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August 18, 2004
Day of Departure
After a nice meal of Hamburger Hamlet with Mom, Dad, and Janie, we drove down to Dulles, unloaded 160 pounds of luggage (60 pounds of carry-ons alone!), and checked in for the 5:30 flight to Copenhagen. I somehow managed to attach the two main suitcases so that they will roll along together—it should work fine, unless I need to climb any stairs. If that happens, I will just have to sit down on the bottom step and call it quits.
A few notes on the airport: it seems unreasonable to have to take TWO shuttles to get to the airport, doesn't it? On the other hand, this is by far the nicest airplane I've ever been on. Kudos to Scandinavian Airlines. The seats are comfortable, there is a bottle of water at each seat, delicious food (and a guy who walks by every ten minutes with warm bread), and a kick-ass entertainment system. There is a television screen at each seat that works on a touch pad system. There are games, music, movies, and a nifty travel update function that lets you track the progress of the flight on a map, or by cameras at the front or underbelly of the plane.
But back to the airport: I fully expected to be surrounded by beautiful Danish men, having been told that they are the true draw of Scandinavia. Well, to be brief, the boarding area was a big disappointment in that regard. I'm not sure if there is a serious population collapse in Denmark or is there was an AARP special on international flight, but at least 85% of the passengers were well past their prime. And at least another 10% of the passengers were Asian families, leaving only two semi-godlike men at the gate. One was clearly still in his teens (I felt like a dirty old woman appraising him from afar) and the other was with his wife and new baby, so I decided to delay my man-scoping adventures until I arrived in the morning.
The funniest thing at the gate was the boarding announcers. Since I was in the international area, there were flights going to many different countries. For each flight, the information was announced first in English, then in the alternate language of the airline—except for the French flights. For all flights going to France, the announcement was made FIRST in French, then in English. The kicker was that the announcer had an almost incomprehensible cockney British accent for the English portion, as in "'Allo, ladies and gents, g'day to you oll."
After a lot of waiting, I finally got on the above-mentioned plane, at which time I fell immediately asleep. The flight was only half full, so I got two seats to myself, two pillows, and two blankets—and thank goodness because it was freezing.
A note on the safety film: Janie and I spent a good 20 minutes pretending to take off on an airplane in the pre-security area of Dulles, so I felt like I was intimately knowledgeable on the routine safety information common to pre-flight departure. Well, the safety film they played before we took off was almost exactly like the other films I've seen, but something just didn't seem right. Then I realized that all the passengers and flight crew depicted in the film were blond, svelte, and definitely Scandinavian. The only minority in the film was a Southeastern Asian man (who at the end of the film departed the plane and went along solo, whereas all the other passengers met loving family members at the gate area). This film was in stark contrast to the US-based safety films, which try to outdo one another in terms of minority representation. I guess it's just not an issue here…
So now I'm three hours into the flight, with a yummy dinner under my belt (literally), and A Bug's Life on the screen in front of me. Next, I plan on watching The Station Agent, which comes highly recommended from AA. Ta-ta for now.
