slept fitfully for a couple of hours the night I left so my last full night's sleep is now almost 60 hours behind me. I would have been better served, I think, by knocking myself out last night around 9 PM with a couple of stiff drinks and a Halcion, but I didn't want to be fighting a hangover or mental fuzziness, which is the predictable outcome for that kind of lullabye. What do you call a thing in which you're damned if you do or damned if you don't? A something something choice. The philosophers have a word for it that I usually know.
Air Canada really does suck at customer service, but the flight was nice. The seats were big, the plane was new (it had light effects that scared me at first - they lit up the top part of the plane in the same shade of blue as the sky above the when we were a couple hours away from Paris and it kind of gave me vertigo. In a good way. The meals were pretty good, the crew was great, and it was an uneventful flight. We got through I&C pretty fast and I went straight to a hotel. My flight to Berlin didn't leave til tonight, so I took a room at the Ibis for a few hours just to get a nap and a light lunch and a shower and change before continuing on to Orly. It was necessary and I'm really glad I remembered that Ibis had those day hourly rates because I nearly got hysterical thinking about having to do the whole 60 on my feet.
Orly was a freaking nightmare. I haven't flown out of there in more than 15 years. It was even worse than CDG - or close. I think the longest I've ever had to queue to get through security at CDG was 3 hours, and I was queued at Orly for security for nearly 3 hours, but with the added aggravation of it being in a really claustrophobic rat maze made of smoked plexiglass. It was a special kind of hell, seeing the hundreds of people and the snaking line and knowing that you're going to be standing in it for that long. I got frisked (they won't let you put your shoes in the scanner, so nearly *everyone* gets a full frisking and wanding, which you get to watch before it's your turn). The boarding for the flight was delayed although the board never changed. I'm sure they were just waiting for the rest of the plane to get through security.
Berlin Tegel was a breeze - tiny airport. In and out. Then I realized my phrasebook had fallen out of my pocket at some point (seriously, I should have known that would happen and I count myself lucky that it was my only loss in the first 48. I snagged a cab but it nearly spit me out as a fare when the driver realized I didn't know German to speak, but fortunately I was able to understand enough of what he was saying to react to it logically and we ended up getting on. I showed him the hotel address and he plugged it into his GPS and off we went. Conversing, hilariously. I can understand a good bit of the German spoken to me (thanks, German for Reading Comprehension! The most useless goddamn thing ever) but have no way to make sentences back. I have two verbs: haben, and essen. One person: first person singular. So on passing a really cool church that was bombed out during the war but restored with glass to show the bombing effects while creating a new inside, I wanted to know the name: Die kirchen! War nomen ist? Of course now I can't remember the answer he gave me. A better example of my bad German was my reply to him when he asked me why I came to Berlin if I didn't know any German:
Ich bin historichen mittelaltern! I said. Ich bin studien die handscriften latinischen im Deutchland!
He laughed. I'm sure it's very funny to listen to me, when it's not just ueber-frustrating word soup.
I need a new phrase book. Hopefully will find one sooner than later, but am waiting til I get to Braunschweig to worry about it.
I'm glad I started with Germany and Italy - get the hardest parts done first. The parts where I don't speak the damn language and talk like E.T.
Going to sleep now! Will upload some pics tomorrow.
Air Canada really does suck at customer service, but the flight was nice. The seats were big, the plane was new (it had light effects that scared me at first - they lit up the top part of the plane in the same shade of blue as the sky above the when we were a couple hours away from Paris and it kind of gave me vertigo. In a good way. The meals were pretty good, the crew was great, and it was an uneventful flight. We got through I&C pretty fast and I went straight to a hotel. My flight to Berlin didn't leave til tonight, so I took a room at the Ibis for a few hours just to get a nap and a light lunch and a shower and change before continuing on to Orly. It was necessary and I'm really glad I remembered that Ibis had those day hourly rates because I nearly got hysterical thinking about having to do the whole 60 on my feet.
Orly was a freaking nightmare. I haven't flown out of there in more than 15 years. It was even worse than CDG - or close. I think the longest I've ever had to queue to get through security at CDG was 3 hours, and I was queued at Orly for security for nearly 3 hours, but with the added aggravation of it being in a really claustrophobic rat maze made of smoked plexiglass. It was a special kind of hell, seeing the hundreds of people and the snaking line and knowing that you're going to be standing in it for that long. I got frisked (they won't let you put your shoes in the scanner, so nearly *everyone* gets a full frisking and wanding, which you get to watch before it's your turn). The boarding for the flight was delayed although the board never changed. I'm sure they were just waiting for the rest of the plane to get through security.
Berlin Tegel was a breeze - tiny airport. In and out. Then I realized my phrasebook had fallen out of my pocket at some point (seriously, I should have known that would happen and I count myself lucky that it was my only loss in the first 48. I snagged a cab but it nearly spit me out as a fare when the driver realized I didn't know German to speak, but fortunately I was able to understand enough of what he was saying to react to it logically and we ended up getting on. I showed him the hotel address and he plugged it into his GPS and off we went. Conversing, hilariously. I can understand a good bit of the German spoken to me (thanks, German for Reading Comprehension! The most useless goddamn thing ever) but have no way to make sentences back. I have two verbs: haben, and essen. One person: first person singular. So on passing a really cool church that was bombed out during the war but restored with glass to show the bombing effects while creating a new inside, I wanted to know the name: Die kirchen! War nomen ist? Of course now I can't remember the answer he gave me. A better example of my bad German was my reply to him when he asked me why I came to Berlin if I didn't know any German:
Ich bin historichen mittelaltern! I said. Ich bin studien die handscriften latinischen im Deutchland!
He laughed. I'm sure it's very funny to listen to me, when it's not just ueber-frustrating word soup.
I need a new phrase book. Hopefully will find one sooner than later, but am waiting til I get to Braunschweig to worry about it.
I'm glad I started with Germany and Italy - get the hardest parts done first. The parts where I don't speak the damn language and talk like E.T.
Going to sleep now! Will upload some pics tomorrow.