Transatlantic Travel

I’m quite used to long flights across the globe. I’ve flown DC to Frankfurt, Detroit to Tokyo, Miami to Santiago, just to name a few. Depending on which direction I’m flying and exactly how long the flight is going to be I prepare differently. Bring music, books, my laptop, whatever I may need to keep myself occupied incase the movie selection is poor.

Typically, I can sleep on the overnight flight from the Eastern US to Europe. Usually I miss the dinner meal and sometimes even the breakfast if they still serve food on flights (during the short leg from Charlotte to Newark one of the flight attendants on Continental actually asked me if I wanted “today’s meal”- as he held out a packet of mini pretzels). And for the record, I really hate being feed only once in the middle of a transatlantic flight. It is extremely useful to sleep on this flight. I’ve determined the only way to not suffer from jet lag going to Europe is to power through that first day. No nap, plenty of caffeine and lots of company. The goal is to stay awake at least until 9:30-10:00 pm. Often I stay up even later if my friends drag me out for a drink or two.

This time, nothing was as I planned. Tuesday flights are always packed, but this one just seemed to be more so. I had a window seat which is perfect for jamming oneself into a bit of a cubby hole with just a tad extra room for curling up. I’ve become quite adept at pushing my foot in to that cranny between the wall and seat in front of me and basically lodging myself into the chair so I sort of can fool myself into pretending (not quite believing) that I’m all curled up in my favorite arm chair at home. This just wasn’t going to happen this trip.

The gods were conspiring against me. To begin with the young woman next to me decided to read the entire time. The lights were not angled well so there was no way to shut out the light with out covering my head with a blanket, scarf, something. I hate having my face covered when I sleep, even just my eyes with one of those masks. It is because I usually toss and turn and move and then what ever it is gets wrapped around my neck and I can’t even wear turtle necks so it just doesn’t work out well. Then there was the issue that the guy in front of me has stuffed his coat in the crack I use for a foot rest. Even worse was that I couldn’t keep a constant temperature. The plane was too cold, the blanket wasn’t warm enough, and adding my coat made me too hot. Oh and there was this horrid buzz when I leaned on the window shade.

Needless to say I got absolutely NO sleep. I sat with my eyes closed for a bit, but never drifted off. So I read for 8 hours (a typically Alexis-Travel Title, of course, more on that in my next installment). This lack of sleep didn’t stop me from staying up the whole day after landing. In fact, I think we figured that since I got up early for work the day I flew over and was up until around midnight after my arrival the next day I was up for 30 some hours. Joy!