Second leg to SFO - I need to stretch my legs!

Second leg to SFO - I need to stretch my legs! Thursday 6May10, don’t ask the time, I don’t know the time zone – it’s Friday 00.42 am in GVA.

(Where am I now: Seat 29F, Flight CO018 NY-SFO.
What am I listening to: “Champagne Supernova”, Oasis – and it’s been a long time)


America! America!
We made it to New York – not that I had any doubt but it’s always interesting to have to go through immigration and customs. I got “stopped” at immigration since I didn’t have my itinerary printed out, “What do you do Sir for a living?”
“I work for P&G, you want to see my business card?” has been an answer that has always worked very well.
“And what do you do there?”
(well, that’s a bit more complicated to explain)

Aris got stopped at customs. He just looked fishy or simply the dude was pulling random people out of the queue… I ah dot wait for him for 20 mins and joked about the ‘inspection’ he had to go through (I’ll let your imagination run wild just for fun)

We walked Newark airport, Terminal C. All of it. Up and down until we felt the blood running again in our legs, and ended up in one of the waiting lounges, trying to connect to the internet. I uploaded my last post, sent a message to the hostel in SFO to inform them about our arrival time and just got up to go to the food court. We were starving.


You are what you eat.
No, not all people are ‘junk’ but there’s plenty of junk food around. Quantities are abundant, calories uncountable and the temptation for the ‘free refill’ is just too big for some people in this place. You can see it in their waistlines and faces – I guess that’s how you get the expression “junk in the trunk”.
We had some greasy Asian food recognizing that if this is the diet we will be following we better just start buying clothes a size bigger.
I thought of the airplane food, I don’t expect top quality in an Economy long-haul flight that needs to accommodate +200 people, but when I think of a similar long flight with JAL from Brisbane to Tokyo, well you get to understand why Japanese are so thin (ok, yes they are smaller as well) and healthier.

I don’t understand how a nation with such abundant food resources, variety and incredible focus on calorie counting and “fat free” meals is hitting record numbers on the scale… I will observe and let you know but for me SanFran will be much more sea food (yeah, even free refill baby on that one – I take it any time) and less pancakes and burgers. I just need to convince Aris, as clam chowder is where he draws the line – non-negotiable.

A side note: our cool Pod Hotel, the one I’ve booked for NY at the end of the trip is on the Herald Tribune international version as one of the cool place to stay in NY. For all those big spenders out there, who said cheap can’t be cool and trendy? Let’s see what it looks like in reality, but check their website and tell me what you think…!

Jesus saves (but not if you are in the middle seat)
Now this is a bit tricky to write as I don’t want to offend anyone, especially not the 120kg passenger sitting right next to me holding a copy of the latest (and greatest?) book called The Pursuit of Holiness. A calm nice man, obviously overweight, he is unlucky enough to be sitting on a fully loaded 6-hour between a hypeactive Greek and a 40 year old guy that seems to come out of a Mexican football film (he’s dressed in football gear and is listening to mariachi music through his head phones – and he’s listening to it loud enough for me to understand). What can he do but pray I guess for the flight to be quickly over.
On the other hand the well-known atheist and buddy of mine Aris is lucky enough to be on row 32 – next to a world famous (not really) soccer player of the New York Red Bulls (did you know NY had a soccer team? No? Welcome to the club) - and his boarding pass has a cool indication on it: “Exit Row”. That is the business class of the economy traveler. Only negative point: he gets the chance to see everyone going for a pee since his seat is facing the toilet. With leg room long enough to accommodate a basketball player though he cant complain I guess. I will ask him once he wakes up from his second 4hr sleep. I am so hyper, I am gonna kill him if we land in SFO and he tells me he’s tired.

My head’s spinning: the result of a screwed-up bio clock, excitement and 2 long back to back flights, all enough for any determined traveler. I need a big cup of cold fruit juice and a long walk in the streets of Frisco to get it right… Soon! (another 3 hrs to go…)

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Sir, please fill in BOTH I-94 AND Customs forms!!














Healthy & wholesome food on board




















SO much choice!!!!












Almost there!!!!