tonskudaigle.info

Welcome to the United States, sir!

So, it's now Thursday early afternoon. My trip started on Monday morning by waking up at 5:45am. Grabbed something to eat a bit and headed over to the Kemi-Tornio airport like 20km away from Tornio. The plane was supposed to leave at 7:50am, but due to heavy fog the flight was eventually cancelled since the plane coming from Helsinki had been flying around without being able to land due to that fog. So instead we had to take a bus to Oulu and catch a flight from there to Helsinki and that was then an hour late. So it didn't start too good :D

But the flight got underway and we arrived to Helsinki at 1pm, I rushed to terminal 2 on the other side and got there just in time like 15 minutes before boarding. So I was finally about to leave for New York and I had a close to 9 hour flight ahead of me. My preliminary thoughts were that I might get bored on the flight, but it actually went quite nicely with the personal entertainment system onboard. I watched 6 episodes of old Family Guy episodes, a couple of movies and just hung out. So time really flew by and although it was frustrating to watch the damn map on the big screen in front with the plane location changing and information about time zones and all updating all the time, it was going pretty good. When I got to my seat, there were these 3 teens who kept going on about "who's hot and who's not" etc (you know the usual teen talk with the silly voice) next to me. Glad they slept most of the time and were concentrated on the movies and all so no harm done really. I was just a bit annoyed after the flight being cancelled, another flight delayed etc... Then these teenies yapping. Gosh the ear plugs were really necessary.

So, we got to NYC a bit late, around 4:30pm but it was ok. It wasn't too warm, but there wasn't much snow either so I felt a lot better already. The flight attendant was damn hot by the way. She sat next to me during landing and take off. Damn... So anyway, NYC was huge. I mean like a guy from Tornio, a city of 23k people or so, NYC is huge! So I got out of the plane and went to passport control with all the other people and the queue was like 50 meters long so I thought that it was going to take ages. But most of the desks were open so there was a lady telling us which one to go to and there was only one in line before me when I got there. Then I was called over, went there, handed my passport and other documents needed for getting to US, she asked a couple of questions and that's it. Took only like 2 minutes so the horror stories about having to stay for even hours didn't happen to me. I went to get my baggage and walked out from the airport. So from getting out of the plane to outside the airport it took like maybe 10-15 minutes. Most of the time I just waited for the baggage.

Outside there were a lot of taxis taking people to places so I went to the end of the queue, waited a couple of minutes and a lady asked me to get in the taxi, asked where I wanted to go and handed me a paper. Not sure what it was really, but had the taxi information and all. I told the taxi that I needed to get to Clarion hotel at the La Guardia airport, but he didn't know where it was so we just took off, he called someone and apparently got the address because we got there eventually. Took around 30 minutes so that's not too bad since it was afternoon and the rush hour could have been a lot worse. On the way to the hotel I just watched the views and followed the small screen in front of the backseat that had a map and video advertisements. Once I got to the hotel I just checked in, went to my room and that's it. Now it was around midnight for me so due to slight jetlag I felt a bit tired already after all the traveling. So I went to front desk and asked if there was something to eat and the guy gave me this pizza place's menu. I called there from the phone at the desk and the guy brought my pizza to my room. I think I got ripped off there though because it cost like 20 dollars and the menu said around 10 dollars. But I was too tired to even care so I just ate the damn pizza, watched some TV and chilled out.

After I ate some I was thinking of maybe heading over to some pub nearby just for experience, but it was close to 7pm and I really felt tired already so instead I just went to bed, watched some TV and fell asleep around 8:30pm. Got up at 4:45am, took a shower and used the complimentary airport shuttle to get to the airport. I was there well in time and just hanged around near the gate before it took off at 7:40am.

The plane to Tampa was c0ol. The flight attendants were very nice and gave us soda and snacks, as usual. Most of the time I just read a book and listened to music on my iPod, so the flight was quick and I had no problem there to use my time. The closer to south we got, the more clear skies I saw. In Tampa I got off, got my baggage again and headed over to Burger King to grab something to eat. The left-overs from NYC pizza were not that good as they were cold and just not eatable. So I went to BK and got myself a Whopper meal, connected my phone to airport wireless and checked my Facebook stuff.

Then I went outside and oh my gosh! Sun and green grass! I fell in love immediately. I took a picture and posted it to my Facebook status. Then I had to wait for Tyler to show up, but I knew he was going to come later as he had an appointment scheduled just when I landed. But no problem, I was in a new country, new city, there was sun and warm. So I just hung around for a while, then this driver... Limo driver mostly, stopped next to me and got out the car. "Oh it's so cold here."... I almost broke down laughing, but instead I just said "nope". So we got to talking about me being from Finland and all. He was a nice guy so we chatted a bit before his clients came out to the car. Just right that moment Tyler also arrived so we left to St. Pete.

It's like a 30-40 mins drive from the airport to Tyler's place, but man... I just can't emphasize enough how much I love the sun over here! St. Pete is like a Guinness record holder for most sunny days in a row or something. So I knew that it was going to be sunny, a lot! I looked around while Tyler was driving, we caught up with the latest stuff and all that.

Now, this is where the trip really begins. More to follow in a bit. This post has grown out of bounds in size so it's better to split it :D