Day 3: Innsbruck [Hitler stamps]

Saturday, September 15

I woke up very warm at 2AM and then couldn’t fall asleep for several hours. Dan was also fighting with jet lag and never made it back to sleep.

At breakfast (o.j., 2 slices of ham, 2 slices of cheese, cucumber slices, Kaiser-like rolls, condiments—including something like Nutella, and our choice of coffee, tea, or chocolate—we always got chocolate), Alexandra said there was still no word on our luggage. She called again before we left, but no change.

Innsbruck is still a small European town in that many stores are only open for a few hours on Saturday (5 at the latest) and then not at all on Sunday. We got a replacement alarm clock and then checked out a small Saturday market where Austrians were selling their old stuff. One of the dealers, who hadn't yet discovered deodorant, had an impressive collection of stamps and old money. Dan and I were both tempted by the 1 Billion Mark note he had for 55Euros. He was seemingly overly eager to show us ALL of his Third Reich stamps. I never really thought about having Hitler on a stamp before, but there he was in all colors and several denominations. I was a little tempted by a set that had stamps from the Berlin Olympics of 1936, but there's just too much bad karma there.

After, we went to the train station to get info on taking a train to Greece. The first info place we tried, the guy kept giving us information on going to Gries, a nearby Austrian town, by bus. My recital of famous Greeks and such did nothing, and bringing up the Olympics didn’t help since Innsbruck hosted those back in the fifties or sixties. We tried the ticket area and were able to be understood. It was something like 280 Euros a person for the 35 hour train trip. A nice British bloke I’d started talking to because he had an actual map of Europe warned us of pickpockets and thieves on that line and suggested going down Italy and catching a ferry. I was concerned about the fires in Southern Greece making that an issue.

We found an Internet cafe that had wireless so Dan could use his laptop. I had a rum and Coke to try to better get into the vacation mood. We found flights to Athens from Munich for 99Euro, but were reluctant to book until we knew what was going on with our luggage.

Another afternoon nap was needed, so we headed back to Haus Georg where we were joyfully reunited with our luggage. It'd been delivered around noon. *whew*

We set the new alarm for a little before 6, which was when Jamie, Dan's partner for the workshop at the Ubiquitous Computing Conference, was due to arrive. The alarm was a little wonky in terms of when it went off, and we were just slow, so Jamie arrived while we were still getting dressed.

He settled in, we got ready, and all headed down to go back to the Internet Cafe so they could download what they needed . When we were walking through Allstadt, the old city, we ran into their professor, Gaitano, who'd sent out an e-mail asking them to meet him between 7 and 7:30 under the Golden Roof. We just randomly found him. He wound up taking us to dinner at a pizza place.

After dinner, the 3 of us continued our trek to the Internet Cafe, but it was crowded and loud. We tried a few spots, but Innsbruck's wireless network, which Dan bought time on, was hard to get. We wound up outside the Info Center and then heading back to Haus George. I watched t.v. and went to bed, Dan and Jamie worked on their presentation for the next day.

Haus Georg was only one of two places we stayed that had a television in the room. Austrian television was largely German television which was largely American movies from what little I saw. They did have a game show where, at one point, the contestants played Memory (the game where you match turned over cards)! Gripping stuff.

Day 2: Vienna -> Innsbruck [aka wienerschnitzel day]

Friday, September 14

Sleep: maybe 8 hours, non-consecutive
Day length: 21 hours

We had breakfast on board shortly before landing. Once on the ground, we went down a ramp to the tarmac and boarded a shuttle bus to the airport terminal. Once again, we had to figure out how to get our boarding passes. This was the one leg of our trip that was still on the original itinerary but we’d not gotten our boarding passes in Seattle (it had actually shown we were checked in before we got to the front of our reroute line). We found the gate and the woman there was a little anxious that we’d not checked in as the flight was overbooked. I think, technically, we were checked in, just didn’t have our boarding passes as we had no trouble. While waiting at the gate, I finally got a chance to photograph the Austrian Air stewardesses. Of course our flight turned out to have at least a third of its passengers be Austrian Air stewardesses and stewards (including a young Asian man).

The plane was a prop plane, similar to one I’d flown on from L.A. to Monterrey years ago. I had the window seat in the back (12F) so I could watch the landing gear go in and out as needed. I also had a pretty good view out the window, although the big mountains were out the other window. The flight was only about an hour but they served us drinks and a hot “snack” that was the Austrian equivalent of a pig in a blanket.

Got to Innsbruck at 11 but our luggage did not. We filled out the necessary paperwork, tried to find a map and other info at the airport, and then got a taxi to Haus Georg, our home for the next 3 nights.

Alexandra, who is married to Georg (we never actually met the man), greeted us when our taxi pulled up. We let her know about the luggage situation. It turns out she used to work for Austrian Air and had contacts at lost luggage. She offered to call and see what she could find out. We showered and headed off to see the city and have some lunch.

We went to one of the places Alexandra had recommended and had a waiter who got the order wrong but was unwilling to admit any wrong doing on his part. (the menu had had 2 wienerschnitzels on it, and we ordered the cheaper of the two, which I’d stressed using the language on the English menu, but, since I’d left out the parenthetical pork, which is how he distinguished the two, he put the blame on us, further accusing us of being able to tell veal from pork in thinly pounded, breaded & fried form.) It upset me more than it should have. Dan just paid.

We tired pretty quickly so went back to Haus Georg around 4 for a four-hour nap, stopping at the store to get some handwashing soap. We checked in with Alexandra but she said they didn’t know where our luggage was.

For dinner, we walked to Alexandra’s other recommendation. It was uphill, and at first we chose the wrong hill, but eventually we found our way there. There was no English menu and our resources we not as good as we’d hoped, so we got the schnitzel again (Dan got their Gordon Blu verity). Dan had some nice wine with that.

We went to bed around 10:30, after putting in for a 7AM wake up call so we’d make breakfast there (I managed to leave the alarm at Judy’s. It’d somehow gotten under the pillow when we were getting stuff together Thursday morning).

Day One: Seattle -> Toronto

Thursday, September 13

Sleep: c. 5 hours
Day length: c. 18 hours

We got to bed a little after midnight at Judy’s. She’d kindly offered to take us to the airport. We were up at 5, off about 5:30, and to the airport by 6. Unfortunately, our 7:20 plane was delayed for 3+ hours due to a mechanical issue that required them flying in a part from elsewhere. Those of us with connecting flights were told to wait in this long line. Dan actually called the airline from a payphone (neither of us brought our cell phones on this trip) while I waited in line. Found out from the women behind us in line that they’d be automatically rerouted for Vienna but needed to get a ticket here. Dan came back with our reroute. The women then got us into a shorter line, which was very fortunate as the flight was boarding when we got there (we had to get our seat assignment at the gate, and when I rushed up to the woman behind the counter to ask for them, she rather snippily said they’d been paging us for some time!)

Our original flight was to be on United from Seattle to Washington, D.C.. Our reroute was Air Canada, Seattle to Toronto, which nixed a plan I had to finish a letter and mail it between flights. Just as well given the lack of sleep (for days before the trip my sleep cycle shortened as my stress level increased). On the plane, I journalled, watched part of a bad movie called “Away from Her,” and ate a $5 breakfast sandwich (no free food on this flight!). Dan slept.

Once we landed in Toronto, we needed to get our next seat assignments and boarding passes, which sadly meant leaving the secure area of the airport. There seemed to be some odd issue about associating our luggage with our tickets, but we were assured all was well. It was here I first saw the Austrian Air stewardesses who were dressed in solid red, including hose and shoes. With over an hour before the flight, we headed for the gate, stopping for the bathroom, water bottle filling, and a quick meal at Coyote Jack’s. Then we boarded our Austrian Air flight to Vienna.

We’d gotten the aisle seats on the middle section of the 2-4-2 Airbus plane, so we had four seats to ourselves. The plane had perhaps the coolest feature ever, a nose-mounted camera that allowed you to watch the plane take off! Very cool. Once in the air, the camera was pointed downwards so that you could see what was below, at least until you got into the clouds. They turned it off for the video portion of the flight, which included Shrek the Third, Ocean’s 13, and Spiderman 3. Dinner was billed as Thai Curry Chicken, but its resemblance to any of those was questionable. I watched Shrek the Third while I ate (I missed the beginning, though, having been more focused on the approaching food and drink carts). I also got a bottle of Absolut to put in my Coke (they had no rum in their free alcohol selection). Dan got 2 bottles of whiskey and some water. After the movie, I went to sleep for the night (Dan was already dozing).

It was about 3AM in Austria, 6PM back home.

To-do list

I always have a to-do list, with some of the items being old enough for carbon dating. I often have a list of things for the day or the week. My great downfall with all my lists is the actual getting things done. When I was working out the other day, it dawned on me that my to-do list is my equivalent of Arnold J. Rimmer's revision schedule (for those who aren't Red Dwarf fans, Rimmer spent almost all the time before the exam creating an elaborate study schedule that he then had no time to follow). Part of it is that once it is scheduled to be done, I think it is done and, unless I'm good about checking my list for the day, it goes undone. Another great hindrance to finishing the to-do list is wanting to do what isn't possible, or at least productive, and not wanting to do what is.

I've been trying to be better about getting things done, but it's still not as consistent as I would like it to be. Take blogging. I have a list of things to write about, in addition to other ideas. But then when I could be blogging, I tend to blow it off. Not in the mood. Not interested in my topic.

Some people work better with deadlines. I'm not sure if they work for me or not. In college I was pretty good about them, in terms of not waiting for the last minute to get stuff done. But real life doesn't have such a rigid time structure, at least not a regular one with consequences.

My current deadline is that I leave for Europe in a week. I have no idea if I'm ready, but then most of the travelling I've done has been with little preparation, so at least I'm in familiar territory.

That was most of my weekend shopping: getting clothes, getting shoes, getting luggage. I really like my new stuff, and envisioning myself with it on the trip. Hopefully that reality will be better than my to-do list one.

Labor Day

Labor Day was always the day before school started for me, all the way through college. It marked the end of summer vacation and a return to structure. As an adult, it has no real meaning for me. I mark the end of summer around August 1st living here in Seattle, where some leaves started turning colors weeks ago and sunset is now about 90 minutes earlier than it was on the solstice.

When I woke up this morning, I turned on the local morning news show to see if there were any actual Labor Day celebrations, but they only mentioned Bumbershoot, an annual music event at Seattle Center.

I think it's interesting that we celebrate the worker identically with the soldier, at least in terms of a three-day weekend that bookends what Americans call 'summer' but there seems to be no festivity to honor the day. We honor workers by resting, barbecuing, and having sales.

And I celebrated by going shopping and driving a lot. Appropriately American, I guess.