From dullest to Dulles

Greetings everyone.

At last I am in DC....or more correctly, in Virginia, after 20 hours of flight(including 3 hours at San Fran.) I left a rather cloudy, dull day in Auckland where it was raining (so....er...untypical of Auckland) and there was a huge amount to do in the office (how equally untypical of me) but leaving all that exciting material behind, I now email you under a balmy, clear sky in Washington.

20 hours is a long time but for the first 12 hours I had the pleasure of sitting next to 2 widows who fled Fiji in one of the coups and were otherwise travelling abroad for the first time so filling in all the forms for the US was an experience of great challenge - and hilarity. Fortunately there were a few spare forms around but we didn't need quite as many as the air hostess predicted. The 12 hours passed quickly (I hasten to add that it took less time than that to complete the forms). I was sorry to say farewell at San Francisco - except for one little matter and that is that one of them correctly guessed my marital and religious status which she said she could tell by looking. I began to wonder if I stayed with them any longer, what else they might discern about me. I don't think they fossicked in my handbag while I was on cabin walkabout (and it was in the hold above for most of the time), nor do I think there was anything in there that could reveal all my past misdeeds but you never know...

In San Francisco I discovered that notwithstanding all my efforts to have my mobile phone configured for global roaming, it wasn't working. A very expensive call to Telecom NZ later, all is up and running...sort of. Text messages seem to be working and I can phone home via toll call prices and home can phone my mobile via non-toll call prices so that's the main thing.

Speaking of the main thing, I'd better get on to the two main reasons why I wrote up this blog this morning.

The first - Dulles Airport. When you arrive there after midnight, the place is in sleep mode apart from passengers becoming anxious about the delay it is taking for their luggage to appear (but when you have to be transported by super-truck from place of landing to main passenger area, so does your luggage so patience is useful especially when-sleep deprived) some service crew - AND a group of very animated, eager taxi drivers who are very happy to help you out in any shape, manner or form, especially as the information booth is empty.

But it comes at a price - the desire to take you all the way to the Hyatt at Reagan for US $50-$64. I imagine the fare is financially viable if there's a group of you who can split the cost between you. It isn't for an individual. I'm very grateful to Phyllis for giving us an estimation of prices before we came so that I knew that the shuttle costs significantly less. The taxi driver who unsuccessfully tried to take my luggage ("But you're a woman", he exclaimed when I refused. Poor man, he didn't know what sort of woman!!!) told me that no shuttles ran at that time of night. He was mistaken - the Super Shuttles still do and one of them cost me US $29. You do have to wait for others to fill the shuttle of course and it tends to meander all around Virginia and DC if it's filled with different people so could take you hours to get to the Hyatt, although at that time of the night - sorry, morning - I didn't have to do any of that and enjoyed a lovely journey under northern stars, listening to the driver's rather interesting selection of music.

As we came into Arlington, the view of the Washington monument was simply stunning.

Secondly, internet access. From the hotel, it costs US$9.99 a day. If anyone knows of anything cheaper, let me know. I'll have a scout around too. It is cheaper for me than the global roaming/Ipass system I often use however and provides the same options so I've been impressed with Ameri-tech so far.

I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Claire