July 12th, 2010

"Ack! What time is it?!?!? . . . 3am, back to sleep. ACK! What time is it?!?!?! . . . 4am, OK. ACK! Why's it so light outside??? . . . only 5:30. I guess I'm up."

I'm what you might call a nervous traveler. Every single time I fly, I worry that I will oversleep and miss my flight. My flight could be at 7pm and I would be up at 4:30am. So, I just tell myself that I'll sleep on the plane (which is a blatant lie) and get up. This morning I put on my carefully selected flying outfit, straightened my hair, and made myself up.

~SuperNova Travel Tip: Put some effort into getting ready for the plane. I know that it's a long flight and you want to be comfortable, but there are 2 very important things to remember: 1. you are in public 2. people can see you. Now you may be jumping to the conclusion that I am vain or too concerned about what other people think, and you would be correct. Flights do not always go as planned (more and more consistently it seems lately), and when I am depending solely on the goodwill of the airline agent I want to look like a pleasant, friendly individual, not the victim of a hostage situation. I am not saying that you should break out the high heels and eyelash curlers, but I am saying that sweatpants that say Hello Kitty across the seat and hair raked into a bun on the top of your head will not encourage people to go out of their way for you.

I will spare you most of the travel details because it was relatively uneventful. I will say that while many airports (and I saw many, I had 4 separate flights - Seattle, Chicago, Poland, Germany) point out that they now have free WiFi, my iPod pointed out that they were huge liars. I would also like to take a moment to brag that I got a month's worth of travel necessities into 1 carry-on bag (plus personal item)! It was a difficult selection proccess; many items applied for a position in my suitcase and many promising candidates were cut in the end, but I did it and with more than one outfit even! Would you like to know my secret?

~SuperNova Travel Secret: If you're going to a 1st world country, they probably have it there. Whatever it is, they probably have it. So if it's a liquid and not a specific prescription item, leave it behind and pick up some shampoo when you get there.

I would also like to comment on the frequently heard travel-related exclamation, "I don't know why I'm so hungry/tired, all I'm doing is sitting." People forget what an amazing work out traveling is. You are lifting carry-on in and out of overhead compartments (and catching items that may have shifted during flight), stressing about each and every arrival time and next depature time (stressing burns calories!), and walking miles and miles to connecting gates (your connecting flight's gate will only be close to your arrival gate if you have hours and hours of lay-over time. If you only have an hour to make your connection, it will be on the other side of the city, in which case you're also getting an excellent cardio work-out by sprinting). I'm thinking of marketing a new work out system that involves running around the airport, "Stress Your Way to a Thinner You."

I am actually quite shocked how easy my trip was. Yes, it was crazy long (I left at 11am Monday from Oregon and arrived at 7pm Tuesday in Germany) and of course there were minor things like children that would benefit from a strong tranquilizer, but it's been so long since I have had a travel day where one flight wasn't on time and so I missed ALL connecting flights that it seemed super easy.