Getting Down to Business

"Here's to freedom, cheers to art.

Here's to having an excellent adventure,

and may the stopping never start."

~Jason Mraz

When we last "talked," I was saying that it took us two hours to straighten out the flights that would eventually bring us home last Friday.  When we finally checked our bags and headed to the gate, it was 8:10.

"Holy crap," I said to Mike. "Is it only 8:00? We have to sit here four more hours? Holy crap."  Mike was nodding in answer to my questions.  "I feel like we've been up half of the day already." He nodded more.

"Well, we have been awake since 4:00 even though we didn't get up for another 30-40 minutes," he finally said.

"This is going to be one long day," I whined.  Our new flight to Las Vegas would get us home three hours earlier than the original one, but we would still be up for over 24 hours by the time we arrived there.  That is one of the hazards of overseas travel.

We did luck out on the return flight home, though.  We had not paid for our airline tickets since I used frequent flyer miles to purchase our tickets.  On the way home, we were able to get business class seats. Never having flown business class, we weren't quite sure what to expect.

On the flight from Bologna to London, there wasn't much difference in our seats. They were a bit wider than the seats we had in economy.  The big difference came in the meal offerings.  Even though the first flight after noon, the flight attendant brought us breakfast. . . a hot breakfast.  Eggs. Sausage. Ham. Our choice of .  The people in economy got a muffin.

"I wolfed that down in no time," Mike said to me as he finished his meal in record time.

"I can't believe I'd get excited about breakfast," I added.  I'm not a breakfast person, and I usually don't eat it.  After two months of pastries, though, we were thrilled to have a real breakfast.

Arriving onboard for the long-haul flight,  we were a bit shocked by the face that there were only 32 seats in the cabin, and they were situated two on the left and right sides of the plane, and four in the middle.  The seats were more like individual cubicles that faced each other,  (See the top photo.  I faced forward, and Mike faced backward.)

Each of the cubicles had a seat and a foot stool (See it on the back of the seat in the photo below.).  Pull down the stool, and we could rest our feet on it.  The seats reclined completely, so when the seats and stools were both down, we cuold lie down and sleep.  The pillows were larger, and instead of microfiber blankets, they gave us quilts.

Each seat had a personal television, extended tray table, and a little drawer in which we could keep personal items.  In addition, the flight attendants gave us kits that included socks, an eye mask, several lotions, and a toothbrush and toothpaste.  Once we settled in, the flight attendant brought us champagne.

"I feel rather conspicuous drinking this while others are boarding," I said to Mike. He just downed his drink without answering me. I tried not to drink when people were coming up the aisle. I was a bit embarrassed, to tell the truth.

Both of us slept a little on the 10-hour flight from London.  While the reclining seats were not the most comfortable things in the world, they served us well.

"We're spoiled," I said to Mike as we walked through customs.  We'll never want to fly economy again."

"I can't believe I'm this excited about something like this," he replied.  "We're not going to be able to stand flying economy overseas again. We're spoiled now."

Indeed we are.