Ten on a Tuesday

My friend Sue has a blog. One of her regular posts (every Tuesday) is answering ten questions posted on another blog called Roots & Rings. The questions often come from the readers of that blog, and this time it was Sue's turn to ask some questions.

Although I don't usually take part, I often do read Sue's answers and think about the questions myself. Seeing as this time Sue has asked the questions (some very good ones), and the theme is TRAVEL, I thought it would be appropriate to post my answers right here.

So here we go:

1.  What book, movie or song has made you want to travel to a particular place? 

Last year I read a book about a Lonely Planet travel writer writing the guide to Northern Brazil. It makes me want to go to Brazil!

2. Aside from your significant other, who would you want to take with you on a dream trip?

Some of the best and most memorable travel experiences are the ones I have done alone. The freedom of doing whatever you want to do, when you want, and the increased likelihood of meeting new poeple along the way, makes it an interesting way to go!

3. Where would said dream trip be to?

My dream trip is to spend a few months travelling around South America. I feel like I have done so much Europe and North America that I need to get out of my comfort zone again and try something new. I find the idea of South America both daunting and fascinating. Having a good amount of time there to see a bit of everything and also have time to lie on the beach would be fantastic.

4. If you were hosting guests or providing tips, what three things would you show visitors to your hometown?

Although I am living in London right now I will answer this for Melbourne. I wasn't born there and I'm not there now, but I did most of my growing up there and still consider it home. I think these would be some of my suggestions:

• I agree with Sue that an Australian Rules Football game at the MCG would be a must. If it is in the summer, a cricket game might suffice.
• Either the Eureka Tower or Rialto observation deck to see the sheer size and sprawl of the city, which is one of the world's biggest cities by area.
• Riding the city circle tram, which is an old tram around the CBD (downtown) area.
• Going to the beach. So many good ones to choose from, or an hour's drive to the open ocean.
• Having a coffee at one of the many great independent cafes.

5. If you had a long weekend ahead of you, where you head – beach, city or country/mountains?

Beach. I love the beach and miss it terribly living in London. I have done so many city breaks lately that country breaks really appeal, but nothing can beat going to a great beach when the weather is right.

6. Do you have a passport? If so, did you get it for a particular trip or just to have, in case?

I have two.

When I was about 17 I started planning by big trip to Europe and applied for an Australian passport.
Unfortunately, 5 years later the passport expired and I still hadn't used it. I got a new one and finally used it on 24 March 2006 at age 25 when I flew out of Melbourne on the first leg of my around the world ticket. 

I also have a Czech passport, which allows me (thanks to the European Union) to live and work in the UK as long as I want.

7. Are there any travel souvenirs you collect? If not, is there something else you collect?

When I remember, I try to collect beer coasters in pubs around the world. After a few beers, though, it is easy to forget. I got one here in New York (where I am right now) from the Outback Steakhouse, an Australian themed restaurant/bar.

My girlfriend has an awesome collection of patches from every country she has been to. One day, she plans on sewing them all onto a blanket. I think it is a fantastic idea and am very jealous of her collection!

8. If you could name a paint colour, what colour would it be and what would you call it?

Being a bloke, I do not accept colours with names like chartreuse, fuchsia, or salmon. These are not colours.  Colours should be explained with reference to real colour names like green, blue, red and orange, and if necessary prefixed with adjectives like dark or bright.
9. If you were heading away for a weekend citybreak solo, where would you go?

I would have probably been tempted to agree with Sue and say New York. However that's where I am right now, completely unexpectedly, due to being stranded in America due to the ash cloud (I fly back to London tonight).

I think I would like to go the Las Vegas. When I went there in 2006 it was before I started playing poker. I'd love to go back and spend some time on the poker tables. A weekend would be enough, I think.

10. Is there a song or a smell or something that you strongly associate with a particular holiday/place/time, such that it always takes you back? 

Smells and tastes can bring back memories in a really strong way.  Eating grapes on the beach brings me back to when I was five years old, sitting on the beach in Croatia with my parents just after we left Czechia. That's my earliest memory that smells and tastes bring me back to, but there are many others. For instance, and this is a bit strange, certain detergents I smell in some toilets always bring me back to America where they must commonly use one particular fragrance of detergent. When I smell it, I often think of a nightclub in LA that I went to when I first arrived in the States.

New York in Spring

I have unexpectedly found my way to New York. I will write more about my trip to America soon. I just wanted to post a few brief (for a change) notes now.

The first time I came to New York was in 2006. That was in March. It was freezing! There was no snow but it was still really cold. Spine-chilling wind!

The second time was in 2008, in May. That's two months later than March (albeit a different year) and it was hot. It was so wam and muggy in the city, that I escaped to the beach at Coney Island with some of the girls in my hotel.

Who would have thought a couple of months could make such a difference. Now, continuing my once every 2 year average, I am here in April. And the weather is just about perfect! A few rain showers and a bit of a breeze, but mainly sunny and the temaprature is ideal - T-shirt weather without being too hot.  They do say that this is the best time of year to come.

I could get used to following the seasons around.  I could live in Australia all summer, and as it gets to April and the temperatures in Melbourne start dropping, fly off to North America. Hit the slopes for the end of the ski season, and spend some time in New York. Then, continue around the world in the same direction,  to Europe, in time for the start of summer.  Enjoy London and the continent all summer long, until about September when it starts to cool down again. Stop by Oktoberfest if the liver is feeling good, and head back to Melbourne just in time for the Spring racing carnival, and the leadup to summer.

Now all I need is a job that lets me work from different parts of the world. Some sort of touring contractor or consultant maybe?

The Ceremony of the Keys

Every day on my way to work, I walk past the Tower of London.  Until tonight, I had never been through the gates.

Tonight some friends and I had tickets to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. This tradition of locking up the tower gates has happened every night, without fail, for the last 700 years. Even in World War II as bombs were falling upon the tower, the Chief Yoeman Warder still managed to perform the ceremony, albeit 10 minutes late.

This YouTube video I found has a good description of the ceremony I just witnessed:



It was great to see such a fine, formal tradition, whilst standing in the dark and slightly spooky courtyards of the famous landmark.

sleazyJet and favourite clothes

Ryanair has a bad reputation for being cheap and nasty. Ryanair is Europe's leading low cost airline. They took the low cost model pioneered by SouthWest Airlines in the States during the 70's, and have cut every corner possible to bring you no-frills, cheap flights.

Just today in the news there was one example of how Ryanair are trying to slash costs by charging for toilets.

Sure, you lose any form of luxury whatsoever, and pay a premium for drinks and snacks on board, but I think it is fantastic having the choice to be able to fly places for cheap.

And of course budget airlines also bring down the airfares of the full service airlines.  British Airways can be cheaper at times than the budget airlines, and I remember when Virgin Blue first came to Australia. For the first time after that, Qantas fares were affordable.

Despite Ryanair's bad reputation. since my trip to Scotland for Easter 2009, I have been saying that I think easyJet is actually worse than Ryanair. easyJet's fares are not as rock-bottom as Ryanair and for some reason they have not been subjected to the same bad reputation oft the Irish airline. But I personally think service is worse on easyJet.  When I set off on this trip to Scotland, I checked in at the airport and headed to the departure gates. I followed the signs to the "departure lounge" which was actually a room with three queues, standing room only. That was no lounge! No chance for lounging when you are being herded like cattle.

I recently went to Austria (and I am yet to write a blog entry on that trip). I flew with easyJet both ways, and on the way home my easyJet experience wasn't great.  First, my booking confirmation told me check in opened an hour before it actually did, so I spent an hour sitting at the airport on the floor in front of the check in desks. Not very convenient but I can get over that. Then, after the flight, I lost a jacket either on the plane or in the terminal between the plane and baggage collection.  I am hopeless, I know. When I went to Turkey last year I left my phone on the plane on arrival in Istanbul. But British Airways were more than helpful in making sure I get it back.

How did easyJet compare? Did they get my jacket back to me?

No.

I had realised my jacket was missing in the baggage reclaim area. I went to the lost baggage counter and asked how I can get in touch with Gatwick airport lost property. They gave me a phone number to call, which is all I guess I could have hoped for. I rang the number a couple of times over the next few days but my jacket hadn't showed up.

Now, that's for property lost in the airport. But what about property lost on the plane? The easyJet website lists a phone contact numbers depending on the arrival airport. The one for Gatwick airport rings out an nobody answers it.  This is frustrating, as the website says they only keep found items for 2 days.

There is no general easyJet phone contact number. The only was they seem to allow you to get in touch is by filling in an online form.  So I filled in the form to get in touch. I told them how their phone number doesn't get answered and asked them whether they had found my jacket. This was on 2 March.

No response at all for a few weeks and then this on 17 March:

Dear Customer,

You have recently requested some assistance from our customer services team at easyJet.

As you are aware, there have been exceptional weather conditions throughout Europe for a number of weeks between December 2009 and February 2010. This has caused many customers to contact our customer services team and we have received over ten times the usual volume of emails. From our records, we have seen that we have not yet responded to your request and this is below our usual next day standard.

Responding to our customers as quickly as possible is a top priority for us, so we have already doubled the size of our customer services team to meet this demand. We're also looking at other ways we can speed-up replies.

To help us respond quickly, can we ask if you could avoid sending follow-up emails to check the status of your initial contact? Further emails increase the backlog that we need to deal with, slowing down replies overall. Please be assured that we will respond to your original email just as soon as we can.

We would like to thank you for your patience during this difficult time.

Yours sincerely

easyJet Customer Experience Team

Did you find this information useful?

No, I can't say I did find that particularly useful. And yes, it is below your allegedly usual next day standard.

Eventually I did receive a response. It came over a month later after my initial query, on 5 April.

Thank you for contacting us.

Our Cabin Crew have a standard procedure to follow and any items left onboard are handed over to the staff at the arrival airport’s Lost and Found office. Therefore the next best course of action is for you to contact the 'Lost and Found Department' at …….. airport on …………….and they would be able to assist you further. 

Thank you for taking the time to contact us; if you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be more than happy to assist you further.

Yours sincerely, 

Mustafa Kemal Ergun

Customer Experience Champion

Thanks Mustafa. Some customer experperience champion you are. No apology for taking so long. You couldn't even be bothered filling in the dots with the word Gatwick. Real champion! 

(I also complained about the incorrect information regarding check in time, but to date have not heard back.)

I know this has been a bit of a rant, but I feel better for getting it off my chest. Thanks for listening. But why am I so upset about losing my jacket? Because it is my favourite piece of clothing, which is very convenient for travel. It is a zip up hoody but much warmer than most hoodies. It is furry and soft on the inside, very comfortable and I have traveled with it extensively. When I've been in hostels where I haven't trusted the pillow covers I've used it invertedly as a pillow cover. I have used it as a blanket. I have used it as my most dressy jumper to go out at night. It was an all purpose travel item. And it was from Toronto in Canada, so so far away.

Here are some photos from my Facebook as a tribute to my lost jumper, which I will never see again:

Continental Europe

Canada

England and Scotland

Exercises:

1. Do you agree that easyJet are actually worse than Ryanair?
2. Do you have an essential piece of clothing that you love to travel with?

Easter in and around Lisbon

Last year I went to Scotland for Easter. Whilst it was a surprisingly sunny Easter break, this year I was hoping for somewhere warmer.

My girlfriend and I decided we would spend Easter long weekend this year in Portugal. A few months ago we booked some British Airways flights to Lisbon, while they were still reasonably priced and booked a hotel.

I like to stay in hostels when I travel alone, but for trips with a lady friend, I like to stay somewhere which will provide a little bit more luxury. It was also my girlfriend’s birthday on Easter Monday so I thought a nice hotel was definitely the way to go.

We landed in the Portuguese capital late on Thursday night and jumped straight into a cab. €10 and a few minutes later (thanks to speedway driving of the taxi driver) we were at our hotel, where we settled in for the night, ready for some sunshine the next morning.

We were disappointed when we woke up to cloudy, rainy and somewhat chilly weather. That should not stop us, we thought, and we headed out exploring Lisbon. The rain held off and we enjoyed a few sunny hours while exploring the city. We didn’t have a plan, and generally wondered around. We hit a dodgy neighbourhood which we couldn’t wait to get out of, but then found a beautiful sunny park with a pond-side garden café to have a coffee in. And when you are paying 80 cents for a good coffee at in a scenic spot, you really can’t complain!  Dinner later was at Bairro Alto, the district of the city way up on the hill, with lots of narrow laneways full of bars, restaurants and bohemian fashion shops.

Bairro Alto

For day two, we decided to head out of the city. We caught a train out to the town of Sintra. We passed many blocks of flats which looked dirty and cramped. Most windows had clothes hanging from the windows and it gave quite a depressing impression of the part of the city where real people live. Eventually the apartment towers stopped, and Iberian villas replaced them… we were now in Sintra. A very picturesque town,  but its main attraction wasn’t in the town, but in the hills above it. We waited over an hour for a bus that’s meant to come every 15 minutes, and sat on the bus for another hour as it wound its way up the steep hills above Sintra, battling the Easter traffic. Apparently this wasn’t a good time for the journey.  On the bright seed, by crowding onto a bus we avoided the rain and by the time we got to the top, we were able to explore the Disney-esque castle in partial sunshine.

The castle, or more appropriately palace. Pena Palace, above Sintra.

And then the sunshine kept coming. By the time we finished walking around the multi-coloured castle, we were being drenched in glorious rays, cheering us up even more than the fairy tale castle did. 

Palace views

We made our way down the hills back to town on foot, enjoying the lush spring-green forests around us, with scattered and breathtaking vistas.

Forest on below the Palace

Day three would be another city day. This time we headed to the other side of the city, rode the trams up and down the steep alleyways and enjoyed the now cloudless blue sky by having drinks at terrace bars overlooking the city and the river.  Then we caught a train to the suburb of Belém. This is the Greenwich of Lisbon. Where explorers who charted the new world commenced their journeys.  People like Vasco de Gama, who I remember learning about in year nine history. Belém is a maritime town on the banks of the river, near where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Historical fortresses and monuments line the river, among flash hotels and green parks. The main attraction, however, is the bakery that serves the original version of the national snack – a variety of custard tarts, served with icing sugar and cinnamon. We bought one each and they were delicious!

Belém

Day four was departure day, but we had long enough after checking out of our hotel, to take another day trip out of the city. This time we headed further along the coast, past Belém, to the seaside town of Cascais. Here, we enjoyed sandy beaches and seaside dining. My meal was grilled sardines, a Portuguese staple, washed down with fruity white sangria.

One of the beaches in Cascais

Then, we headed straight from the beach to the airport. It was hard to leave the beach in the middle of on a 26 degree day, but it was a great way to finish an Easter long weekend on a high!