The first day, sort-of, of the trip. I’m not sure yet how the wi-fi will work each day, so I’ll try to keep updating these posts during the trip throughout the day, but the majority of the writing may be taking place in the morning and evening.
11:55 AM, PST: At the PDX airport right now. Arrived quite a bit earlier than planned, I got here at about 11:45am for a 3pm flight. International travel means at least two hours in advance, but getting a lift from friends meant getting here when it was convenient for them.
Nice to see the airport again though. Used to travel through here a fair bit, a few flights a year at least. Some things are comforting and the same, the carpet is still the same garishly famous design. So that is comforting. One of those things I remember seeing when I flew home, knowing I was back in Portland, even if everything else about the city would have changed.
Rather early, and I need this battery to last through the TSA check and I don’t see anywhere to plug-in and charge near where I am sitting. Going to pull out one of the packets of class readings and try to get through Mrs. Dalloway while I wait.
1:35 PM PST: Through TSA check. They started before I was in the pose for the body scan which meant I was still moving so I got patted down as well.
Rest of group is a few minutes behind me still. Lynn is waiting for Jonathan to get back with his medication.
Sitting at the Coffee People kiosk on the otherside of the TSA checkpoing and writing this while I wait for them. Still an hour and twenty until the flight departs.
Still need to visit the restroom, but there should be one between here and the gate.
First of them are getting through now and heading towards the gate, going to join them.
1:54PM PST: E Concourse mens room was pretty awful. Not dirty, just most of the faucets didn’t respond (not always a fan of motion sensitive sinks) and then the paper towel dispenser required you to turn a knob to get towels. So right after your hands are clean you have to touch a filthy surface to get a paper towel. Not a good design, and given how awkwardly it spits out towels I can’t see it actually saving paper (or money).
In the Laurelwood Brewing Co. pub/restaurant with M getting some lunch right now. The Air Canada terminal is full of people who are traveling to Paris, our flight doesn’t even start boarding until five minutes before three, so a full hour away still.
E Concourse is pretty barren. Other than this restaurant there is only an Oregonian News little quickie-mart and the restrooms. Pretty dull compared to what I remember of the rest of the airport.
Waiting on my French Dip right now, I passed on getting it Philly style. Figured the rest of the plane didn’t need to be smelling onions on my breath for the next several hours of travel.
3:06PM PST: Plane should have begun boarding ten minutes ago, but it hasn’t arrived just yet. Still a half-hour away until departure, so not late yet but boarding is going to be rushed. I have an aisle seat for the hour flight to Vancouver, but then in a middle seat for the longer flight to London.
Right as the gate attendent started giving us info one guy got on his phone and called someone and was talking loudly enough that the gate attendant paused a moment, maybe hoping he’d get the clue or finish his call, but the guy kept on talking so the gate attendent had to try to talk over him, which doesn’t work too well when the gate speakers are set at a low limited volume so they don’t drown out one another. First rude American tourist of the trip, and we aren’t even out of the country yet.
5:21PM PST: In Canada now. Can’t get my Verizon cellular connection to work so on Vancouver International Airport’s wi-fi connection. Flight from PDX to Vancouver was on a puddle jumped, 2 seats/aisle/2 seats with 11 total rows of passengers.
[[ get photo of plane from phone ]]
Third row back, Sarah had the window to my left, I was on the aisle, Celeste was across the aisle to my right, and Krista had the window. Jonathan was up in front of us, M was right behind Sarah, everyone else scattered behind us.
Flying on a plane that small is always an odd sensation. Everything feels a bit rougher, a bit more noticeable. My stomach rose and fell a lot more during take-off, during the first early course corrections along the waypoints out of Portland airspace, than I am used to when on a bigger commercial airliner. The propeller was visible out of Sarah’s window, spinning fast enough that you can’t see the blade while in-flight but it made the light in the window have that slightest of strobe effects, not constant but flickering with the blades rotation.
The plane also felt a lot warmer than a large airliner, so many people cramped into a small space. I adjusted my air vent just after takeoff just so I could feel a bit cooler, feel the cool breeze against my face, as the air quickly felt hot and stuffy onboard.
Landings also feel more abrupt, more rough. No fancy wing flaps to adjust so the first thing you hear and feel during the landing is the tires scraping across the pavement with the vibration moving up through the struts into a rattle you feel through the seat.
Customs was fast, when we got to it. It was a long and windy pathway from where the plane landed outside, we walked across the tarmac into the building, and down the hallways until we met the man at his little booth where we were the only people waiting to hand over our immigration paperwork and go through his checkpoint.
[[ vancouver airport ]]
The Vancouver Airport is huge, it makes PDX feel a little small right now. Not sure if it is actually big, but the part we are in, the part we are seeing, is a lot fancier and flashier. Still a bit over an hour until our flight leaves, no one from the airline is even at the gate yet. Lots of us are getting food, A&W or Tim Hortons, or checking out the duty-free shops.
Going to take one quick look through the shops, then head back to the gate. Big enough plane, our next one, that the boarding should start pretty soon.
~11:00PM PST : In the air, a little bit ago we had this great sunset outside the window, against a cloud bank in the distance, seeing the clouds split between bands of colors.
The plane is a huge one, seating in coach is 3/4/3 and I am seated in a middle seat of the 4. Lizzie is at the aisle on my left, Katie is to my right, and Lynn is to Katie’s right. Their isn’t quite enough space between seats, my knees are bumping against the back of the seat in front of me from time to time and the way the seat legs are setup means my bag doens’t quite fit underneath the seat.
Their is a great entertainment setup for the flight though, screens to watch free movies off of. Already watched X-Men: Days of Futures Past, about to watch Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
Plane is a bit uncomfortably warm, the air on my face from above is probably going to be annoying by the end of the trip but grateful for it now. The seat isn’t quite wide enough for me, my shoulders are broad enough that I have to slouch a little so I am not elbowing my neighbors. Still, as flights go, it is far from being the worse I have been on and may actually be one of the more comfortable. Just designed for people shorter and with less shoulder-span than I.
3:42AM PST / 11:42 GMT : Have arrived in London.