{"id":2132,"date":"2011-06-12T16:40:47","date_gmt":"2011-06-12T23:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/?p=2132"},"modified":"2011-06-12T16:40:47","modified_gmt":"2011-06-12T23:40:47","slug":"spring-forward-day-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/spring-forward-day-84\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

Helsinki\/Munich\/Los Angeles
\nJune 4, 2011\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Distance Traveled Today: 6, 952 miles<\/h3>\n

Total Distance Traveled for the Trip:\u00a0 19, 608<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Vesa<\/a>
Vesa and I helped start the Shadowland Theater in Ellenville, New York, twenty-six years ago, and the theater is a thriving Equity house today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m a bit over an our into my twelve hour final flight home.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very<\/em> long day in every sense of the word.\u00a0 First of all, in terms of hours, it\u2019s literally a long day:\u00a0 thirty-four hours, to be exact.\u00a0 Even weirder, at least twenty-five of those hours will be in sunlight.<\/p>\n

Travel time from door to door:\u00a0 about twenty-six hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why so long?\u00a0 Well, because I\u2019m a stupid airline ticket buyer, that\u2019s why.\u00a0 Back in March, when I was building this enormous itinerary on Expedia, I was so addled with excitement at the idea of getting to go to Russia that I just wanted the tickets reserved and bought<\/em>.\u00a0 So I didn\u2019t notice one pertinent fact about my flight home to Los Angeles from Helsinki:\u00a0 Not only did it start very early<\/em> (the flight left at 6:55 a.m.), but it included a seven hour layover<\/em> in Munich.\u00a0 When I noticed this it was too late to change it, thanks a lot, Expedia.<\/p>\n

\"Helsinki's<\/a>
Helsinki's stunning Lutheran Cathedral dominates Senate Square<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyway, it was surprisingly easy to pleasantly spend all day in the Munich airport.\u00a0 I had a massage, snacked, played (or attempted to play) The Temple of Elemental Evil<\/em><\/strong> on the laptop, and just generally explored the airport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Monumental<\/a>
Monumental figures carved into the facade of the main train station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now that the trip is ending I feel it\u2019s appropriate to revisit the goals I layed down on the first Day 1 o so long ago:<\/p>\n

Goals For My Eleven Week Globetrotting Work Trip<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. \u00a0Endeavor to not merely look, but to See.<\/li>\n
  2. Write as much as possible.<\/li>\n
  3. Take as many good photographs as possible.<\/li>\n
  4. Try to find Mexican food in every city I\u2019m in.<\/li>\n
  5. Try to go to the movies in every city I\u2019m in.<\/li>\n
  6. Try to return from the trip thinner than when I left.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    How did I do?\u00a0 I\u2019ll take them out of order.\"waterfront<\/a><\/p>\n

    Write as much as possible<\/em>.\u00a0 I\u2019d have to say this was the goal I was most successful at, and feel the best about.\u00a0 Writing this travel diary has been a big project, and has taken up a non-trivial amount of time during the trip.\u00a0 But it\u2019s been worth it.\u00a0 I\u2019m a very lazy writer and I was interested to see if I could muster up the discipline to faithfully write about the trip on a daily basis.\u00a0 And I have!\u00a0 At over one hundred pages, it\u2019s the longest thing I\u2019ve ever written, for better or worse.<\/p>\n

    Try to find Mexican food in every city I\u2019m in<\/em>.\u00a0 Did pretty well on this one:<\/p>\n

    Cities In Which I Found and Enjoyed Mexican Food on the Trip<\/h4>\n