10 New Reasons to Fly Coach

I decided to break my blog ban to share this slideshow. Lots of international airlines and Delta seem to be making some interesting upgrades to their coach sections. I'm particularly intrigued by a state-of-the-art air filter and cooling system and something called "cuddle class".

Check it out and let me know what you think.

See you in another 6 months.

So Much to Plan, So Little Time

Wedding planning has taken over my life. I've been slipping on planning our trip to Scotland. May is quickly approaching (although the weather right now would make it seem otherwise).

Neither plane tickets nor hotels have been booked. Disaster. I must work to change that this weekend. Hopefully saying this here will make it more likely to happen.

World's Most Underrated Cities

Beautiful Providence

Travel and Leisure recently did an article on the world's 10 most underrated cities. Many of the cities I had never heard of. Bratislava?

There was one very special city that I had heard of. Providence made the list!

Glasgow, Scotland also made the list. I've been thinking about where to go on our Scotland trip and was wavering on Glasgow. Maybe I should reconsider.

Check out the entire article here.

Germaphobes Anonymous

I confess, I'm a huge germaphobe. Usually I'm pretty good at keeping my insanity under-wraps. I walk through the world and people think I'm a normal person. In reality, I would love to live with a germ zapping force field around me that would kill the germs off anyone that came near me. It is becoming increasingly hard for me to not run in disgust every time a person coughs without covering their mouth.

This is why when I saw the New York Times article How Not to Get Sick From a Flight I immediately dropped everything and read it.

I already have a system that I believe helps keep me safe from germs on flights.

1. I take Airborne before I go to the airport. 
2. I try not to touch things in the airport or airplane.
3. Since it is impossible to not touch anything, I carry hand sanitizer with me.
4. I try not to touch my face.
5. I wash my hands as much as I can without having to enter gross public bathrooms. If I do have to go into public bathrooms I have another system to try and leave cleaner than I went in.
6. Pray that the person sitting next to me isn't sick.

This may seem crazy, but I would like to point out that lots of people take it a step further. The people interviewed for the NY Times articles were buying all sorts of things to keep the germs at bay.

•  Disposable face masks
• Antiseptic spritzers
• Airline seat covers
• Portable air purifiers (hangs around your neck)
• Nano UV scanners (uses ultraviolet light to kill germs on surfaces)

While I completely understand what motivates these people, I'm way too cheap for all that. The article also mentioned that some people wipe down the arm rests and trays with disinfectant wipes. That is something I could get down with.

Although most of the article didn't give me tips I could use, it did give me a comforting new fact. Major airlines deep clean their planes once a month and do lighter cleanings more frequently than that. This made me happy because I didn't think they were deep cleaning those suckers at all.

Any other germaphobes out there? We've got to stand together...but not too close.

Plaid Could Suit Me

I started out scratching my head about Scotland. I wasn't sure where to start. Usually Trip Advisor is my go-to-site but I didn't feel like I could start there this time. You search by city and I didn't even know which city was the right one to start in. Once I get into the nitty gritty details of the trip I'm sure it'll be helpful. I'm just not there yet.

I ended up going to my beloved NYtimes.com. I typed Scotland into the travel section and got the best overview. It explained:

Loch Ness Monster aka Nessie

• Scotland has amazing seafood and restaurants. It also gave a short list of the best restaurants. Fiance loves seafood and has been slowly making me appreciate it more and more.
• Teeny tiny country. It really does make more sense to look at Scotland as a whole in planning your trip because it is so small. The major cities aren't far from each other. It seems totally feasible to rent a car and road trip from region to region. 
• There is a lot of deep history to explore. Castles, cathedrals, museums, William Wallace (gotta hurry up and watch Braveheart), Loch Ness monster, the list goes on.
• The end of May is the perfect time to go!

I've decided that even though drinking scotch isn't my thing, it would be dumb not to check out the whiskey region. Plus, Fiance loves scotch. I'll be the designated driver that day.

Next up, nailing down dates and looking at flights.

Introducing Scotland

This weekend we got an invitation to a friend's wedding in Scotland. Now I can officially start planning our trip there at the end of May. One small problem. I know nothing about Scotland.

Usually when I go to a new destination I already have things in mind that I want to do or know a couple of the exciting tourist attractions. In this case I'm clueless.

What do people do in Scotland? I have no idea. I picture highlands, scotch, and kilts. I don't drink scotch, I can only spend so long running in circles on some highlands, and I think kilts are for men. I have some Scottish ancestry so it would be interesting to learn more about that. Fiance and I have been watching the show Who Do You Think You Are so we've been on a genealogy kick. Other than that I'm drawing a blank and since I'm the travel agent in the relationship I need to figure it out.

To start, I'm reading Lonely Planet's intro on Scotland. Wish me luck.

Any suggestions?

Navigation Tips That Will Keep the Peace in Your Relationship

Last weekend, Fiance and I went to Rhode Island. Usually when we go he drives and I navigate. It is a beautiful system. This time he wanted to do work in the car and was just being moody so I drove. It didn't work out so well. We switched half way through. Was it because of my driving? No, I'm an excellent driver. It was his horrible attempt at navigating. We didn't get lost (a miracle as far as I can tell) but it was a stressful experience for both of us.

In an effort to give both of us peace of mind the next time I have to drive I've broken down the correct way to navigate. So, for my dear Fiance:

1. You are in total control of the GPS. That means you put the destination address in, you pay attention to it, you make sure the thing doesn't die (we use the GPS in our cellphones), etc.
2. Repeat the next step in the directions at multiple time intervals so nothing sneaks up on the driver. This is also important because it is easier for the driver to understand you than the GPS's robot voice. Especially over the music in the car. Which brings me to my next point.
3. Navigator = DJ. The driver is focused on more important things like keeping you all alive. It is your job to handle the tunes and make sure they are upbeat if it's night. You don't want the driver to fall asleep at the wheel.
4. Look out for road signs. Obviously the driver is doing this too but it is good to help. Especially if the driver continually misses an exit even though you have clearly stated where he should go.
5. Stay calm. When you are sitting next to a frustrated driver that keeps missing exits inexplicably, don't get upset. Calmly repeat the correct way to go. Remember, this person is holding your life in their hands. It is worth it to stroke their ego and say, "Oh honey, anyone would have missed that again and again. That sign is impossible to see...at every angle."
6. Be on cellphone/blackberry duty. Read the driver's emails and/or texts to them even if it makes you incredibly nauseous to do this in the car. Answer their phone. They can't do these things themselves, nor would you want them to.
7. Trust the driver. Thinking that the driver might crash at any moment is stressful for everyone. Plus it just isn't true! I have never gotten into a car accident thank you very much.

These are my lessons from driving with him. I hope he learns to do the same for me. My mother always did say men need to be trained.

What tips would you add? He really does need all the help he can get.

The Travel Itch

It has now been over a month since I've left NYC and a 3-day weekend is approaching.  I want to go somewhere! Anywhere!  Not really anywhere but I don't have a particular place in mind.

I feel like there must be a travel website where you can put in dates and it lists locations with awesome last minute deals.

If such a site exists, what is it?  If it doesn't exist, it was my idea first and if you steal it I'll expect a cut of the profits.

White Christmas

We spent Christmas in Providence, Rhode Island with Boyfriend's Fiance's family.  The blizzard came at the perfect time.  Everyone had arrived and no one was planning on leaving yet.  Our biggest concerns were getting more wine and more firewood.

I didn't really bring any snow gear but that just gave me a built in excuse for not helping the boys shovel.

It was a merry Christmas indeed.

Four States in 24 Hours

Two weeks ago, Boyfriend and I spent a Saturday driving all over creation.

Leg 1: New York to New Jersey. We drove to my uncle's house to pick up my TV from college. I've been storing it in his attic for the past 2.5 years. I promised the TV to my brother but have been too...I'm not sure if the right word is 'busy' or 'lazy'. Regardless, we decided to finally get it done and I got to see spend a little time with my cousins.

Leg 2: New Jersey to Delaware. Boyfriend's grandmother lives in Delaware. We have be meaning to visit her forever. Since we were already gonna be driving around this seemed like the perfect time to take her to lunch. It was actually a lovely visit and made us both wonder why we don't do it more often.

Leg 3: Delaware to Pennsylvania. We dropped the TV off with my brother in Philly. I got to see how truly disgusting the living quarters of college boys are. My mother would faint if not for the fear of what is festering in that carpet. Then we went to visit Boyfriend's friends that just had a baby. She was like a cute little ball.

Leg 4: Pennsylvania to New Jersey. We visited Boyfriend's sister this time. She and her husband made us a delicious dinner. We spent the night because we had enough driving for the day. Actually, Boyfriend had enough driving and I had enough sitting and playing DJ with my ipod.

We headed back to New York the next day. We were exhausted and Boyfriend was strung out on caffeine but this was probably our most productive weekend in months. I think it was definitely better to bang it all out in one day instead of dragging this out over multiple weekends.

Next drive on our list is Rhode Island for Christmas. While we are in that neck of the woods we'll visit my grandfather in Hartford and my friend in Boston. We're just checking things off the list all over the place.

My Ring

O, and the main reason we were destroyed after our tour of the least exciting states in the Northeast was because we got engaged the night before! We were up late celebrating. This is why even though we spent most of it running big errands we had been putting off, it was still an amazing weekend :)

Have you seen a ring nicer than mine? I haven't.

Lemme Smang It

This ridiculousness became the anthem of my Thanksgiving.  I love my crazy family.

How Murder and Nudity Ended My Thanksgiving

I'm on the flight back to New York from Atlanta (thanks for the free internet Airtran) and I am shocked and appalled!

A guy sitting across the aisle and one row in front of me is watching a movie on his laptop.  I don't know what movie it is but there has been a fully naked woman on the screen for the past 15 minutes.  First she was having sex, then she was chasing after her partner and trying to shoot him, then she was running from some masked man who actually killed her partner, and finally she got killed.  All naked.

Honestly, I'm not sure if it was the nakedness or all the killing that disturbed me more.  It's not like I'm against movies with nudity and murder.  That isn't the point.  The point is that we are on a plane.

What if a child were in my seat!?  The poor thing would be traumatized or worse yet not care at all.  Kids these days are growing up too fast.

Either way there should be a thing called plane etiquette.  Not watching inappropriate movies should be right after keeping your hands to yourself.  Did I mention the woman I sat next to on the plane to Atlanta grabbed my thigh when the plane landing startled her?

What is wrong with people?

London Calling!

I'm going to London in a month!  Boyfriend has to go for work and he is bringing me.  Yup, he's a keeper.  I haven't been back to London since I left after studying abroad there in 2007.

Because I can't contain my excitement, the other night while I was dreaming I made a list of everything I need to fit in the week that I'm there.

Here they are in no particular order:

1. Ben's Cookies
2. Trafalgar Square
3. National Gallery
4. National Portrait Gallery
5. Tate Modern
6. UCL
7. British Museum
8. Oxford Street
9. My British Friends
10. My British Family
11. Nando's
12. Boots (to buy tons of their perfectly sized vaseline tins)
13. Wagamama
14. Brick Lane
15. Ben and Jerry's/Belgian Waffle stand by Bond Street Station
16. Fruit corner yogurts

Trust me.  All these things, places, and people are awesome.  Some mainly hold sentimental value for me.  But the others have concrete reasons for being great.  The restaurants are delicious and affordable.  The desserts are the ONLY desserts in England worth contemplating.  The museums were the first I never got bored in.

I never made it to the British Museum - which I why it's on my list.  Fruit corners are soooo delicious.  The milk tasted better in England too.  I'm not sure what the good dairy is about but I sure did miss my favorite yogurt.  They were my breakfasts since I reject beans on toast and all other horrible brit excuses for my favorite meal.  I think the beauty of the perfect travel-size vaseline tins speak for themselves.

I'm sure the list will expand.  Any suggestions?

Update:  I forgot to put Strongbow on the list!!!  Pubs and Strongbow!

Update:  We didn't go to London.  Boyfriend didn't have to go for work anymore.  I'm kind of glad it worked out this way.  Now we can go next year when there isn't a blizzard going on over there.

Fall Fail

This fall I had aspirations to take weekend trips to Boston and Philly (obviously not on the same weekend).  This was a totally reasonable and easily executable goal.

So why didn't it happen?  PURE LAZINESS

I really really really wanted, and fully intended, to go both places.  I want to see my brother in Philly and give him my old TV (which I promised him a year ago).  Also, a group of my favorite people are living in Boston now (a place I have never been). 

True, none of those people are going anywhere so the timeliness of my trips wasn't important.  I'm sure that was a blow to the motivation voice that whispers in my ear.

I think what really propelled me into failure was Australia.  Australia was an amazing trip but it was so much traveling.  When we got home, all I wanted to do was be at home.  The best time each week to enjoy being at home is on the weekend.  I just wasn't ready to give them up.

Of course now it is too late to make this fall a weekend trip success.  I'll be traveling for the holidays so it seems like my best bet for Philly and Boston is January or February.

This is exactly what I wanted to avoid because Boston in the middle of winter sounds horribly cold.  O well.  I did it to myself.

Wanted: New Friend (Must work for airline)

I feel like plane ticket prices keep going up and you get less and less for your money. 

On American Airlines to and from LAX in economy you don't even get peanuts!  That is bullshit.  That flight isn't short.  Plus, I refuse to spend $10 to get 3 Pringles.  To add insult to injury I could smell them baking cookies for the people in first class.  I nearly lost my mind.  Boyfriend witnessed me take a very big step towards madness.  I thought I was going to turn into the Hulk, bust into first class, backhand the flight attendant, then stuff every single cookie into my mouth. 

With this experience fresh in my mind I wondered how much more it would cost to fly at least business class when we go to Scotland next year.  It costs 3 times as much! There is no way I'm paying that much extra money.  They would have to do a lot more than bake cookies for that to be worth it.

My new solution is making best friends with someone that works for an airline.  Then they can give me the hook-up and I can fly in freshly baked cookie bliss.  No shirt ripping or backhanding necessary.

Lucky Bastards

I'm convinced Australian school children are the luckiest kids around.  Besides getting to live in a beautiful place they are never in the classroom! 

Everywhere we went in Sydney there were kids on field trips running around.  I'm not exaggerating at all.  EVERY SINGLE PLACE!  They just muck about in their matching hats.  Tons of them all over. 

When I was in school fields trip were a rare thing, not the norm.  Lucky lucky bastards. 

Best Sydney Activities

Besides just walking around and getting a feel for the city (which is a must wherever you go) there are a few activities that I was really happy I got a chance to do.

We took a day trip to the Blue Mountains. You can go on your own but we took a tour with Boutique Tours.  I'm glad we did that.  I think we learned a lot more having an experienced guide.  Plus we saw all the best things.  If you like nature, hiking (but not serious hiking), bird watching (Boyfriend's favorite), sweeping views, and just being outside you'll like it.

I loved the Taronga Zoo.  You can walk around with Kangaroos!  Boyfriend was happy because he got to see a platypus.  It seemed like it would be easy for some animals to escape.  They weren't as caged in as other zoos I've been to. I guess that made for a better viewing experience.  I was chased by an emu which was traumatic but getting to see all the cute, lazy, fat koalas made up for that.

We went to the Hunter Valley which is 2 hours outside of Sydney to go wine tasting.  I think it's hard to not have fun drinking wine all day.  I mean, I bet tastings in France would be way better but whatever.  I'll save that for another trip.  Boyfriend is more of a wine snob than I am but he ended up having fun too.

Sydney Observations

I've been in Sydney for 2.5 days and I've noticed a few things. 

Sydney is amazingly beautiful.  Every harbour offers great views.  Also, the water looks clean and blue.  Definitely not like Hudson or East river make you puke water.  I would consider eating a fish from that water if I were the fish eating type.

We're staying in The Rocks neighborhood and I would recommend it.  It is right by the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.  Also there are tons of cafes, bars, and easy access to anywhere you would want to go. 

I've seen 3 black people.  It seems like Sydney is 50-50 white and asian.  To be fair I have seen a couple Indians (and I really mean 2 max).  I haven't gotten any stares though so a black person must not be that much of a novelty.  There were aboriginals at the aboriginal cultural center we went to but that is it.  Boyfriend asked me if it felt weird to be the only black person everywhere we went.  Pssh that stopped phasing me in preschool. 

The shops close around 5:30pm and restaurants around 9:30pm.  That feels really early to me.  Thankfully bars are open later.

Everyone in Australia has at least 4 weeks of vacation!  O and since they aren't taking all their vacation days the government has a campaign going to encourage everyone to use them.  Give them to me!

Boyfriend loves wine so we've been to a few wine bars and stores.  Every single one only has wines from Australia and New Zealand.  I understand having hometown pride but this seems weird to me.  I have no idea where you would go to buy wines from any other country.  We are going on a Hunter Valley wine tour tomorrow so after this trip I may be maxed out on this wine region.

Kangaroo tastes like beef. 

That is all for now.  All the running around we've been doing is making me need a nap.  At some point I'll let you know about all the activites we're doing.

How to Survive Traveling Across the World

Traveling to Sydney, Australia meant 2 very long plane rides and 3 very different time zones.  Somehow I made it here in one fully awake piece.  Here is how:

1.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  This is the advice Boyfriend gave me that I didn't really listen to at first.  Our first flight left JFK for LAX at 6:30am.  We got to the airport in enough time which is really important to me because I hate rushing.  We were flying Qantas so naturally we head to that terminal.  Turns out that the Qantas staff doesn't show up at the airport that early.  WTF?!  I immediately go into panic mode.  We find out that we have to go to the American Airlines terminal.  That would have been nice to know.  It all worked out and we checked our bags, got through security, and to the gate in enough time.  The 30 minutes until it worked out were filled with me cursing all airport staff under my breath.  All that stress for nothing.

2.  You must sleep!  On both flights we slept a good portion of the time.  It is so key.  If we hadn't of slept on the first flight we would have been zombies all day in L.A.  If we hadn't slept on the second flight we would have been bored for one thing, and fucking comatose our first day in Sydney.  Because we slept we were able to have a great time hanging out in Manhattan Beach in L.A. and we had enough energy to spend our first day in Sydney exploring - not sleeping. 

3.  Pack a light carry-on.  I knew this would be important because I had to lug that thing around L.A. all day.  Also, we got to Sydney a few hours before our hotel room was ready so I had to carry it around when we first started checking out the sites.  It was still heavier than I would have liked but considering I usually treat my purse like it was a Mary Poppins hand-me-down I think I did ok.

4.  Fly Qantas.  I started out hating them because they weren't at the stupid terminal when we started out trip but I got over that.  The plane, the crew, everything is awesome.  Trust me.  On a flight that long in economy it makes a big difference.  If I were on American Airlines I probably would have shot myself.

All-in-all the trip to Sydney was a lot better than I thought it would be.  The hardiest thing was figuring out what time I should be taking my birth control since the time zones were all over the place.  Getting accidently pregnant is not something I want to happen on this trip.

Hell has frozen over!

In 12 hours I'll start my trip to Sydney, Australia.  Boyfriend and I are flying from JFK to LAX, spending the day in L.A., then flying to Sydney.  Basically our travels start ass early on Saturday morning and we don't reach our destination till Monday morning.

To prepare for THE LONGEST FLIGHT EVER, I bought 2 seasons of Mad Men.  When else am I going to have time to catch up on that show?  Other than that I hadn't really done anything prepared...i.e. packing.

All week I've been dreading packing for this trip.  I just knew it would be a disaster.  Ughhhh where do I even start?!  The weather is spring-like over there.  I don't even remember how to dress for spring.  That was months ago.  I don't want to be too hot or too cold.  So, I've been procrastinating...till right now.

I decided to just bring jeans and t-shirts, a blazer, a few dresses (for the wedding we are going to and if we go out to dinner), some clothes to work-out in (wishful thinking), and tons of underwear.  Worst comes to worst at least I will have clean underwear.  Also, I'm only bring 3 pairs of shoes: pumas, heels, and my work-out shoes.  I still haven't gotten together any toiletries or carry-on stuff but already this is my most successful packing experience to date (knock on wood).

If I end up with not enough or totally inappropriate clothes then I'll just have to go shopping.  This could work out in my favor....

Update: You need a visa to go to Australia.  You can get it online and it takes 30 seconds but don't wait till the very last minute to do it.  Kinda stressful.