navelgazing.omphaloskeptic.net Journal

Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

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In transit Madrid, Spain, Sunday, 14 December 2008 10:44am

Flying from Madrid to Casablanca. Exhausted, as is to be expected. The flights to Chicago and Madrid were fairly unremarkable. More squalling children than usual and a bit of a delay in Chicago.

It seems that airplanes have long and short distance communications systems, and a backup for each, and our trans-Atlantic plane's long distance communication system failed. They couldn't repair or replace it in a timely fashion, and they couldn't fly the normal route with only one working long distance system, so they changed their flight plan to keep within short distance communication range at all times. I think this meant we flew over Iceland and Ireland.

I was worried that I'd overpacked books, but I've already finished one, a collection of Rolf Potts's travel writing with tips about how the stories were written. There was quite a bit of musing about what it means (if anything) to be a "traveler", rather than a "tourist", and quite a bit of celebration of backpacker culture. Definitely interesting things to think about while on this trip.

I slept surprisingly well on the trans-Atlantic flight, but I think I'll still need to take a nap when I'm checked in to my hotel. I think that if I were to hurry, I could see the sights of Casablanca today, but that I'd be too tired to actually appreciate them. We'll see how I feel after a meal and a shower.

Cacaolat vanilla milkshake: Quite strong vanilla flavor, but a disappointing consistency. Neither light and refreshing nor rich and satisfying, but somewhere in between.