Tag: travel

New Passport

My passport application was received a week ago, as I could tell by the tracking, and the expedited processing was indeed expedited! My new passport is here, and it has fifty pages!

I didn’t realize that the passport now looks different (and feels different – the electronic page is even thicker than it used to be), and basically nothing except for the cover remained the same.

Interestingly, I like my new passport picture a lot – better than the previous two! I am glad I left it to professionals 🙂

Oh, and my plastic RealID still hasn’t arrived!

My First River Cruise

One thing I am very thankful to my mom for is that since I was ten, she took me on long tourist trips, which would last for three weeks or even more. I tried to start writing about these tours several times, and each time I thought that I needed to find the photos form these trips, otherwise it doesn’t make much sense to write about them.

But realistically thinking, I won’t have time to search for these pictures for a while, let alone to scan them, so I finally decided to start writing about the trips and add the photos later, whenever I have time to find and process them (most likely, after I retire, but who knows!)

Before I start, I want to say a couple of words about vacation-taking in the Soviet Union.

I know that it was different in the beginning of the Soviet state, but by my time, most people had at least one month of vacation (and some had even more!) Vacation time was strictly about “calendar days,” not “workdays,” so if some public holidays were in the middle of your vacation, they were “lost.”

Since vacations were so long and were taken strictly once a year (in most cases, you couldn’t split it into parts), everyone tried to take them in summer. The parents needed this summer vacation to take their kids “to dacha” (as I already mentioned a couple of times), and others just wanted to have time off work. Since it was not sustainable for everyone in a company to take a month’s vacation in summer, there was a perennial nightmare of scheduling vacations in the beginning of the year and hard limits on how often each person could take a vacation in summer.

What would people do with their vacation month? In most cases, they wanted to get away from the city, and it could be just going to the countryside to visit their relatives or going to a dacha. In many cases, people could use a “trade-union voucher” to go on a tour or to some resort. A local trade union bureau would approve the distribution of the vouchers, selecting “the best workers” and/or “those who needed it most,” and the lucky ones would end up paying 10-20% of the full price.

Unlike most people, my mom usually bought the tours without trade union vouchers, paying the full price because most tours she wanted to go to were not available through the trade union vouchers. She would save money during the whole year to go to new places. For seven summers, from 1973 to 1979, we went on these tours together.

The first one was in the summer of 1973, and it was a relatively short one. We were going to take a “Volgobalt course,” departing from Leningrad and then getting to the Volga River through the system of locks, visiting Yaroslavl – an old city on the Volga River, and then returning back to Leningrad. There were several complications with this trip. First, it started on May 20, which meant my mom had to ask for permission to take me out of school on my summer break ten days earlier (that was not a problem; I was a good student). Second, I was only ten, and and a child had to be eleven to be admitted to the cruise (do not ask, I have no idea why), so my mom had to get permission from the captain of the ship. And the last problem was a force of nature: it was very early in the navigation season, and Lake Ladoga was still covered with ice, so the ship couldn’t get to Leningrad. A couple of days before the departure date, all passengers were given railway tickets to Cheboksary, where our ship was waiting for us.

As far as I remember, there were no organized tours at the stops. We had a full day in Yaroslavl. We disembarked, and my mom and I went to the city and tried to visit as many museums and churches as time permitted. We loved a fairy tale -looking city, and only wished we could stay longer.

I know that I have pictures from this cruise somewhere, and I hope to eventually scan them.

My historical posts are being published in random order. Please refer to the page Hettie’s timeline to find where exactly each post belongs and what was before and after.

Fall

I left yesterday; it was the first day that I saw enough yellow leaves to notice the change of color 🙂

And in Helsinki, the fall is in its all glory, and the leaves smell like fall 🙂

BA Customer Service

I meant to write this post at least three weeks ago when the actual events happened. I consider it my personal achievement because I won the battle with customer support.

Here is what happened. When I learned that my talk was accepted for PG Day UK, I wanted to book the flight immediately, but I had to wait for almost a month because our firm was switching to the new reservation system. The next day after the switch happened, I found out that I needed to book it on my own because it wouldn’t be reimbursed anyway, but the best prices were not available anymore. I rushed to book whatever was available, and since I used the BA website, I forgot to switch to the Finnair Plus loyalty program. As it turned out, it was impossible to do it in the “Manage reservation” menu, so I had to call customer support.

The first time, I called immediately after I made this reservation and realized the mistake I had made, but after waiting for forty minutes, I decided to give it another try. I made a second attempt two days later and, once again, gave up after almost an hour of waiting. Meanwhile, I have activated Avios transfer between BA and Finnair, but I still wanted to get points from my preferred program, especially because my anniversary is on September 30. I decided to make the third and final effort during the Labor Day weekend.

First, I spent almost an hour waiting. Finally, somebody picked up and then went on hold, verifying my trip locator, and finally disconnected. I was determined to follow through, so I dialed again and waited for another forty minutes. This time, finally, everything worked. Not only was my loyalty program updated, but they also listed all the extra bonuses I had with Finnair Plus. In the end, it was worth it, spending all this time, but I was ready to give up at least ten times!

It felt like the greatest achievement!

TIME Magazine: You’re Vacationing All Wrong!

And in connection to the article about having a proper rest, here is one more TIme Magazine article, this one is about vacationing. The part I would disagree is the statement that it’s more fun to plan than to go on vacation. Maybe it works this way for somebody, and probably it worked that way for me many years ago, but not anymore 🙂

Anyway, here is the link, and the article!

You’re Vacationing All Wrong. Here’s How to Have a Truly Restful Break

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: You’re Vacationing All Wrong!” →

Vacation!

I am on my way to Helsinki without my work laptop and without any conferences to attend on that side of the pond. I will sleep for seven hours every night, and I will catch up on all my non-work activities, dozens of unanswered emails, unwritten blog posts, and unsubmitted talk proposals.

I will be together with the only person in the world who is allowed to wake up before me and make breakfast. We will go on a little adventure which we planned for a very long time. It won’t look glamorous for anybody but me, but I am very much looking forward to it. And everything will be great, even if the weather will be indeed as miserable as the weather.com says 🙂

Traveling As Finnair Gold

My two weeks of travel had begun. There are no direct flights to from Chicago to Helsinki this time of the year, so I had a connection in London. It was the first time I used a Oneworld lounge in O’Hare, and it was a great decision because I could have a way better dinner than on the plane. Also, I could go to sleep immediately after the boarding was complete and have close to normal sleep time. No need to wake up for food :).

Same with breakfast – they gave us just a half-cup of yogurt on the plane, but I went to the Oneworld lounge in Heathrow and had an English breakfast there.

I loved that they had small teapots with a cup and a milk pitcher (same as when you have plates and cups at the buffet). You can take one, choose your tea bag(s) and pore whatever milk you prefer, and then take this set back to where you sit.

After I arrived in Helsinki, I tried to put a contact lens in my right eye for the first time since this weird thing happened, and it felt OK. Today, I wore both lenses for about six hours, and it was all good, but I am not sure for how long I will wear them tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a very long day!

Still Catching Up

Several things took way longer than they should have, including waiting for the eye doctor for 45 minutes (!) (and she didn’t even apologize). Also, on Friday, I was pulled into a couple of meetings where my presence was not needed, and lastly, I spent over an hour in attempts to check in only to figure out I couldn’t and will have to do it in the airport.

Packing took longer than I planned (and I am not done yet, and I am afraid to look at the clock, especially having that we are switching to Daylight saving time)!

The good part is that my eye is pretty much healed, and I will resume wearing contacts in a week, maybe even earlier.

Going to have four hours of sleep now and will go back to packing!

Lady Inertia

I could not decide whether I should take a larger suitcase on my upcoming trip or a cabin size. Now that I have Finnair Gold, my luggage is free, but I didn’t want to wait for it. Besides, I am going to Berlin from Helsinki, and if I took a larger one, I would have to check it on my way to Berlin. I always take a folding duffle bag with me so I can check it in on the way back if needed, and I told Boris that if this folded bag weren’t taking extra space in my luggage, I would be okay with it being the carry-on only. Then he said – why won’t you check it in on the way to Helsinki as well? It is free, and then your carry-on won’t be so overpacked, and your backpack won’t be so heavy. And you can go to Berlin with a carry-on only. And I thought- why was I not thinking?! Why I didn’t consider doing this in the first place?! I know perfectly well why – because of the mind inertia! Because I always had to pay for an extra luggage piece, and I forgot that I did not need to pay anymore. Also, I forgot that my luggage travels with the “priority” label, so it is always the first to be unloaded.

That’s what your mind’s inertia does!

About Mom

Now that several things related to mom are finally resolved, I can talk about what happened last week. I already mentioned several times that last Friday was a disaster and several things that didn’t go right. But there were more.

Mom had a passport appointment at the Russian consulate in NYC, and even before I knew that I would be starting a new job, I knew I could not go with her because it was just a couple of days before my conferences would start.

From the very beginning, we planned on Igor coming with her, although she complained quite a bit that it was not me who would accompany her.

We submitted all the paperwork in advance, and I told mom I would double-check that nothing had changed two weeks before the appointment.

So I did, and we put all her paperwork together. The appointment was on Wednesday, and Igor and mom were going to NYC on Tuesday. On Friday afternoon, mom received an e-mail from the Russian consulate saying that they are no longer accepting applications for biometric passports, so everybody who has appointments scheduled should apply for a 5-year passport.
Everything about the non-biometric passport is different, including that you have to bring the photos with you and you need a return envelope. I had not extra time at all, so I called Igor and asked him whether he could take mom to the passport pictures and whether he could buy an envelope. These items were critical given the upcoming Labor Day and the Post Office closing. (And right after that, I had to ask him to wait for the exterminator in my apartment!)

Since I would be in Milwaukee on Saturday, I told mom that I would come on Sunday to redo the paperwork. As it turned out, her knee started to hurt really badly on Thursday (and she didn’t tell me anything). Then on Friday, she leaned on her right wrist when she was standing up, and after that, she was unable to do anything with her right hand. So when I came on Sunday, I observed the situation and said that we were going to the emergency room.
Four hours later, we were back at her place, her right arm immobilized, and we had to do a follow-up visit. And she had to go to New York.

That was not the best couple of days for me, but everything got resolved. Mom’s new passport application was accepted, Igor survived traveling with her, I could find an appointment for her, and the doctor reassured us that nothing was broken and she didn’t need to wear a splinter anymore.

All I can say is it could be worse, especially given my upcoming travels! I hope that the crisis is averted for some time!