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I woke up early, early morning and caught an uber back to the bus station. I got there only 5 minutes before departure, or even less, because she had picked someone else up on the way. So good thing I had included quite some leeway in my timing calculations.
We got to NYC just around noon, with only about a 20-30 minutes’ delay. My friend, whom I was meeting, had overslept because he works night-shifts for a paper, so I had to wait for a bit, but only a couple of minutes. Just like my friend back in Boston who had just got there 2 weeks ago, this friend had also just moved here, but from England (and is English), and so he had to constantly check Google Maps to see where we were going. We took the subway to his work - well, or so…it’s one a tiny office, with only one room, and four people. But there was nothing wrong with the house; a tall building with security down front for which it took ages for me to get through because their boss wasn’t there, so they couldn’t ask if it was OK to let me through. So much for going to the bathroom and leaving the backpacks behind….
Certainly, security was almost an understatement in this building; once finally through, my friend scanned his access card by the elevators, and clicked on the floor he was going to (yes - while still outside the elevator). He could only choose two floors: 8 and 9. He worked on the 8th. In other words, he couldn’t access the other floors, and subsequently didn’t even know how many floors there were in the building. It’s smart, but…not even seeing which floors there are, isn’t that excessive?
We said hi to his colleague (only one of them were there), I went to the bathroom, and then we went back downstairs and out. Having overslept, he hadn’t had any breakfast, and I hadn’t eaten for almost 6 hours, so we made it our priority to get something to eat. First, he was going to take me to a really nice pizza place his friend had shown him some week or day earlier, thinking it was close. But then Google Maps told him it was actually about 20 minutes’ walk, so since we had decided to see the Statue of Liberty (because he hadn’t seen it yet, and it’s like 10 years ago since I saw it) we decided to take the subway there first and then find something to eat around. There ought to be something.
When we got off the subway, the final station of the red line (no. 1?), you were almost attacked by people trying to help, asking if you knew where you were going, if we were going to the Statue of Liberty, etc. We hung around and talked to one guy who seemed nice enough, but who was talking about tours that cost loads of money when we found out at lunch that there were free ferries that went past the Statue. We said we’d think about it but that we were going to eat something first - which was true after all.
Just around the corner from the subway station we found a square with lots of restaurants. After having checked everything out, and seeing a van from The Economist giving out free ice cream with insects, we decided to head back to an Asian street food place, and then we’d come back for the ice cream for dessert.
I got Vietnamese noodle soup - again….because I can’t resist that when it’s on the menu, and my friend got some kind of mix platter that, admittedly, looked amazing. Then because the weather was still really nice, we took the food outside and had it on a bench. Quite chaotic to eat take-away soup with ‘sides’ of lemon and beansprouts, and at the same time keep track of your chopsticks and the steam on the lid of the bowl…well, luckily it went well.
After our “lunch”, we had almost forgot about the ice cream but just remembered in time to turn around the corner. The queue had got longer in the meantime, but we used the time to think about what flavour we wanted, and what ‘mandatory topping’ we wanted: maggots, crickets or grasshopper. There may have been a fourth option but if so I can’t remember it. The whole point with the free ice cream with ice cream was to make some kind of point with sustainability, food-wise, for the future. One of the Economist guys who had talked to us when we first came around, recognized us and started talking to us. He was super nice, but of course, as part of his job, he also tried to persuade us to subscribe. I said I was leaving that very same evening and my friend pretended he still lived in the UK.
When it was our turn, I went for something caramelly, with crickets. My friend got honeycomb and a grasshopper. It was no problem starting tasting the ice cream but the dead insects starring back at us…it was somehow so very much against any instincts to put that in your mouth - or even towards it. It was simply really, really hard to get yourself to do it.
Eventually, still with about 3/4 of our ice creams left, we decided to go for it. My friend went first and took a bit of his huge grasshopper. Chewed it for a bit. Then took another small bite, though not really with a satisfied face. More as if he was still trying to evaluate it.
‘I’ll leave the rest for you,’ he said then, with a face, and handed it over to me.
‘The head…thanks,’ I replied, looking somewhat disgusted at the half piece. I think it was probably even harder when you had the head and eyes starring back at you. God! And it was so much bigger than the small crickets I had got.
What can I say? It was very…hay’y, flavour-wise that is. Crumbly. Yes, definitely not great. Then I tried mine. I won’t say it was easy, but yes…easier when the eyes were sort of too small for you to properly distinguish. Additionally, I had the first one with some ice cream, so you couldn’t taste anything, and these were crunchy, and since I had caramel, it just felt a bit as if it was crunchy caramel pieces. So basically, they were better, but, despite knowing they weren’t that bad, the second, third, fourth cricket was just as hard to put into your mouth as the first one. I let me friend have one too. I think he agreed it was better.
After our insect adventure we went to the ferry terminal where, as I said, we found out, thanks to Google, that there was a free ferry past the Statue of Liberty. So we got onto the next ferry, and I realized this must have been the ferry I was on some 10 years ago when I went to see the Statue for the first time.
We got up front and got a decent view when we sailed past the Statue. Awesome view of the skyline when you get close to Staten Island. It was quite windy so I was happy to have brought my fleece along, although his girlfriend whatsapped a reply to a picture he sent her of us that it looked hot to wear it.
We walked around on Staten Island for a while but there was literally nothing there of interest, so we returned to the terminal and went back to Manhattan. Once there, it was already time to head back to the office to get my bag. Time had passed very fast. When I had booked my trip from Boston to NYC, I thought I’d have plenty of time to kill; 6 hours. But now, I felt like I should almost even have taken the 6AM bus.
Back at the office a new co-worker had arrived that we said hi to. His shift was starting soon, but he said he was going to take me to the train station and then hurry back.
‘The station? Have fun…’ one of the women said, sarcastically. Apparently, there had just been a stabbing or something like that and so I think the police had shot someone (the stabber) and some stuff. I don’t know if I was more scared of the possibility of being stabbed (by someone who had been shot dead), shot by police, or missing my plane because of heavy traffic at the station. We got there alright though and we didn’t notice a thing.
He had to run. After all he was 40 minutes late for work already. I thanked him so much for having come along in the first place; it had been quite chaotic to find out whether it would be better to take the train or the bus, but now everything was fine. I was to take the train, so he left me with my bags by the monitors where I could see when they’d announce the platform.
Unlike what I’m used to, the airport wasn’t the final station, so I almost consider myself lucky that I got off in time. I checked the monitors to see which terminal I was going to. One of the terminals had IcelandAir, and as you may have noticed throughout my posts, I was properly tired. I love travelling but…it’s been an exhausting trip, and even though I knew I was going to have a great time with old and new friends in Tallinn, I just wanted to go home. I almost cried when I saw the Icelandair logo. Instead, I headed for British Airways, that was going to take me to London, then Copenhagen, where I’d change to Scandinavian Airlines to Tallinn. Long journey…
I must say Newark may just be my new worse airport I’ve ever visited. Paris Charles de Gaulles is very high on that list too though. Once past security (which was surprisingly lacking for being the States…or compared to at home where we have no crime at all…) there was a small duty-free shop but my problem was that I was getting hungry…and had 10 dollars left to spend that I couldn’t be bothered to bring back. But for that kind of thing they only had an expensive pub, an expensive restaurant, a shop that didn’t even have sandwiches, and a small ‘grab n go’…stand with really crappy things too. Then there was a round waiting room for some 5 gates and that’s it. There was no other shop to inspect or kill time, no delicious cheap food, no fast food for that matter, no nothing. Nevertheless, I got a bagel in the end, because my flatmate told me back in Edinburgh that the English don’t know how to make bagels. So I had to try one. I’m afraid the one I got wasn’t great; it was quite dry and just…not interesting. One of those hotel/mini things of philadelphia cheese to put on. But enough to survive until boarding and until we got food onboard.
The flight attendants in British Airways were extremely nice. I had a seat at the furthest back, in the middle. Not just middle, but you know the seats in the aisle of a big plane - and then in the middle of that. So literally the crappiest seat on the entire aircraft. I had asked for a window seat but they hadn’t been able to provide me with one at the check-in. Since I was pretty much last onboard though, a guy said he’d see what I could do. Apparently there was a window seat that was free…but it was only free because the seat had been wet. In fact mother and (grown-up) daughter were supposed to sit next to each other, but had been split because of the wet chair. But while trying to find out if they couldn’t just change the cover on the seating, there was a seat behind the window seat that he noticed was available too, so he said I could come there instead. It wasn’t a window, but it was at least an aisle, so it wasn’t too bad. And though far back, it wasn’t completely bad.
I got next to an old Indian couple who hardly spoke any English. There was a really funny incident when the attendants came around with drinks and asked ‘what can I offer you, sir?’ and the old man thought for a while. Probably because he couldn’t remember the word. Then, finally, when he remembered, he shouted ‘water!’ and pointed towards the attendant. But, I think he “pointed” in triumph that he remembered what it was called, but as a joke, or a misunderstanding, the attendant pointed back in the same enthusiastic manner saying ‘al-right!’ It was just…so awkward. And at another point the woman asked for more water, but then she didn’t drink it, nor even open it, and wanted to give it back, which caused more confusion…
Compared to JetBlue, British Airways was amazing. They had “dimmer” windows, like they had on Qatar Airways when I went to Africa, and proper entertainment system with proper films. I watched Hail Caesar while eating…and don’t remember finishing the film, although I probably did, and then went to sleep. 7h is not a long flight though in terms of getting 7h of sleep, when there’s both dinner and a small breakfast snack before landing. Furthermore, I wouldn’t be arriving in Tallinn until just before midnight Estonian time (although only 5PM American time) and then had my first meeting 9AM (2AM American time - yay).
Day 42-45: (Tallinn, Copenhagen x2 and) getting home
Despite the comfort of British Airways, I didn’t sleep great. I suppose I’m not used to sitting by the aisle.
The 6 or so hours at Heathrow during which I thought I’d die of boredom (or exhaustion) passed pretty quickly, as I had to write a communication strategy before the meeting in Tallinn (the joy of loving accepting projects without realizing when you can hardly manage) - and I didn’t even finish it before it was time to board. I didn’t even eat anything! So it’s not even as if I spent a lot of time doing other things than writing…
I slept to Copenhagen, then finished the strategy at the airport. I had with a friend at the airport who was going to the same meeting, so we could kill time together. Quite a pleasant surprise considering she’s from Denmark, but apparently she had also just arrived from England (though flown from Bristol), which is why she was at the airport so early, like me…
Tallinn? I never had any expectations about Tallinn. It’d never been on any bucket list. Never heard much about it, except that the Finnish go there to buy cheap alcohol. But Tallinn was amazing. It was pretty, lively, old, new…it had so much. Not to mention a friend, whom I was unaware lived there, who messaged me after I posted a blog post from Tallinn, saying he currently worked there. So thanks to deciding to extend my trip by one night, I managed to visit him for half an hour at the 5-star hotel he works; tallest building in Tallinn, where he asked the receptionists for the key to the top floor, then took me to the restaurant/skybar, despite really being closed. It felt proper VIP.
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While in Tallinn I heard about the explosion in NYC, thought the area sounded familiar, and found out it was just around the corner from where I had arrived with Megabus that morning. So stabbings and explosions...and then of course the abandoned suitcase in Philly. It's obviously not funny, but I still can't help giggle a little bit because everything is just so different from home.
Despite my extra night, I didn’t even see everything. There was a prison there too, that you could visit. But it didn’t open until late, so if I was visiting my friend before going to the airport…well, it just didn’t work out. So basically, Tallinn = good place. I’ll be going back someday.
So Monday afternoon I was brave enough to take my backpack and walk to the bus station. The airport was only some 15 minutes ish by bus. I ran quite late though for some reason, but there was not much traffic at the airport, so it was OK. Although, upon arrival, my friend and I had agreed that even the airport looked surprisingly good, I decided not to look around until boarding. Just sat down with a drink and a twix.
I had about 4-5h in Copenhagen to kill. I was tired of travelling, which should really be read as being sick and tired of airports…so I called up my oldest friend and asked if she was busy. She wasn’t, so I asked if she wanted to get dinner - because I simply couldn’t be bothered to hang out at the airport for so long.
She was thoroughly surprised. Firstly, because I tried calling through Facebook, and when she picked up, I first didn’t hear anything, but then suddenly she said ‘oh my God, you’re speaking through the phone!’
‘That’s usually what phones are for…’ I wondered.
Though apparently it had started ringing on her computer - and she had thought it was giving her some warning signs of some calculations in excel or something. And then she hadn’t heard anything and had to look for her phone until it worked. It still just sounded funny.
Secondly, I was going to sleep over at her place in a week exactly. So she thought maybe she’d got the dates wrong or something.
I accidentally took the train towards the city - because I’m used to taking it to her place. But then I realized I wasn’t going to her place, and so the metro would be much faster because the train makes a long stop at the main station - which is before the station I was getting off at. So somewhere in the middle I had to get off to change to metro, and because there’s no metro station at the main station… Complicated stuff. So it probably slowed me down, but she had decided to park her bike at the university, so basically we ended up at the station at about the same time. Then we had a salad/sandwich and could catch up a bit. Obviously, I took the sandwich with avocado in it. Delicious. And hot elderflower juice - yuuum! It was decent weather so we even sat outside. We finished just as it was time for me to head back to the airport.
When going to the gate I got a flashback from another time when I was at the same airport…because I was almost at the same gate as I had been once, when they changed the gate 20 minutes before departure - and then, while walking to the new gate they change it, but not just to any new gate but back to the original gate. Everyone was confused. I thought someone must be having a hilarious time in the control rooms… But apparently someone literally didn’t know where to send us off to, because of cancelled flights, and one aircraft flying a different route than originally meant to etc. Thankfully, that did not happen this time.
Although I don’t usually shop at the duty-free shop when arriving home, I got a bag of sour Haribo. Then I waited for ages for my bag. I hate that they take so long just because you don’t fly Icelandair. It was completely unreasonable; when you fly Icelandair, it doesn’t matter how much traffic there is, the bags are already circulating the conveyor belt when you arrive downstairs (no exaggeration)! But when you fly something else, like this time, with no other incoming flights, it takes like 30-40 minutes. For absolutely no reason. What was more, the belts were running, and there are no benches whatsoever…so you can’t even really sit anywhere except for on the floor while you wait.
After that, what can I say? I’ve been home for a while (and in Finland for a week + 2 nights of stopover) so I feel like I’ve already forgotten how nice it was to get back. But I remember how tired I was from all the travelling…and the almost crying at Newark for wanting to go home, so certainly, it was a relief to be home - and not have to pack the bag every one or two nights. Nice to see mum, and my grandparents were also in town, so that was extra nice. Didn’t see my dad until I got back from Finland though, two weeks later.
Even now…exactly a month after getting back (got back on the 19th of September), I still haven’t shown anyone all of my pictures. We simply haven’t had the time, and dad is back in Sweden, so I don’t want to be telling the accompanying stories twice, when we’re talking, what, over 2000 pictures. The pictures from Chile alone take like over half an hour if you go by the default slideshow settings.
I still enjoy a piece of bread with avocado every now and then (had French toast with cheese and avocado tonight; delicious - and recommended!) and I left my precious manjar in Sweden so I can open it there, as it will be hard to transport from Iceland once opened. And I’m really happy to still be in touch with my hosts back in Chile.
Now question remains what my next adventure will be. Back to Vietnam? After all, I am turning 25 next year, and hence 10 years since I went. Ripe time to go on some biological parent-hunting? Or else I’m sure something else exciting can be arranged for the ‘big’ year. Until then…perhaps except my site to become somewhat less active again, although I hope to update it with some photos, new music or hopefully I’ll find some new inspiration for a new prejudice blog. So stay updated!
Until then: thank you so much to all of you who have reached this far and read this much!! It’s truly rewarding to see my visiting statistics every time I post something new. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have (enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it - because obviously you can’t have enjoyed reading about the adventures as much as the person who experiences them!) and hope you’ll be back to read for my next trip!
That’s all for me for now.
//Iris