While I sit here waiting for today's photos to upload (oh, technology -- I remember when I had to get pictures DEVELOPED before I could put them in the blog, now I'm annoyed because my Wi-Fi plan is one device at a time), thought I'd take a moment to let you know how I got here.
Here, by the way, is sitting in a cruise ship just off Naples.
How I got here can best be summed up with these words of advice: Changing planes in Heathrow - fine; changing terminals in Heathrow - best to be avoided. For perfectly good reasons, I flew to London on United and connected to Rome on British Airways. That requires landing in terminal 2, hiking to immigration and customs, scanning your passport (yay technology!), waiting for your bags, hauling your bags off the carousel, piling your bags on one of them carts, waiting for the lift (elevator), waiting for the lift, waiting for the fucking lift, pushing the cart down about four insanely long moving walkways until you get to the Heathrow Express station, (pushing past idiot tourists who don't understand you just press the giant button on the ticket machine for a free transfer ticket), bid a sad farewell to your cart, wait for the train, wait for the train, load onto the train (why you can't just wheel your bags on and off the train at Heathrow I'll never know), find yourself at terminal 5, reverse the whole train station process, get your ass up to the terminal and ...
OK, here's a fun fact. If you're want to truly experience the Class System in Action, go to Terminal 5 at Heathrow. OK, yeah, most airlines have multiple classes of service and various bonuses for loyalty card holders, including "priority" check-in lines and shit like that. But British Air at terminal 5 takes this to whole new heights. I had initially left something like two hours to make this transfer, but when I realized what it would entail, I ponied up a change fee to put myself on the next flight to Rome. This gave me more like 5 hours for the transfer. Not so bad, right? I figured I'd just check my bag and kill a few hours at one of the restaurants in Terminal 5.
Ha ha, no. You can't even CHECK YOUR DAMN BAG for a European flight more than 2 hours out if you're flying Economy. I shit you not. There's a whole bunch of folks just sitting (or snoozing) on benches outside the check-in area. They're waiting for the bag check to open up for their flight.
(If, however, you're traveling a higher class, or have loyalty with British Airways or one of its partners, you can check your bag any time that day.)
So, here's me, with something like four hours on my hands and I have to spend two of them just sitting here waiting for my Bag Drop to open.
As it happened, I didn't have to. I found myself a very helpful employee who (two phone calls and a bunch of computer clicking later) got me back on my original flight to Rome - for which I could immediately check in (and hope security wasn't too backed up, so I'd actually make it).
Overnighted in a Rome airport hotel.
Ride to the port.
Boarded cruise ship (Windstar's Star Legend)
More about this as it develops, but, um, y'all know how there used to be an unspoken rule about not talking politics on cruise ships and just ... you know, talking about the weather or travel or anything superficial so that you get along with the people you more-or-less can't escape for a week? Yeah, none of that. And it's on both sides. It's like the liberals have just had it up to here (hand WAY over head) with putting on a facade that the Trump presidency is gonna be, you know, normal. And the Trump folks, perceiving themselves to be victorious, feel privileged to no longer have to put on a facade that they give a fuck about the liberals' feelings. Both sides have a "fuck all y'all" attitude. Whether this is just because the election was so close (and Trump's cabinet appointments are trickling out) or actually going to be the new normal is anyone's guess.
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