Two Continents - Two National Holidays

[awilcockson]

So following on from my previous trip to Norway in the middle of Winter, this time I'm headed off in late Spring, and the difference is amazing. I'm also heading to the US for 2 weeks, and in a strange alignment of the planets, I will be in each country for one of each of their large national holidays, May 17 Constitution Day in Norway and Memorial Day in the US.

QF521
seat 2B
767

My first experience with the new checkin kiosks in the BNE domestic terminal today. Had to go to the service desk due to the international connection, and have to admit that it was difficult to find the J class/platinum counters. Was presently surprised to be greeted by Sarah who I'd met at the last Brisbane drinks night. Just my luck, the first time I've ever been checked in by someone I know and I'm already flying J so no chance of an op-up!

Checkin was painless, although once again I was unable to get my AY boarding passes, looks like I'll be getting them in BKK. More good news in the QF J lounge, where not only did they have a good supply of the delicious chocolate muffins, but they were still warm and tasted even better than cold.

Spent an hour in the lounge checking emails then it was time to board. Gate 22, nice and close to the lounge, of course boarding was a zoo as expected, was happy to see the doors being closed and nobody seated in 2A.

Breakfast was offered, but with the thought of a 4 hour F lounge visit in mind, I declined to make sure I had room for lunch

Arrived in Sydney a little late due to air traffic control, just made it to the transfer bus as it was ready to leave, wound my way through the ridiculous duty free shops and was safely in the first class lounge at 1:15. I had a 3:45 boarding time, so I went straight to the spa to see if they could fit me in. First available spot was 3:30, but I was assured to that they could complete then 25 minute treatment in time for me to make my flight. I headed out to the restaurant where I resisted the temptation to have my usual starter of pork belly, but based on AFF reviews I just has to try the squid. In one word, it was Devine. Most tender, tasty calamari i have ever eaten. The Thai lime chilling sauce took it from devine to magnificent. I had a glass of tattinger whilst waiting for the starter, and for something different a glass of bollinger to go with the squid. I'll stick with the tattinger in the future. Main course was special of the day, pepper steak stir fry, which while nice was lacking in pepper-ness. It went down nicely with a glass of penfolds Shiraz. Desert was a chocolate lava cake with iron bark honey ice-cream (from the specials page, I stead of the usual vanilla, you just have to ask nicely). This was a superb end to the meal, coupled with a glass of noble one.

I had about 15 minutes to kill before my spa treatment. I was greeted warmly by name at the door and led into the treatment room. This is a very cool room, with the living plant wall as per the lobby. My masseuse nick explained that there was a problem with the solarium lights, and they couldn't turn them off and he apologized that it was so bright. He also showed me how it was starting to kill some of the ferns on the wall . The light wasnt much of a problem once I was face down and I was soon heading towards sleep as my neck and shoulders got a thorough workout.

True to their word, the treatment was finished in perfect time for me to head to my gate for the next flight feeling very relaxed.

 

[awilcockson]

BA10
Seat 63B
747

I love upper deck on BA 747, it has to be one of the most spacious J cabins I've ever sat in. I had a laugh at the woman that pushed past me at checkin, only to watch her head for the back of the plane as I headed upstairs



The flight was pretty uneventful, dinner was a very nice eye fillet and a nice red to go with it, I actually fell asleep which is against my normal policy, but says something about the comfort of the proper lay flat beds.

I encountered my first rude behaviour getting off the flight, a trend that was to continue over the next couple of flight. I was half way down the steps when disembarking, and had to stop because of the backed up passengers. The guy behind me hit me with his carry on, I figured fair enough, maybe I'd stopped suddenly, but then he kept pushing me with his bag! Even the filthy look I gave him didn't stop him. Go figure.

I headed off to find the BA/QF F lounge, and encountered my second case of extreme rudeness on the way. BA10 continues on from BKK to LHR, and at there was a checkpoint where a very nice lady was asking people for their boarding passes before letting them proceed. A guy approached the gate and he handed over his passport. She asked for his boarding pass and he said "I've left it on the plane". "Please wait over there" she replies and then he starts to get in her face (she was about 4 foot even, he was easily 6 foot) shouting "I need to get to the cough*ing lounge so they can print me a new boarding pass, you need to let me through". I couldn't believe it, don't these people watch border security. I had quick glance at his passport (he was French) and then scuttled through without waiting to see him (hopefully) tackled by airport security.

I didn't really have time to make much use of the F lounge, it looked quite small though, but it was only 30 minutes until it was time to board my next flight.

edit: two quick amusing anecdotes that I neglected to mention. I got up half way through the flight, looking for something to eat. The FA (in the picture above) was sitting in her jumpseat when I went back to the galley. I had a quick discussion with her about the highlight of the trip being the bananas in the fruit basket (I had 3, that's more than $6 worth at home and the first I've eaten since the floods), and then she made a comment along the lines of (said in a very British and proper tone) "your travelling companion certainly has a serious case of wind". Now I had the end of a head cold, and couldn't really smell anything. At this point she stood up and sprayed some air freshener towards the front of the cabin. From that point on, I noticed her walking down the isle spraying in the general direction of the guy next to me every half hour or so. Unfortunately a cabin pressure change cleared my nose at one point and I was fully able to appreciate the smell she was trying to cover

 

[awilcockson]

AY96
Seat 3D
A340

I normally try and take notes for my trip report on the iPad whilst travelling on each flight. Unfortunately a combination of tiredness, good food, and a good book conspired to prevent this from happening on this flight.

From memory, the highlight was getting my second eye fillet in less than 10 hours! The seats were the normal AY J class, same angled lie flat design as the QF 747s, slighltly more padding though. I was able to sleep fairly well, although I did wake up a couple of times having slipped down towards the foot rest. It might sound a strange complaint, but one of my biggest issues with these new aircraft is that the cabin is so quiet that you can literally hear a pin drop, or in this case, the guy who started snoring like a tractor before we had taken off and didn't stop until we pulled up at the gate. I should have pulled my noise cancelling headphones out, but I didn't even think of it until after we had landed. One thing I though worth mentioning is that one place the AY J cabin really shines is their IFE. Nice big clear bright screens, so much better than the QF/BA 747 offering.

We landed in Helsinki on time, and I had a very short transfer time of 40 minutes. Just long enough to head to the AY lounge to make a quick skype call home to the kids. If you think the QF lounge is busy, you should check out the Helsinki lounge at 7:30 on a Monday morning. It wasn't even standing room only, people were literally standing on top of each other.

AY651
Seat 1A
A319

Not a particularly interesting flight, departed pretty much on time. I refused the offer of breakfast, I don't think my body could have handled another serving of heavy eggs and pork sausages less than 3 hours after the same thing on the previous flight.

Arrived into Oslo on time, and for the first time in 8 trips to Oslo, managed to time it so that I walked on to the train platform 5 minutes before the departure of the train to Kongsberg. The train only runs once an hour, and I normally get to the platform about 5 minutes after it departs. 2 hours on the train and I arrived in Kongsberg around 10:30, at which point it was off to work for the rest of the day!

When I got back to the hotel I went for a walk to take some photos to show the difference that 4 months makes. These photos of the river area make a nice comparison to the photos in my January trip report of the same area.

 

[awilcockson]

So the 17th of May is Constitution Day in Norway, read all about it hear if you are interested.

This is a real public holiday, virtually nobody works except for restaraunt/cafe/hotel staff. Having said that, even the hotel cleaners got the day off. The day got off to a great start, it's not often that you are woken by a marching band going past your hotel window at 6am Good thing I like marching bands, and I'd been awake since 5. The bands do a tour around the city, moving between important city sites where various speeches are read. A bit later in the day, and it is time for the children's parade. Now first a bit of history. This is my 8th trip to Kongsberg. In all those times, both summer and winter, I reckon the most people I've ever seen in the main street of Kongsberg could have been counted on two hands. So I was quite surprised when by 9am there were many hundreds of people, adults and children alike, lining the streets waiting for the parade, many of them wearing traditional Norwegian dress. This picture gives you an idea of the crowds, and the parade was still 30 minutes away.



One other thing I noticed was that absolutely everyone was either in National dress, or in a suit. Even the kids. I felt very under-dressed, but was glad that I was at least wearing black jeans and a blue/red shirt (Norway's colours). The children's parade consists of children from each of the local schools marching in class groups, and interspersed with various marching bands. It was great to see all the kids having fun, and the vigorous waving of hundreds of Norwegian flags.




After the parade has done a couple of laps of the city, it's close to lunch time and it is virtually impossible to find anywhere to get a seat to eat. I consoled myself with a Cornetto and a promise that I'd get a decent dinner. Lot's of the crowd dissapear to have family lunches so I headed back to my room for a bit of a rest, but was tempted back outside by the sound of snare drums, just in time to see a performance from a 4 piece drum band who were absolutey fantastic. This was followed by a 30 piece brass band who were set up right outside the entrance to my hotel and played various stiring national songs for about an hour. Around 3pm the crowds started drifting back to the main street and it was obvious that another parade was in the offing. The afternoon parade is the Russ (pronounced Roos) parade, where final year high school students get a chance to let it all hang out (literally). May 17th is the culmination of the Russ period, a 17 day period of partying, drinking and practical joking. You can tell a Russ participany by their distinctive ski pants which they are required to wear, without washing, for the entire 17 day period. An interesting anecdote is that Russ has been around for 100s of years, and used to occur after the final exams. 10 years or so ago, the government moved the final exams back until the end of May, in an attempt to stamp out Russ. The only real effect was that final year exam performance plumetted greatly, so much so that they are talking about moving the exams forward again. Once again, what surprised me was that although half the girls were running around half naked, and there was a ridiculous amount of alcohol evidently being consumed, everyone was very well behaved, there was no overtly violent behaviour that I witnessed and everyone, including the adults in the crowd, seemed to be having a great time. Here's one Russ photo so that you'll know what to look for if you are ever in Norway in the first 17 days of May!