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So, Where Were We?

Light House on Lake Michigan

One of my favorite buildings!

Ah, I am a much more rested and thinking human being today. After the last post I slept for 6 more hours! Guess that explains all the bad grammar and spelling mistakes from that post! Sorry about that! So, where were we in the story? Ah, yes, we had just gotten to Milwaukee (MKE) and I was about to rave of the beauty of the city. For starters, it's on Lake Michigan, the 2nd biggest of the Great Lakes. And the lake is so blue, and huge, you feel like you are at the ocean. I dare say that if you live in the Midwest and can't make to the the coast, this lake would be a perfectly viable substitute. So MKE has that going for it, it's a "beach town." Not only that but the Milwaukee River flows through the city, giving it a nice river walk, which looked like the spot to be on a summer night, not so much in the winter with the snow and ice. It was super slippery! So you have outdoor activities galore, what about in door? Well, for me and Fuse and our limited time we were only able to see a few things. On out first night, we took a little stroll and admired some of the beautiful buildings in downtown. This was also the night that we went and saw Brian Regan at the Pabst Theater. The man is funny! His facial expressions are great and he uses a lot of body movements in his act. The place was packed. The theater is beautiful, one of the oldest in the country and just lovely inside.

Art Museum Entrance

Pabst Theater

The next day we went to the super fun restaurant called The Safe House. This is a spy themed restaurant complete with a secret entrance, password and escape route! It was quite fun to explore and enjoy. We looked into going to the Miller Brewing Company, just to see how a huge beer company does things, but it was closed on Sundays. Sad.  Not sure what else to do that day, and being car less we were told to check out the art museum and some bars in the old, renovated 3rd Ward neighborhood. That sounded good to us, so we did. The art museum is right on the lake and the building is beautiful. We went in, but did go to the exhibits, jut looked at the building. It was a pretty neat site to see. Then we walked to the 3rd Ward, which is a revitalized part of town that has some shops and bars and restaurants. Being Sunday, most things were closed, so we settled for a stroll through the Milwaukee Public Market. A fun little market with local goods, food and drinks, namely, chocolates and coffee for us. With everything being closed and it snowing, we just went back to the hotel and then to the other comedian, Gabriel Iglesias. Completely different style from the night before. G.I. was on a Comedy Central tour so there were about 5 other comedians there too. Plus he went over the show time by an hour! It was great! We really enjoyed him too. If you get a chance to see either him or Brian Regan do it!

Milwaukee Public Market

So there you have it, Milwaukee, a diamond in the Midwest. If you are looking for a fun, unique, not so touristy place to go for a weekend getaway I highly recommend it. If you do, be sure to check hotwire.com for deals. We paid $50 for a place in the middle of downtown that was really nice.

Next up on the blog:
Beijing, a city lost in smog! 

Milwaukee, A Beautiful Land

Is there a better time to blog than when you are desperately trying to sleep, but due to good ol' jet lag you can't? Yeah, I didn't think so either. Jet lag will get even the best of us at some point and after 7 day in Asia, it has caught up to me. It's a funny thing really. When I woke up 6:30am, after only 6 hours of sleep, I still felt exhausted and even now I'm yawning like a new born kitten, but alas, no sleep. So, I thought I'll get a post in this morning!
I wanted to share about Milwaukee! First some background on why Milwaukee. Fuse had a birthday in December and I was thinking of what to get him. I started looking to see if any of the comedians he liked were going to be in the Seattle area anytime soon. They weren't. But I did see that two of them where going to be in Milwaukee on consecutive dates in March. Then I thought to myself, hum, Milwaukee, kinda random, could be kinda fun. Breweries, Lake Michigan, comedy, why not? So that is how 3 months after his birthday we ended up freezing in Wisconsin.
Before I rave about the wonders of this beautiful city you have to hear the crazy story of how we got there. First, we aren't morning people. We are more the 2am-10am sleepers and luckily our jobs are accommodating to that. So when I was looking to book our tickets (standby of course) the 6am departure, while the smartest idea, did not sound very appealing. (FYI, as an airlines employee we can travel on a flight provided there is an open seat. No open seat, no go.) So instead of starting off this fun weekend with a 3am wake up, I booked us on the 1pm flight to Detroit and then the last flight out to Milwaukee. For those of you not in the airline industry, this was a bad plan.  One mishap and we would be stuck in Detroit for the night. You can see where this story is headed can't you?
So on that Friday afternoon, well rested, we headed to the airport. Our first flight was marvelous. We had seats together, in the exit row, it was lovely. Then we got to Detroit and things took a downhill spiral. Snowstorm in Milwaukee earlier that day and canceled flights to the flight we wanted was overbooked by about 20 people. There was really no hope for us. But we stuck around, just in case, because with standby travel, you just never know. But that night, it wasn't meant to be and we were off to a hotel. The next day we were back at the airport. At this point we still had time to get to Milwaukee in time for the first comedian, Brian Regan, that night. But things looked bleak. "I'm a gambling woman," the gate agent told us at the first Milwaukee flight,  "and I won't gamble on getting on a flight to MKE today." Great. Not to fear, we activated plan B. Fly to Chicago and Amtrak it to MKE. Where there seat to O'Hara? Nope, Midway? Yes! Off we went. After a phone call to a good friend in Chicago for assistance we made our way to the train station and boarded the 3:15 to MKE, with arrival at 4:30.
This was my first time on a train in America. It is lovely. Quick and easy boarding, nice comfy seats, you can get up when you want, there are sleeper cars for long hauls. It was a great experience for the hour long ride. I'm kinda jonesing to get back on one.  Then we arrived in MILWAUKEE! Woot! Woot! Out hotel was only 3 blocks from the Amtrak and we were there in no time. Time to get our Milwaukee weekend going, but after 2-3 hours of sleep the night before (2am west coast bedtime, means not tired till 5am east coast time) we were kind of dragging.
And so am I at this moment and this post is getting kind of long, so I'm going to save the rest for part 2: The Actual Milwaukee Part! Check back soo....zzzzz......zzzzz.

Coming Out of Hibernation

It has been a long, rainy winter with no blog posts. It started off honestly enough, I kept going back to Narita, and who wanted to hear more about that? Then Christmas was here and then January when nothing was going on. Then I was just lazy, and now here we are in March and I am ready to bring back the blog from hibernation. And there are lots of new and exiting things going on. First, on the work front, we are switching to a new scheduling system, which means no more month long on call days! I will have a schedule and know where I'm going. This is going to be such a nice change. Besides the obvious fact that I know what trips I have, I'll be able to plan for other things to do and have a little bit more of a life outside of my job. It also means more opportunities to blog about my travels, because I'll be having some! We are also starting a direct Seattle-Paris flight at then end of March, so I hopefully will be there some this summer. Because of that I have started to learn French in hopes of becoming a translator on our flights sometime soon. I'm taking classes and using Rosetta Stone, so we will see how that comes along.

Recent travels have taken me to Beijing, where I sit typing this and trying to breathe. The air quality today is not good. --------------->


And to Milwaukee, WI last month with Fuse for a belated birthday trip. We went and saw two stand up comics, Brian Regan and Gabriel Iglesias. But were very funny. I plan to do a post on the trip this week. If you've never been to Milwaukee, or even though of going, you should check back as it is a lovely city.

Lots of posts coming up soon, I hope you check back soon!
Please feel free to leave comments below!
Happy Travels!

# 2

Yes, it has been to long since my last post. I have no good excuse. I haven't been on a single trip since the end of October, so I have had nothing but time on my hands really. Even though I spent a lot of that time visiting my family in Tennessee and moving to a new apartment. I'm somewhat cluttered so it has taken awhile to get the place in order. But I have also used that time to make my second video blog! This one is about my normal Narita layover adventure. It's kinda long, so I understand if you have to take a break. I hope to have more soon. and as always bear with me, I'm learning still!
*A fun side note. I have yet to get internet setup at my house and am using my phone as a tether. So it took literally 3 hours to up load this video.

Travel Tips

Recently I was inspired by the KLM flight attendants. When I am in Amsterdam I have to walk though the KLM flight crew area. I always see their flight attendants with one suitcase. One. And I am always dragging 4 bags total with me. So I was inspired to downsize my stuff. Did I really need all that stuff I was dragging around? NO! So recently I went though my bag and worked my way down to 3, counting my purse. So that is my rollerbag, my lunch bag and a purse. Let me share with you 3 tips as to how I got there.

#1
I can't believe I haven't been doing this before, but last week I bought 3 contact lens cases, for around $3 at Target. In them I put my face creams. Moisturizer, night cream, eye cream, ect. I have six products that take up almost no space in my bag, where before I had 6 containers! That has saved me so much space.
#2
Kinda on the same lines as #1 if you need to bring hair stuff with you. I usually just use the shampoo at the hotel, but like to bring my own conditioner with me. If you save the bottles from the hotel, instead of buying the 3 oz bottles you can save space. Most of the hotel bottles are around 1 oz so if you have four hair products, you are saving 9 oz of space in your bag.
#3
Do you really need those five shirts for a three day trip? This might be a tough one for you fashion conscious folks, but for me I've found I really only need one shirt and one pair of pants. The clothes in my suitcase are as follows:
~ Three pairs of underwear (one to wear, one the be ready to wear, one in the wash)
~ One short sleeved shirt
~ One long sleeved shirt/jacket/wrap that can be used with the short sleeved shirt
~ One tank top, sports bra and pair of shorts for the gym, which can double as pajamas as needed
~ Two or three pairs of socks (same idea as the underwear)
~ One pair of jeans
~ One "layover" dress that doubles as a beach cover up, yet is nice enough looking for a night out.
~ Extra pair of hose.
~ One swimsuit

That's it! Seriously, I'm looking in my suitcase right now. Those are all the clothes I have. The idea is to realize you can always wash stuff, or if need to, buy something on the road.
So net time you go on a trip do as someone smart once said, "Lay out the stuff you want to take and the money you are taking. Then take half the clothes and twice the money."

P.S. I'm working on another video blog from Nartia, come back soon for it!

# 1

So I'm still out here. I've been thinking of the direction I want to go with the blog and I have been thinking about trying out.....video blogs! Yes, here is my first attempt. I'm still learning how to edit the clips and take good clips. Stick with me, it's going to get better!

Writers Block

I've been having a bit of writers block lately. I have wanted to do a post, but haven't seemed to be able to get any thoughts formed in my head and definitely haven't been able to get anything down in words. Travel wise I have been here and there since my last post. I had a 6 day trip that took me down to Honolulu, up to Narita and then back down to Honolulu for a glorious 36 hours. I was able to check out some new spots there that I hadn't been to before, namely Leonard's Bakery. It is a bakery that has been around since the 50's severing Portuguese Malasadas, kinda like a doughnut. Mmmhmmm, they were delicious. Once back from that I spent a week traverse the good ol' USA going to San Diego, Anchorage, Detroit and Omaha. It was my first time in Nebraska, bring my state total up to 46. Only Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware and Louisiana to go! How close are you to hitting all 50 states?

Sit, Sit, Sit, Eat, Eat, Eat

So it appears that the travel blog is turning into a restaurant review blog lately. Since summer flying can to an end over labor day weekend I have been sitting around, a lot. So what's a girl to do? Eat! I've been out and about with people all last week trying some fun, yummy new places in Seattle. I am a HUGE fan of Groupons and I had one for a place called Pintxos in downtown Seattle. Pintxos are basically the same things as tapas, only in the Basque region of Spain there are called pintxos instead. Regardless of the name they are delicious and I am a huge fan. Of course, they are Spanish. This place was cool. To start with, it was tiny. Probably seated 30 people I'd imagine, and that is including the outside patio. Given it's size and popularity you need to make a reservation. When we got there, at 8pm on a Thursday we had to wait 45 mins. Imagine that wait time on the weekend. They do have a nice system for waiting though. They put you name and phone number into a iPad app and once there is a table they call you on your phone. So you are free to walk around the neighborhood. Once you do get a table you are in for a treat. When you first walk in to your left is a bar and the kitchen! The 'kitchen' is literally two guys at the bar making the food right there. That was a first to see and really neat. Then there is the food itself. Serrano, manchego, chorizo, yummy yummy yummy. The friend I went with was vegetarian so we steered clear of most of the meat dishes (I did have to get a side of chorizo for one dish.) and stuck with things like, a Spanish tortilla, mac and cheese, figs with garlic oil and a Catalan creme brulee and chocolate mouse. We didn't get any drinks because we had a margarita across the street at the Mexican joint during our 45 min wait. But they had a large selection of drinks including fresh made Sangria. Yum. Bottom line, you're in Seattle and looking for a fun, unique dinner, go here. We spent exact $35 and were stuffed, with a box to take home.
Hopefully more travel related themes to come soon!

Delish Meal in Seattle

Do you live in Seattle? Are you coming to visit in Seattle? Are you on a layover in Seattle? Then you MUST go to Saley's restaurant at 1361 E Olive Way (between Melrose Ave & Bellevue Ave) in the Capital Hill neighborhood. Oh my goodness, it was one of the most delicious meals I have had. It's a crepe place, but they also have some sandwiches as well. But the crepes, heavenly. They offer about 15-20 different types of crepes from sweet to savory. The savory crepes come with their special crepe sauce, which is amazing and reminded me of a hollandaise sauce. You can choose between a mixture of ingredients such as: Ham, turkey, spinach, bacon, avocado, tomatoes, salmon and cheese. The sweet crepes have choices like: Cinnamon and sugar, carmel, nutella, bananas and strawberries. They offer a combo plate of 1 savory and 1 sweet for $10.95 so you can try both. I highly recommend that even though it is a lot of food.
On top of the yummy food the staff was super friendly. I had a somewhat odd looking gift certificate that they gave me no trouble with at all.
The place is on the small side, with about 10 tables so it's possible you might have to wait at peak hours, but it's worth it. Make a place today to go to Saley as soon as possible!

Creme What?

I'm always a fan of a good 'Lost in Translation' story so here's a quick one to get your day going. After arriving in Amsterdam this morning, for the third week in a row, I tried to take a quick nap. Alas sleep wasn't coming with the howling wind whipping by my window. So I crawled out of bed and went over to the grocery store. While I was there I thought I'd pick up a little treat for the awesome people who work at the hotel we stay at here in AMS. With probably 200 flight attendants and pilots here each day, they do a great job of keeping a smile on their face and being friendly and helpful. I saw these mini apple turnovers in the bakery and thought that they would be good, then I went over to the dairy area to get some whipped cream, cause that's how they eat apple pastries over here. I picked one that look really delish, right next to the big can of what looked like the Dutch version of Redi-Whip. I was happy and proud of my choices. After my return to the hotel I pulled the turnovers out of my bag along with the whipped cream. I held it out to the lady and asked if they do indeed eat this with apple pie here in Holland. She looked a little confused for a moment, and then said, "Um, yes, I think one of my coworkers will like that." Great, I thought! I've done well and pulled off a culture worthy gift!
After getting back to my room I heated up a turnover I had gotten for myself (of course!) and got out my own little cup of whipped cream. I opened it up expecting to find light, airy whipped cream. Instead I saw a thick, almost custard like substance. Uh-oh, I thought, what is this? After a sniff or two and a teenie tiny taste I discovered that I had in fact brought back for the lovely staff, sour cream. No wonder the lady looked at me funny. I'm hoping they all got a good laugh over the silly girl who brought sour cream to eat with apple pie, while they are enjoying said apple pie!

Eclectic

Well folks it's time for an eclectic blog post. I've got some new ideas about where the blog is going to go as I want to blog more often, but right now the works trips aren't producing much exciting news. So I'm looking at mixing things up. Stay tuned!
In the past 2 weeks I have been to Amsterdam twice. The first time I didn't even leave the hotel. The 2nd time was a bit more exciting. There is a market that sets up across the street from the hotel we stay at and I hit that up with a fellow FA. I was able to meet up with some fun ladies from Atlanta and have dinner at a Thai resturant a few blocks away from our hotel which was a nice experience. I'm stocked up in Stroopwafles and milk/creamer for a while now. :-)
In other news I went to Portland with Fuse last night to check out a concert. The band Dispatch was playing at the Roseland theater in downtown Portland. I am a new fan, having just really listened to their music a few weeks ago. (Check out this awesome song: Flying Horses) But that didn't matter any cause it was an awesome show. Super fun and a great time. We checked out a few other spots in Portland while we were there. We got a super yummy sandwhich at a place called Theo's on 5th Ave. After the show we went to Bailey's Taproom where we played a mean game of chess that, sadly, I lost. They have a big stack of board games that you can check out. But be careful because they closed kinda early, at midnight.
The next day we checked out the street cart foods at 10th and Washington. There was any food option that you could imagine here. Mexican, Indian, Greek, Southern, you name it, they had it. A few blocks away from that was Powell's City Books a crazy, huge bookstore that everyone told me I needed to check out. And it was huge. Lot's of new and used items. On the way back to get the car at the hotel we walked through the Saturday market near the Skidmore Fountain and got some free ice cream. Yum!
This was the first time I had ever spent any amount of time in Portland and it is definitely it's own city. It's quirky and eclectic.  Fuse pointed out that he heard the phrase 'Only in Portland" used quite a few times signifying that whatever event was happening at said time was something that would only happen in Portland.
Now I am trying to rest up for whatever trip may come up again this week! Maybe a 4 day Amsterdam? That would be time to go for a bike ride in the country! We'll see! And check back soon for the new style and approach to the blog!

Voglio andare a Roma.

I got back from a short 3 day trip to Amsterdam this week. Nothing exciting to report there. I didn't even leave the hotel.  :-( We arrived at a weird time and left at a weird time. So it was hard to find a good time to sleep and go out and do stuff. Next month though we have 4 days trips there that I am hoping to get. I really want to go for a bike ride in the countryside!
This post however isn't about Amsterdam, it's about Rome! One of my coworkers on my flight to AMS just returned from a week long trip there and was showing us his photos. Love at first sight! Of course I'd seen photos of Rome before, I mean, hello, the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain! But something about his photos were just amazing. I thought to myself what a great place to spend a few days in October. It won't be to hot or to cold. Hopefully there won't be crazy amounts of tourists everywhere. Things might be cheaper. So I'm looking into it. Emailed a couple of friends that have been there/lived there and asked their opinion. I picked up a Rome Lonely Planet City Guide at the library yesterday. I'm looking through Trip Advisor and CouchSurfing to find plans.
If you're looking for something to do in October and what to go to Rome, let me know!

Honolulu, Guam and a Funny "Chicken" Story

I’m on the last stop of my 8 day trip. Honolulu. Talking about ending with a bang. Honolulu is an amazing place. On one hand you have the buzz of a big city, complete with traffic, buses, people everywhere and food anywhere you turn. On the other you have the beautiful beaches, mountains, waterfalls and history. The temperature is a normal 80 degrees year around. I don’t think there is anywhere else like it in the world. And the people, so diverse! There’s Hawaiian (duh), other Pacific Islanders, mainlanders, Japanese, Filipino, I even met a fella from Belarus here once. Who knew this is what you find thousands of miles from any major piece of land. Here are some other cool facts about Hawaii:
~Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee.
~From east to west Hawaii is the widest state in the United States.
~The Hawaiian Islands are the projecting tops of the biggest mountain range in the world.
~There are no racial or ethnic majorities in Hawaii. Everyone is a minority. Caucasians (Haoles) constitute about 34%; Japanese-American about 32%; Filipino-American about 16% and Chinese-American about 5%. It is very difficult to determine racial identification as most of the population has some mixture of ethnicities.
~The island houses the world's biggest telescope and more scientific observatories in one place than anywhere else in the world.
It's a sweet place.

More recap on the trip thus far.  I spent 2 nights in Guam. Both were fairly short lay overs. 13 hours and 1 hours. So I wasn't able to get out and explore to much. I was able to hang out with about 8 fellow crew members for dinner one night and with a fellow Seattle reserve on another. That was a intersting night. After a trip to the store we came back with some locally distilled Mango flavored vodka. Big mistake. That might be the most disgusting thing I've ever put in my mouth. Parents, do you want you kids to never drink? Make them try this stuff and I am sure you'll have no problems. It was terrible. Looking back I should have known better. And mixing it with mango and peach nectar probably wasn't a good idea either. Live and learn.

I spent the last night in Narita. Well, technically I spent last night in a 767 coming to Honolulu, but you get the idea. Ran into another flight attendant friend there and we had dinner and hung out for a bit. I regaled him with my tell of what happened on the flight up to Nartia from Guam. Let me share with you all too.
This sweet, young Japanese mother flags me down to ask me a question during boarding. She is sitting in her seat with a baby, maybe about 2ish years old and her husband. The baby is eating animal crackers. On them are printed the names of what animal they are. The mom holds one cookie out and asks me, "How do you say this word in English?" The word? Cock. For just a second I was taken aback as the slang use of the word is much more common than the use that it was here, on a chicken animal cracker. What could I do? I pronounced it for her and explained that it was a male chicken, but that the word rooster was much more common to use. I didn't feel it was my place to explain to her right there in the middle of the aircraft that in American slang it also mean penis. I walked away with that lost in translation feeling again.
What else, what else. I don't know if anything can top that story. This will be a good time to finally take that nap I've been needing all day since I'm going on 27 hours awake, with a 2 hour nap in there sometime.

A Spanish Quasi Holiday.

So much going on the past few days, there just hasn’t been time to blog. On Aug 5th I took the red eye over to JFK to work a flight over to Valencia, Spain on the 6th. There was a lovely 50 hour layover that followed. Then back to JFK on the 9th and Seattle after there. I got back to Seattle at 8pm on the 9th, meaning I’d been up almost 24 hours. Then there was one day off and a call to go to Asia on an eight day trip which is where this post is coming from. At the moment I am careening down the highway in Osaka, Japan on the way to the airport to go over to Guam. I’m pretty excited as it’s my first layover in Guam. Plus a fellow Seattle FA is going to be there as well. So it should be a fun layover. Speaking of first time layovers I have to tell you all about Valencia. If you have been reading my blog, or know me personally you will know that I have an obsession with Spain. I love it there, want to live there one day, ect. ect. This was my first time in Valencia though.
A little back ground on Valencia:
It’s located on the Mediterranean, on the eastern coast of the country. It is the 3rd biggest city in Spain. It’s a little industrial. They speak Valencian in addition to Castellano. They are known for paella, a seafood and rice dish.

The flight over there was a nightmare. Not because of passengers really, but because the plane that we take over there is falling apart. It really is a miracle that we stay in the air. Everything was broken: video screens, audio for the movie, lavs, seats. We didn’t have enough meals, people were sick. It was just a rough flight. But then we landed and were in Spain (cue heavenly sounding music here). Everything was great in an instant. After a 5 hour ‘nap’ I hit the beach with some fellow FA’s. August is vacation month in Spain and the beach was packed. As beaches go its wasn’t spectacular. The water was kinda brown with sea stuff in it, ie, seaweed, sticks, pieces of unidentifiable things. Not like the clear waters of Cozumel. But what the water lacked the people watching made up for.
Spanish boys are fine fine fine.


The next day was spent sightseeing. Valencia seemed very spread out to me. Where we stay at is across the street from the Ciudad de las Bellas Artes. Which is a very cool museum complex that has an IMAX theater, a science museum, an Aquarium and a . I walked around the outside, but didn’t go into any of the museums. I had to save my Euros. From the Ciudad there is a great stretch of park that wraps around the east part of the city. This is an excellent place to go for a run, a bike ride, or just enjoy being outside for awhile. Once in the city center Valencia might remind you of any other Spanish city with its plazas and windy, crooked streets that you can get lost in. Stroll past the bullring that is next door to the north train station.


Visit the Mercado Central which has everything from meats to fruits and veggies to breads. A popular item was fresh squeezed juices. Yum, mango and melon. Delish. I was able to help a lady out who was struggling to communicate with a woman at the bread shop. She didn’t speak Spanish and the woman didn’t speak English, or French, as it turned out the lady was from France. That was a cool experience, translating for the French lady.

If you are in most any Spanish city you have the chance to go to a cathedral. I’m kind of a ‘once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all’ type people. But I was told the cathedral in Valencia was a little special. It claims to have the actual Holy Grail. Eric Idle and Dan Brown would be disappointed.



So I thought I’d check it out. Yep, just like any other cathedrals, except there was a gold cup on display. But I was glad to go up the tower there as it had marvelous 360 degree views of the city. That was way worth the 2 Euros to check out. Also in Valencia is the Lonja de la Seda, an UNESCO world heritage site. With its twisty inter columns and checkered board floors it’s worth a stop on your way to the market.

By this point in the day my feet were barely working any more and it was time from some dinner. Sadly, I got back to my room and realized I only had 4 Euros left so it was leftovers from the night before and off to bed.
As a city Valencia didn’t impress me too much. Malaga, as a southern coast city, is at the top of my list still. But, my heart still belongs to Santiago in the northwest. Te quiero a ti Santiago.

Alas, my hour long ride to the airport in Osaka is about to come to a close. More on my 8 day adventure in Asia later. Have a lovely weekend all! Get out there and go somewhere!

One is the Loneliest Number

Here I am in Valencia, Spain. There was a problem with my room am patiently awaiting a new one whilst trying to stay awake. Ugh. This is my first time in Valencia. So far the day hasn't been super. The flight over was so hectic. There was so many problems: Most people audio for the movie didn't work, we were short 4 meals, the bathrooms were acting up, we didn't have all the supplies we needed, on and on and on. Then we get to the hotel and I have a smoking room. I hate to be a pain, but ew. I am having to wait until they clean another room. :-( I suppose it's a good time to blog.
Occasionally on a layover, or just a trip in general, I will get this over whelming feeling of sadness. It doesn't happen often, thank goodness, but when it does it sucks. I asked a friend if they ever felt that way and they said sometimes they felt lonely and that maybe it was loneliness I was feeling. I thought about that and decided that maybe they are right. This job can promote loneliness. We spend half the month in hotels, alone. And usually this is great. It gives you time to yourself, especially if you have a hectic life at home. But occasionally you just feel lonely. You are all by yourself in a foreign city. It's a weird feeling. I bring it up because I have that feeling today. Why? I wish I knew. Maybe it was the hectic flight, maybe its the room mess up, maybe its the sleepiness. I just don't know. I guess everyone gets lonely sometimes, even us travelers. More to come from Valencia later.

“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.”
– Freya Stark

Lost in Translation, Again

This week I was in Narita again. I made my routine trip to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. Lately that has been a chocolate croissant, which is usually still warm from the oven, some sushi or tempura fish, milk tea and assorted junk food items. This time however I thought I'd look for a beer to bring back for someone I know that enjoys a good brewski. I personally do not care for beer so I am somewhat dumb when it comes to them, especially when most of the label is in Japanese. I knew two things though, 1. Fuse, (whom you might remember from my last post) likes bitter beer and 2. Strong hop flavor. So, I'm standing in the beer area and to my right there is beer, to my left there is beer. I am clearly in the beer section. I decided that I was going to try to find a very Japanese beer, i.e. one that had no English on it. I spied just what I was looking for, a bottle all in Japanese except for 2 words "hoppy beverage." Sweet, I thought, the one words I can read say that this is a hoppy beer. Great! I get two as there were 2 different types. I pay for my items and head back to the bus stop to enjoy my croissant and what turned out to be banana flavored milk, which was pretty tasty. As I am sitting there a fellow FA comes up to me and we start comparing purchases. I pull out the beers and start telling this story. By chance I happen to look at the bottle top and it says, in English: Beer Flavor. Uh-Oh, that didn't sound good. So when we got back on the bus, I asked two of our interpreters who had came to the mall too to tell me what in the world I had bought. They too were somewhat perplexed. "I think it's some type of soda," one of them said. "I think its something that you mix with a type of liquor we have here in Japan," said the other. "We are pretty sure it isn't a beer, even though it has alcohol in it, but also sugar." They had no idea what it was. So now I have two bottles of this unknown substance that I am going to cart back to the states with me. They are sitting in my kitchen, I am afraid to try one myself. Fuse seems pretty courageous, I think I'll stick with the original plan and give them to him to try. After explaining what they are of course. I couldn't be that mean. So much for foreign drinks. This weekend I go to Valencia, Spain so I think I'll be safe to bring back a bottle of wine. That can't get to confusing, can it?

Random Fact: The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" comes from an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper published January 30, 1835.
Random Quote: "Give me oysters and beer for dinner every day of the year, And I'll feel fine, I'll feel fine." ~ Tin Cup Chalice, Jimmy Buffett

Ironic Karma

Oh the irony! This post is coming to you live from Detroit's International airport. Unfortunately, I will not be going anywhere international from here today. I took the red eye in from Seattle and was all prepared to hit the hay for a nap when I thought, "I'm going to look at my schedule one more time, just to be sure I know the right report time." Thank goodness I did, as my 8 DAY TRIP!!! was gone from my schedule!!! I call up scheduling to learn that, yep, the first leg of the trip, Detroit to Narita, canceled today. :-( So no 8 day trip, no Bangkok, no Hong Kong, no extra pay, nothing for me. Its a terrible thing to have happen. But I am going to look on the bright side, I'll get back to you when I learn what the bright side is. The irony is that I was planning on doing a post on karma today and share a story about last night with you all. (This just in, from a facebook post as I type: At least I get free drinks on my way back to Seattle in a few mins!) So the irony is what karma came back to me today?
Ok, the story. What goes around comes around. The golder rule. Do unto others as you would have done to you. Karma. All great ideas to live by right? Of course!
Last night I was out, once again in Capital Hill, with a fella I will call Fuse, and we went over to a place called Barca to get a drink. It was crowded as there was a big block party going on in the neighborhood last night. So needless to say the bartenders were crazy busy, and it was about 11pm. We make our way to the bar and Fuse goes to order us 2 gin and tonics. On a side note, I am trying gin out to see if I care for it. The bar tender asks "How's it going?" "Good,"Fuse says, "How's your night going?" Then he pauses to actually here the bar tenders answer. What a swell guy right? So we proceed to have a discussion about how being nice to people can get you far. Especially people in the service industry. Be nice to me on the plane and you may get something extra! Be nice and polite to service people and they notice and appreciate it! As we were speaking the bartender, Stefan, makes us a gin on the rocks with a splash of tonic. Apparently he had appreciated Fuse's politeness and rewarded him with 2 stiff drinks. Wow, not sure if I care for gin.

We continue on with our conversation and about 20, maybe 30 mins later Fuse comments on the fact that Stefan is making a lot of mojitos and that they are such a pain. We are speaking these words as he muddles the mint and lime, we are still watching as he pours it into two rocks glasses and gives them to us! Again, being polite, gets you far. But it doesn't end there. After finishing our first drink and the mini mojito we thinking of leaving when Stefan puts down 2 more g&t's in front of us! "It's on me," he says, "If you guys leave I don't know who might take your spot!"
Wow, he was so thankful to have some nice people there that he was giving us free drinks!
Moral of the story? Be nice to people! Be courteous to service industry people! That includes flight attendants! :-)

Now back to Seattle and some much needed sleep!

A Walk on the Hill

Well, after a crazy month of work last month, this has been a rather slow one so far. So with not much travel info to blog with I wanted to share more about the local scene here in the Seattle area. While I haven't been to any far off lands, well any NEW far of lands, lately I have been in the Capital Hill neighborhood of Seattle eating, drinking and being merry. I'd been to the area a few times before, working on a movie set, or just driving around, but I never really checked it out. It is a fun place! Shops, bars, cafes, restaurants, movie theaters, its all there. It's got a real youthful, eclectic, urban vibe to it. Part of the happening grunge scene of the 90's, legend has it, (ok, wikipedia has it) that Pearl Jam actually came up with their name while sitting in one of the local coffee shops, B&O Espresso. Kinda cool.
Walking down one of the main streets, Broadway, you come across an unique art display. The Broadway Dance Steps are a set of 8 bronze shoes mapping out different dances on the sidewalk, such as the rumba, tango and waltz. Who wouldn't want to stop on the street and learn how to two step with someone? Are you in the mood for food? Capital Hill seems to have it all. Pizza, burgers, Thai, Italian, Mexican, Sushi, Greek, even a chocolate bar! Check out Bleu Bistro a quirky place at the corner of Broadway & Olive/John. It features a super cool menu with lengthy, historical descriptions and explanations for most food and drink items. It seriously would take quite some time to pick out what you wanted if you read it all. But the food is yummy, a lot of pesto options, and the atmosphere is fun. The booths have curtains around them for a more 'intimate' setting. Loads of fun and super yum! Or for a happy hour treat and some pool go over to Garage, a pool hall/bar/bowling alley. Happy Hour prices were some of the best in town and with about 15-20 pool tables your wait time is short. I hear that brunch is all the rage over there, but have yet to partake myself. Don't worry, I'll get around to it, but till then if you're in the neighborhood, go check make a night of it over in Capital Hill.

Random Fact: Ants never sleep.
Random Quote: But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?  ~Albert Camus

A Day In The Life

There is a fellow blogger that I just love to read, The Sassy Stew, her posts are always so funny and true about that small 1% of passengers. Today I was reading back through her archives and just rolling in the floor with laughter. I got to thinking about all the crazy stuff I have seen, which actually isn't that much. I am kinda thankful for that. As much I like having a good story to tell, not being in an emergency or having a situation where you need to call the cops is probably better. But I thought I would share a few stories about how 3 people amazed me, in a bad way, on my last trip. It really is amazing sometimes to see what people think is acceptable.

I was on a 4 day domestic trip over the 4th of July week and story number one takes place on one of those days. First of all some background on what my uniform looks like as it is an important factor in this story. I like to wear the dresses that we have during the summer. There are two, a red one and a blue one. Both have a breast pocket where you can put a pen, or pocket square, or whatever. As the name implies, its right over the boob area for us ladies. With that being explained, lets go back to the flight in question. I was walking through the cabin with a bottle of water and a stack of cups when this guy holds up a used napkin to indicate he wants to throw it away. Now, on a side tangent, I am always shocked when people try to give me trash when my hands are full! Do they expect me to whip out a 3rd arm? Hold it with my teeth? Squeeze it between my knees and waddle down the aisle? I can't carry your trash right now people! Geez! So when this guys starts waving his gross, dirty, used napkin at me, I hold up my hands to indicate that, HELLO!!, I can't take your TRASH, while I am serving water and have no hand to take it, or bag to put it in. So what does he do you ask? Well he makes a motion with his free hand that interpreted as wanting a cup a water so I lean down a bit to make it easier for him to get a cup and lo and behold as he is coming towards me the world kinda slows down into slow motion like on a movie, where everything happens so fast you don't have time to react, but it seems so slow that you have the chance to process it all. He reaches up with the dirty napkin and sticks it into my dress pocket!! EWWW! Now not only has he put his TRASH into MY clothing! MY uniform! But in a way he has groped me! I was shocked. Who does that?!? Calmly, I sat my water on the floor, grabbed his stupid, gross napkin out my MY DRESS POCKET!!! and place it on his tray. Calmly still I told him it is not acceptable to place trash in a flight attendants uniform and under no circumstances is it ever ok to put anything in my front pocket! His response? "Oh, when you leaned down (to offer him the cups) I thought that was what you wanted me to do." Are you for real buddy?

Story Number 2
Might as well stick with the theme from that last story about inappropriate sexual behaviors on board. This one isn't as bad as the trash in my pocket guy, but still merits a "What the h**l are you thinking?!" On this flight, same trip, different day, I was sitting in the jumpseat where there are 2 passengers directly in front of you. Now, so fa's are super picky and ask people not to have anything in their hands during take off and landing, not even a book or magazine,  because if something happens what ever they have is going to come flying at us. I don't care if you have a magazine, but on this particular day there was a guy with a HUGE laptop. I mean circa 1995, Dell something that had to have weighed 20lbs. It could have easily done some damage so I told the guy that I needed to stow it for take off. Now most people when you tell them that you need to stow something either: A. Try to get up to stow it themselves or B. Hand it to you to stow. (Which if you are already seated and we are moving, is the correct option.) This guy opted for option C. Which turned out to be 'pick the laptop up off my lap yourself.' Now this might not have been such a big deal had his laptop been at his knees, as opposed to directly on top of his crotch area. So after telling him I needed to stow it, he proceeds to lean back, lift his hands in the air and look down at the lap top to indicate I need to pick it up myself.  Before I really thought about it I almost did it, but thankfully realized that had I went to pick it up my self, I probably would have had to inadvertently touched this guy in a spot that in no way did I want to. Eww. Sir, I am sorry, but I am not about to touch you in that way on today's flight. And I told him that and had him hand me his computer. Was he trying to get me to touch 'it'? I'm hopping not. I hope he just didn't realize what would have happened, but people are strange so who knows.

Story number 3 is short. I just couldn't believe that guys asked this. I was walking down the aisle and a man, in his mid 50's I would guess, waves me over. "Miss, I have a question for you." Ok, go ahead. "Those white things out there," pointing out the window, "Are they clouds or snow?" Seriously? We are flying over Minnesota/Michigan in July. Not Colorado or Alaska in January. After I took a second to be sure he was in fact serious, I answered him with the correct answer of 'clouds, sir." After which his wife proceeds to smack him in the leg and yell, "I told you so!" I am guessing she was thinking to her self, 'I can't believe I married this guy, how embarrassing!'

Today's Random Quote: "I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." - Marilyn Monroe