Blonde moments in travel: Boarding the correct train helps, but don’t underestimate good luck

by Iva Skoch on

I was in London this weekend and experienced a definite “travel blonde moment,” or using Urban Dictionary’s lingo “a flash of momentary stupidity” while traveling.

I am sure everyone has embarrassing–or plain stupid–things they have done while traveling. But not everyone has hair color to blame it on. It’s a good crutch, really.

Back to my story. My friend–also a blonde and much blonder than me, in fact–was walking me to the London Bridge train station from where I was to catch the train to Gatwick airport.

Going from London Bridge is a much better way to get to Gatwick than taking the train from Victoria station. It is, also, some 6GBP cheaper and takes just as long! That is, of course, true only if you board the correct train.

Anyway, we are walking, yapping away, she walks me to the platform, I board the train, the doors close. I am waving good-bye to her when I see her face shrivel in sheer terror. I knew. What she wanted to tell me is that I got on the wrong train. I could read it in the lines on her forehead as the train started pulling away.

So, I am standing behind the closed doors of a basically empty train (that should have been a hint, right?) while literally hundreds of people, including pilots and flight attendants, are still waiting on the platform with their luggage (yes, there were definitely hints) and I wonder where I’m actually headed.

I sincerely hope I didn’t just board the express train to Glasgow.
I sit down and try to text people for help because I can’t call from my phone abroad. Where is this train going? (Brighton) Any trains to Gatwick form there? (Of course not; it’s the wrong direction. It would take way too long.)

Finally, the ticket person comes.

“This is not going to Gatwick, is it? I think I boarded the wrong train,” I said sheepishly.

“How? They announce it over and over…There are hundreds of people waiting for the airport train….,” said the uniformed smartass, laughing.

“I know. I had a blonde moment. I wasn’t thinking,” I volunteered, figuring that playing ‘stupid but charming’ was the best strategy, since I didn’t have a ticket for this train and no cash left. I gave all my extra British pounds to my friend before I left. Hopefully, he didn’t plan on charging me extra.

He didn’t. The uniformed smartass informed me politely that I needed to get off at the next stop, some 20 minutes away, wait there for about 20 minutes and get on the next train back to London Bridge. From London Bridge, I should be able to make the 9:40 train which gets me to the airport at 10:20, if everything goes well. Check-in for my flight closes at 10:30. Possibly, maybe, doable.

Thank goodness I actually gave myself plenty of time to get to the airport this time. I don’t typically do that.

Meanwhile, my other friend back in Prague–the only one awake at this ungodly hour before 10am on a Sunday– is taking instructions to check me in online or via phone, which I forgot to do. Checking in remotely for international flights to the US is not as easy as checking in for domestic flights. You have to call and they need to know EVERYTHING: passport number, address, visa number, DNA sequence (OK, not that one, but that’s coming next year, I believe).

Through this whole thing, my male friend, equipped with my passwords, PINs and confirmation codes, pretends to be me (aka a female) on the phone with the airline. And, he – mercifully – succeeds. Good. Even if I am late, I am already checked in.

The next problem: I have a bag to check. What do I do with that if I’m late for proper check-in?

This is where my blonder-than-blonde friend comes in. As I arrived back at London Bridge station an hour later, she was already waiting for me and decided to come with me to the airport with a plan: if they can’t check my bag because I’m late, she will take it home with her and give it to me next time she sees me. Not ideal, but better than not making my flight to New York.

This is the kind of situation when you realize how many unnecessary things one travels with. At the end of the day, there were only a few items in my bag I absolutely couldn’t do without.

The train was 5 minutes late and got us to Gatwick 5 minutes before they were closing check-in. We sprinted through the airport and arrived at the Continental check-in kiosk with exactly one minute to spare.

“Are you on that flight to Newark?” the rep asks.

“Yes,” I reply apologetically.

“No need to rush. It’s been delayed at least an hour.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. There is nothing like being blonde and lucky at the same time.


(Authentic blonde pictures taken in the cafe on the top of The Gherkin building, which is awesome! The problem is that you can only get in if you know someone who works in the building. Hint: Start hanging out with Swiss Re folks.)

Upgraded to cockpit. That’s a new one.

by Iva Skoch on

What are the odds of being upgraded to cockpit, if a flight is overbooked? Not great, but I will keep hoping.

I read with envy the NY Times column of Greg Cohen, a corporate frequent flier, who got “upgraded” from business class to the cockpit jumpseat on a flight from Stockholm to Prague with Czech Air because it was overbooked.

He doesn’t mention when this occurred but something tells me it was a long, long time ago, before cockpits were supposed to be as secure as bank safe deposit rooms. It just couldn’t happen nowadays, could it?

I fly Czech Air all the time and this never happens to me. I even fly business class with Czech Air because their frequent flier program, OK Plus, allows for easy upgrades. But cockpit? Nobody has ever asked me to sit next to the pilot. How cool would that be? I would gladly skip the warm nuts and sparkling wine of business class for the view out of a cockpit.

Photo of the Day (06/16/08)

by Iva Skoch on


What a great shot of San Francisco! The colors!

Except, of course, that it is Lisbon, Portugal, as shot by t3mujin. Seriously though, tell me this doesn’t look like San Francisco when you first glance at it? It is amazing how many similarities there are between Portugal and California…the weather, the coastline, the lifestyle, the bridge. If Portugal had Hollywood and Chinatown, it would practically be the same place. Just kidding.

***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go over to the Gadling Flickr Pool and post it. Make sure it is not copyrighted, otherwise we can’t post it here.***

Travel helping to change Russians’ outlook on life

by Jeffrey White on

As readers of this blog will no doubt attest, travel really helps to shape one’s outlook on life. And while the ways in which it does varies from person to person, it’s hard to argue that the overall impact isn’t positive.

There is an interesting article in the New York Times today about the travel boom in Russia, which is seeing Russians from essentially all walks of life traveling in greater numbers than ever before. It’s an obvious change from Soviet days, when travel was limited to those held in the communist party’s esteem (and even then such travel was strictly monitored), and it speaks to the relative prosperity to be found today in the world’s largest country. Russians have tons of cash, and they’re using it see the world.

In 2006, 7.1 million Russians took trips outside the former Soviet bloc, compared to 2.6 million in 1995, the Times says, citing the Russian government. Turkey alone sees 2.5 million Russian tourists a year, surpassed only by tourists from Germany.

But Russians are not just heading to Turkey. They’re heading pretty much everywhere. I’m writing this right now from Montenegro, a little country with a disproportionally large tourism industry that is driven mostly by Russians, who not only arrive in droves on cruise ships but are deciding they like the coastline here so much they’re buying up as much of it as they can, sometimes directly from Montenegrins eager for some quick cash.

The Times‘ article notes that many of these destinations favored by Russians know exactly who is buttering their bread: they are setting up services and amenities that cater specifically to them. Along the Montenegrin coast, Russian is the unofficial second language, and many young tour guides and hotel help are fluent in it. Sevastopol, Ukraine, a pretty place on the Black Sea, is another such destination, more Russian, locals say, than Russia itself. There Russian is the official language, the Russian flag snatches at the wind, prices are quoted in rubles, and the attractive harbor is alive with swank nightclubs featuring the same turbo-house music loved in Moscow.

So what? As one person the Times interviews says, traveling and interacting with other cultures is helping to broaden (and soften) Russians’ world view, something that might seem obvious when we forget that this is a relatively new phenomenon there.

The Russian writer Viktor Yerofeyev puts it best, telling the Times: “Through all this travel, we are seeing a change in mentality at home. People are now seeking pleasure, whether it is in the night clubs of Moscow or in restaurants. Travel is a continuation of that pleasure. Just to have pleasant lives, not to suffer, to feel positive. Their life compass changes, from ‘I don’t care about anything’ to ‘I would like to have a better life.’ Travel is a part of this. The world is becoming part of their lives.”

Gnome bandit reignites French-German hostilities

by Jeremy Kressmann on

The French and the Germans have a long, complicated diplomatic history. Aside from the fierce hostilities that took place during World War I and World War II, the two countries frequently bicker over disputed boundaries, in particular the Alsace-Lorraine region. Though tensions have cooled noticeably in recent years, it looks as though a new “international incident” involving garden gnomes (?!) is once again stirring tensions.

According to Metro UK, a sneaky gentleman from France has been charged with stealing around 170 of the statues on both sides of the French-German border. Although the motivation for the crime has puzzled French authorities, some have speculated that it may be part of the work of a shadowy organization known as the Garden Gnome Liberation Front. At the very least, it seems to be only one in a long string of gnome-targeted attacks.

Could this be part of some vast international gnome conspiracy to topple the world order? I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure, though I have my suspicions that Travelocity’s annoying gnome mascot (or at least a clever marketing department) is somehow involved. Stay tuned.