Arriving in Norway

It’s been a very long day, but I’m finally here.  My plane left Dulles about 20 minutes late, but we were really cruising once we were in the air.  We flew all the way up the coast(beyond Nova Scotia) before heading over the Atlantic toward Copenhagen.  I have never liked Airbus because of their fly-by-wire stuff, but this A330 was a pretty nice plane.  We all had a video monitor above our tray table, with movies, television shows, games and music on demand.  And there was a fold out cup holder below the tray table so you could keep your drink safe without having to have the tray down.  That came in very handy.  Got to hand it to SAS — they sure know how to feed you on a trans-atlantic flight.  Dinner was: smoked almonds, roast pork and chicken (yes, both) with mashed potatoes, carrots, and snow peas; , a salad, 2 rolls, crackers, cheese, and dessert; plus a complementary cocktail. Way too much food, and I didn’t come close to finishing it all.

I did have wine with my dinner — figured it would knock me out so that I could sleep.  Nope.  Never underestimate the power of rude airplane occupants.  Apparently most of the people on the plane were headed for a repositioning cruise with Norwegian… and they talked about it — loudly –  All. Night. Long.  When they weren’t yapping, they were playing the Michael Jackson channel so loud I could hear it through their headphones, or watching movies or playing video games through the night.  I was lucky to get a few 15 minute bursts of sleep, but I was still miserable when I got off the plane — that is a long time to be sitting in the dark with your eyes closed hoping to sleep.

Breakfast was served at 5:30am local time; strawberry-bannana yogurt, orange juice and a salami & cheese sandwich.  No, I’m not kidding.  And that’s the last food I got today because there was no food (not even free snacks) on my other two flights and there was no time between them to get something.  I’m trying to hold out for dinner now because I want to try to normalize my schedule.

When I landed in Copenhagen, I discovered that my company cell phone which is supposed to have international service, doesn’t.  I ended up paying 199NOK ($31USD) for a headset w/ microphone for my laptop, subscribing to the international version of Skype for $12USD, and roaming the airport looking for a wireless signal just so I could wake John up at 2am EDT to let him know that I had landed safely in Europe.  Almost missed my connection to Oslo because they changed the gates while I was going through Passport Control.  Had to run to catch the connection to Tromso because it took a bit to get through Customs in Oslo — and they didn’t stamp my passport?!

But I’m here.  It’s cold, and the internet sucks, but my first thought when we peeked out of the clouds on final was

My God, it’s beautiful.

I haven’t gotten more than an hour of sleep in the last 30 or so and am trying to stay up until about 9pm so that I can try to get on a normal schedule.  Easier said than done, I’m sure.

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