British woman caught smuggling a kilo of cocaine in her wig

by Iva Skoch on

I know what you are thinking, but no. The British woman in question is not Amy Winehouse. Although, I always wondered what the eccentric English singer keeps stuffed in that hairdo. An average-size cat was my guess.

It honestly never even dawned on me that one could smuggle stuff in their hair. That’s probably because I can barely hide a bobby pin in mine.

People get so creative. Check this one out.

A British woman was arrested in at Vaernes airport in Norway on suspicion of drug smuggling. According to Mail Online, an airport customs officer noticed the 32-year-old had ‘a lot of hair’. Closer examination revealed a one kilogram (2.2lb) bag of cocaine glued to her head under a hairpiece.

Apparently, it was glued so firmly to the woman’s real hair that police had to take her to hospital to have it removed.

What did she say about that? No, No, No.

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.)

Trouble sleeping? Sniff your way to shut-eye at Travelodge

by Anna Brones on

In this day and age when travel is common, in order to stick out hotels have to do more than provide just a place to stay. Hotels around the world make names for themselves by being different; some offer lodging in old prison cells turned luxurious and others are made of ice.

Travelodge has gone down the same route. Earlier in the year, the budget hotel chain introduced its recyclable and temporary hotel concept, and now it is planning on offering its guests a new way to drift off to sleep, with the help of scents. Guests can choose from five different smells — the sea, freshly cut grass, baby powder, home-baked apple pie and chocolate — which are then added to the sheets. Not only can you sleep in the sweet smelling sheets, you can even take them home with you.

Smelly sheets aren’t everywhere just yet; they are being tested at hotels in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Birmingham, Nottingham and at Heathrow Terminal 5. As for the smells, I can understand chocolate, but baby powder??? Do you really want to feel like you’re sleeping in a children’s nursery?

Travel chops: Sailing solo when paralyzed

by Jamie Rhein on

Sailing solo around Britain would be quite the feat for most of us, I suspect. Sailing solo when you can’t move your body certainly turns it up a notch–or a hundred.

Hilary Lister from Dunkirk, Kent in Great Britain is not letting the trifles of her life stop her. She’s been paralyzed from the neck down for seven years, but has kept setting sail by blowing into a device that controls the sail and the tiller. Her method has taken her already around the Isle of Wight and across the English Channel. She is the first quadriplegic female to ever do these trips.

According to this BBC News story, Lister’s journey around Britain will not happen in a non-stop endeavor, but will be broken into segments, and the segments broken into parts. That seems sensible. She must have a powerful set of lungs. She also has land-based crew that can offer support as needed. Her determination is astounding, but so is the support she must get from family and friends who know how important it is for people to reach their dreams no matter what the dreams are and what obstacles can get in the way.

Several years ago, when I stayed with a lovely family in Vinita, Oklahoma, there was one family member who had been paralyzed from the neck down in a horseback riding accident. He was able to do all sorts of things using just his breath because of the way gadgets had been built to help him do so. His family also made sure that he determined what he wanted to do and left him to his own devices.

We cooked dinner one night, although, he really was the brains behind the endeavor. All I did was do what he said. Dinner was delicious, and honestly, I had little to do with it. If Hilary Lister has half the determination he did, she’ll make it around Great Britain for sure.

As for me, maybe I’ll call up the friend I know who has a sail boat to see if we can take it on a spin on the Scioto River. She knows what to do and instructs me. Suddenly, I have the urge.

Mayhem on London’s Underground as alcohol ban goes into effect

by Jeffrey White on

Labeled “Last Round on the Underground,” an orgy of drinking and merry-making yesterday throughout London’s famed subway network led to the arrest of 17 people and other dust-ups with local authorities.

Yesterday was the last day before a citywide ban on drinking alcohol on the Tube went into effect. At first, thousands of revelers gathered — many in costumes — for parties on the Tube’s many trains. But when police moved in to close things down, so to speak, things turned violent.

Besides the arrests, there were a half dozen assaults on Tube employees and police, the International Herald Tribune reports today, and several trains were so heavily damaged that they had to be taken out of service, sending significant delays rippling through a subway network that had 1 billion passengers in 2007.

Starting today, you cannot drink alcohol anywhere on London’s public transport system. While the move, meant to make the network safer for all travelers, has the backing of various alcohol-awareness groups, some of the people who are most displeased with the new law are not who you’d expect: The transport workers themselves.

Union representatives argue that their workers will be put in danger when forced to confront people breaking the alcohol ban, as is certainly likely to happen.