I hadn't been in the United States for over 6 years, so I hadn't experienced the tightening of regulations since the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. I had heard certain horror stories (for example J. Karjalainen, Finland's Bob Dylan, had been detained without reason in Missouri) so I was certainly sceptic about going through there.
Even though I did have to travel for more than 24 hours, I faced no difficulties. The American Airlines staff on board and on the ground was generally very corteous (however, their fleet is really old) and the border and customs officers were very professional, so there was no problem at all. It takes much, much longer than transiting in Europe (that's how afraid they are) but it did go smoothly.
Charles De Gaulle airport is worse than many in developing countries. It's ugly, non-functional and also lacks service. Surely the French capital deserves better.
Do you agree with me or is it as my wife says that I get more stressed when I travel for pleasure than for business?
Berlin and Brussels are probably the most underrated cities in Europe. Both have a great art scene, good and cheap food, friendly people, lots of variety and foreigners and to top it all, great beer.
It might be a good idea to use Dopplr. Interesting, simple concept: write down where are you going to be and share with people that need to know. They even have a Facebook app/plugin.
Was in Denmark & northern Germany this week for a couple of days. It was really interesting that after crossing the border the landscape did change, with more spruce and birch trees on the Danish side. Definitely did look more “nordic” than Germany, which of course should be the case.
And the language, to which I had been exposed before, is seriously incomprehensible. Written is quite OK, but I really don’t know what they do with their mouths. And they know it ;-).
I've reported before that Paris can be unfavourably compared to London, but it is still a very important world capital where a lot of business is made. One only needs to go to La Défense on a weekday to notice that.
As I mentioned yesterday and you may know, Tokyo fashion is a little bit wild. Even when it isn’t, it is certainly different as the photo to the side shows.
This looks I’m sure wouldn’t work in Europe, it’s too cold and European women don’t seem to like that kind of feminity. I don’t think it would work in Latin America either, because a woman would wear a skirt instead. Only in Japan.
