Tuesday 14 June 2005
Around The World In 22 Days
Well, I'm back! It was quite a journey: Auckland - Singapore - Amsterdam - Frankfurt - Stuttgart - Frankfurt - N�rnberg - Frankfurt - London - New York - Boston - San Francisco - Auckland. More than 52 hours in the air, more than six hours on buses and trains (not counting intra-city travel), four hours of driving, two conferences, two company offices, one wedding, lots and lots of fun.
My favourite city was N�rnberg ... it has beautiful old city walls and other buildings. Amsterdam is nice too. Honestly though, I did not feel tempted to live in any of the cities I visited, over Auckland. I suspect if I get to have more time in London it will come to rival New York in my overall affection as a city to visit.
I was glad to enjoy reunions with some of my most important friends, especially as one of them got married. Unfortunately weddings always make me maudlin, especially when my wife isn't around to lean on for emotional support. I suspect it's because I'm incredibly self-centered and subconsciously begrudge the newlyweds the near-monopoly on attention they rightfully receive. Fortunately that's a minor blip and the wedding was undoubtedly the highlight of my trip.
I flew from Auckland to Europe via Asia for the first time. Now that I've flown both directions around the world, I think it's safe to say God has blessed me with unusual aptitude for air travel. With every journey, on arrival I stay up all day without napping and go to sleep in the evening, then I sleep well and wake up completely adjusted to local time. Concomitantly, I also have the ability to sit in an economy class seat uninterrupted for 14 hours without feeling uncomfortable or even needing to use the toilet. I'll sleep for four or five hours if I need to. I may be heading for deep vein thrombosis, but for now I feel extremely fortunate. Perhaps New Zealanders are evolving adaptations to long-distance air travel.
My favourite city was N�rnberg ... it has beautiful old city walls and other buildings. Amsterdam is nice too. Honestly though, I did not feel tempted to live in any of the cities I visited, over Auckland. I suspect if I get to have more time in London it will come to rival New York in my overall affection as a city to visit.
I was glad to enjoy reunions with some of my most important friends, especially as one of them got married. Unfortunately weddings always make me maudlin, especially when my wife isn't around to lean on for emotional support. I suspect it's because I'm incredibly self-centered and subconsciously begrudge the newlyweds the near-monopoly on attention they rightfully receive. Fortunately that's a minor blip and the wedding was undoubtedly the highlight of my trip.
I flew from Auckland to Europe via Asia for the first time. Now that I've flown both directions around the world, I think it's safe to say God has blessed me with unusual aptitude for air travel. With every journey, on arrival I stay up all day without napping and go to sleep in the evening, then I sleep well and wake up completely adjusted to local time. Concomitantly, I also have the ability to sit in an economy class seat uninterrupted for 14 hours without feeling uncomfortable or even needing to use the toilet. I'll sleep for four or five hours if I need to. I may be heading for deep vein thrombosis, but for now I feel extremely fortunate. Perhaps New Zealanders are evolving adaptations to long-distance air travel.