Around the world in 0.80 days

August 11, 2026

Well, that was a long journey. Left the house at 10:30 am this morning, and it is 3:30am Irish time as I write this.

It turned out that my carry-on was oversized, at least for the first leg. Nobody said anything while boarding, but the overhead bin wouldn't close 😉. The stewardess was very nice about it, and simply put it in a storage area at the front. The Dublin leg was a little taking off, and I wasn't best pleased that when we landed, we had to board buses and cross to the other side of Schipol. Nonetheless, I made the gate just after boarding had started, and on the advice of the previous crew made my way to the top of the queue to declare mea culpa on the leviathan travel case. It turned out I had been flagged for some extra checks, but fortunately no latex or back-rooms were involved and a few swaps later I was given the all clear. Good to have that relief - no-one wants to start a holiday with a positive smear test.

The baggage bins on the 777 were a good bit big, and the Big Boxy Boy was stowed away without further drama. As always on long-haul, I try to get either an aisle or a middle seat. I was delighted to have been informed when boarding that the flight wasn't very full. Even better when I arrived at my seat - no-one in the middle and a ~~bona-fide midget~~ gentleman of alternative stature in the aisle seat. The flight took off and the seat remained free. Of course it was too good to be true, it turned out my headrest was broken and kept falling off leaving the bare metal exposed. I tried to fix it, but to no avail so I asked the steward if I could move - given there were lots of free seats. As a courtesy to Tom Thumb I decided to let him finish his meal first, which took a long time. By the time I got up and out, all the seats had been colonised by See-You-Next-Tuesdays sleeping lengthwise! Eventially I got to steward to wake a guy up to make space. He grudgingly did so - offering me on, and sleeping across three!

Anyway we got there - 10 hours in the air, and little sleep. I watched the Dylan movie - ok effort, but good music. Chalamet was physically convincing but not given much to work with. Ed Norton was superb as Pete Seeger - nailed the voice, mannerism, body language and even singing (which he apparently did himself). Great actor. Food was actually ok too, and more frequent and generous offerings than I accepted.

Immigration was actually very straightforward - it took me longer to find an ATM than the whole process! I hopped in a taxi and headed to the Linq, getting here shortly after 7:30 local time - less than an hour from wheels on the ground. Check in wa smooth, and despite my fears - no issues with using my bank card (albeit through google pay).