Segacs's World I Know

Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

I must be tired, cause this sounds oddly tempting:

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — Short on sleep? The Mall of America in Minnesota is selling naps for 70 cents a minute thanks to a Boca Raton company. The mall already has a 74-foot Ferris wheel, a shark tank and a dinosaur museum.

The nap store will be called Minne-NAP-olis. It’s aimed at weary travelers who need a nap after a long flight but aren’t staying long enough to book a hotel room or for spouses of shoppers traversing the mall’s more than four miles of storefronts.

Honestly, I should turn this into a regular column, due to the frequency of my rants against Air Canada on this blog. But they just keep on asking for it.

My flight home from New York today was delayed by 3-1/2 hours. That’s for a flight that only takes an hour. The vague description of the cause was something to do with “equipment delays”. The airline kept us waiting in the terminal all that time without offering us so much as a free soda.

Then I got home and saw this:

Air Canada’s efforts to burnish its public image were dealt a blow Sunday when the carrier was forced to cancel some flights because its pilots reached the limit on their flying time for the month.

Oh. So that’s what they mean by “equipment delays”.

Air Canada’s advertisements feature all sorts of promises of fun stuff that’s “coming soon”, like personal entertainment sets on all seats. A word of advice to the management team at Air Canada: the main thing passengers want to be “coming soon” is their flight. You might want to spend a bit less money and effort focusing on useless nonsense, and a bit more on basics like, oh, say, customer service. Just a thought.

Business trips, as a rule, are not much fun. You don’t usually get any time to appreciate the place you go to, and all you generally see of it is the inside of some conference room someplace.

This time I was in New York for 4 days, so I set out to make them as enjoyable as possible. Between the Collective Soul concert Wednesday night, the shopping accomplished on Thursday, and my “free day” on Saturday filled with a visit to MOMA and an off-Broadway play, I have to say, mission accomplished.

The great thing about New York is that, whatever any other place has, you can always count on New York to have more of it. Muggy heat, crowds, tourists, lineups, honking taxicabs… it all gives the city that indescribable constant energy current that can’t quite be equaled anywhere else.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make New York what it is. Being stuck on a subway car for about 20 minutes during a “signal problem” is, I discovered, the makings of a great one-act play. There’s not much you can do about it, but some people react by swearing, pacing and constantly checking their watch, while others just sort of sit back and wait it out.

It’s baffling how people actually live in New York, what with the high prices and the constant people. But I can’t imagine ever getting bored there.

My apologies for the light blogging lately; I’ve been on the road a lot and am heading out again tomorrow for a few days. Have a good one.

The new British Airways campaign contains some words I already know and even a few that I use, some words that I didn’t know but that explain a lot, and some words that I strongly suspect might be several decades out of date. Fairly amusing, at any rate.

(Via Imshin).

In the meantime, here’s a random New York City photo:

Times Square at Night

Back soon!

That’s the sound of all the things happening in the world that are whizzing by as I attempt to segway from a business trip into a long weekend road trip.

The government survived by one vote, some Palestinian terrorists are firing mortars at Israelis, and the new Star Wars movie came out in theatres. No, I haven’t seen it yet. No, I’m not particularly fussed about it.

Have a good long weekend, everyone. Back Tuesday.

Despite what I wrote below, I did, in fact, thoroughly enjoy my trip to Costa Rica… all but the last 12 hours or so. Everything else was wonderful. From the beautiful beaches on the Carribean and Pacific coasts to the fascinating rainforests to the volcanoes to the whitewater rafting to the zipline canopy tours, I had a great time. Costa Rica is an incredibly beautiful and exciting country. We had good weather, got to see tons of cool birds and animals (howler monkeys are loud!), and met some great people. Despite the lousy way the trip ended, I’m extremely glad I went.

P.S. No, I am not receiving any money from any Costa Rican tourism agency for the above message.

P.P.S. If, on the other hand, you read this and work for a Costa Rican tourism agency and would like to send me money, I won’t object. After all, I have some stolen stuff to replace.

The thing about the illusion of safety is, well, that’s just it: it’s an illusion.

Saturday night, walking back to our hotel in San Jose after a couple of hours of souvenir shopping, my friend and I were grabbed by three guys who pulled a knife on me, a gun on her, and stole our bags. It was the sort of random, petty crime that happens to people every day, and can happen anywhere and at any time.

Somehow, though, I never really thought it could happen to me.

Oh, sure, I knew it could happen to me. I spend time running through safety precautions every time I travel, but I tell myself that it’s not good to be too paranoid either because these kinds of things are random and you could just as easily get hit by a bus or something. (In Costa Rica, that’s a very real possibility). So I took the sensible precautions. Passport in hotel safe. Wallet attached to bag with a chain. Money belt locked in the safe, or worn under the clothes. Don’t walk alone after dark. Be aware of surroundings and belongings. All the things you’re supposed to do.

None of it mattered. We were targets for being tourists, standing out without even trying because, well, it’s kind of hard to blend in. We were mugged in broad daylight, half a block from our hotel. They got away with our bags, cash, cards, cameras, souvenirs… the works. A wallet chain or a money belt wouldn’t have mattered, as the muggers patted us down and stole whatever we had. Somehow, having a knife pointed at you makes you forget all resistance and just hand things over as quickly as you can.

At least we had the presence of mind not to try anything stupid, I tell myself. At least nobody was hurt. At least it was just stuff. It could’ve been much worse, and we know that all too well. People who deal with real traumas and tragedies get through. Even while we were in Costa Rica, a hostage cris at a bank in Monteverde devolved into a shootout that claimed nine lives, shocking the country. Next to that, what happened to us was an inconvenience, a minor scare – nothing really. The “take-a-number” attitude of the police who took our report underscored that nicely. These things happen. Deal with it. File your insurance claim and thank your lucky stars you didn’t lose your passport – or your life. Shrug it off.

But as minor as this was in the grand scheme of things, trying to shrug it off is proving harder than expected.

They say to be strong. Be independent. Be courageous. Never give in. If you get off the horse, climb right back on. (Actually, the falling off the horse thing happened to one of the members of our tour group several days earlier – and she did get right back on. A bit bruised but otherwise unfazed. An example to live by, to be sure.)

So why am I looking over my shoulder everywhere I go? Why am I unable to sleep at night? Why am I scared to resume my normal daily routine? Why am I questioning habits I previously took for granted, wondering if I was simply being naive? And where is that fine line between sensible additional precautions and over-reaction? Is changing anything akin to letting them win? Is failing to change anything potentially dangerous?

And now that the illusion of safety is gone, how long will it take before I can summon the courage to get back out there and move on?

I know it’s only been a couple of days and it may take time. But the truth is, I don’t know when things will feel normal again. And that’s probably what’s scaring me most.

Yep, I’m back. It’s official. Costa Rica was wonderful. I managed to acquire a sunburn, some mosquito bites, a few souvenirs, and lots of good memories. (I also managed to lose my wallet and camera to a few not-so-nice muggers in San Jose, but that’s a whole other story.) I’ve got loads to catch up on, and a bunch of pieces of ID to replace, so blogging will likely resume in a few days.

Good to be home.

Update: My travelogue is now online.