From New York to Beersheva: Around the world in 17 days, Part 1

Dear fellow adventurers,

The following is my first attempt at a full on travel log, just like the pros (here's to you, View From The Wing and One Mile At A Time). This is a complete log of some things I did and the airlines and lounges that took me there. I hope this log can share some insights into the mind of a crazy vagabond.

Let's begin at the beginning then, shall we?

I have decided once a year to travel with my friend Andrew to somewhere. Since we've been buddies for years, it seemed like a good summer to do something spectacular. And with his challenge to do just that, we began our journey.

Initially, I had planned months in advance a flight using Cash plus Avios option for an Aer Lingus flight from Chicago to Dublin--quite a steal at about 6,000 Avios and $200 p.p. And since they had 2 seats available on July 28, we decided to travel then. Unfortunately, Andrew came down with a sudden illness, delaying our flight. Aer Lingus would have to wait a little longer. Instead, we snagged two student tickets from ORD-MAD-DUB with Iberia at $470 per ticket, not bad with less than a week to go.

Preflight: Admirals Club

On August 2, we headed to the airport early. I had heard American was revamping its lounges with some new options, and I was not disappointed. We went to both Admirals Club lounges just to see them, although they were both terribly far from L10, the dilapidated and forgotten wing of Terminal 3. In the one in H/K, they had a nice selection of soups along with their classic snack "towers" and cookies, which were all nicely washed down with a gin and tonic for the road. The G concourse lounge had similar amenities, although it was quieter and on a smaller scale.

The bar at the Terminal H/K Admirals Club in O'Hare

The soup selection

Old on the right, new on the left! (Thanks up close plane for ruining the picture...)

Woot!

Got us excited for all the places we'd go

Terminal G Admirals Club

Boarding:

The flight was delayed by a bit due to a late arrival. However, about 20 minutes into our wait at an international gate, in comes an Alaska Airlines 737. And yes, it is filled with passengers who have to unload, followed by a refueling and passenger loading anew. While the Alaska Airlines were conscious of this ridiculous situation, the Iberia crew were displeased (to put it extremely lightly). Alaska was not quick about it, unfortunately, despite their best efforts. So we waited, and waited, and finally boarded and took off about three hours after scheduled departure. Still, we met some fascinating people, including a wandering professor of philosophy who bantered on with me on the misgivings of Kant and the honesty (albeit foolishly so) of Nietzsche, along with other postmodern trends in philosophy today. Maybe that CU phil. degree does come in handy every now and then.

The Flight: IB 6274

Economy on this flight was in a 2-4-2 arrangement on this A330-300 aircraft. Gratefully, the agents at the gate gave us the choice of either emergency exit row seats at the side or an empty middle row. The extra two seats far outweighed the extra legroom, and there was in fact more empty rows to spare beyond that! We boarded, ended up next to the eclectic other two Jews and one other person from Wisconsin, all of who have been to Israel, so we were talking about our trips and destinations and decided to all see Spain together. After a meal and a few games of Euchre, we decided to head to sleep. My friend and I sprawled out over two separate rows. I couldn't sleep, but he slept like a baby. Instead, I watched a sordid Spanish movie called Felices 140, in which a woman wins 140 million Euros and we slowly find out just how much money can corrupt already corrupted souls and how little her friends and family care for her.

Business Class...nothing much to write home about

Slept like a baby!

The IFE on Iberia has continued to impress me over these past few years. There are a solid number of shows and programs available, and the selection seems to continue to grow. The kosher meal wasn't anything to write home about (but here we go: chicken, some grain, some chopped vegetables, "bread," and dessert. Even so, despite my kefiradik ways, I won't touch the rolls on a flight dealing with Spain, being as they are often filled with lard (a certain no-no in my book).

Day in Madrid:

My newfound friends and I left the airport by the yellow bus to the city center. After snapping some photos along the way, we made our way to the Madrid Cathedral and the Royal Palace, both quite beautiful. We also stumbled upon a small museum on Sephardic Jewish heritage, which we briefly stepped into. There wasn't much to see, so we quickly moved on. After debating on whether to see the crypts or not, we decided to head to the Prado by foot, stopping for some overpriced gelato along the way. The Prado was a lovely way to cap off our day, and the aid of my newfound art history companion was a big plus. After that, we headed back to Madrid Barajas for our evening flight to Dublin.

Such beauty in this old capital

The exquisite interior of the cathedral

A nice hot day in Madrid!

The Prado

Preflight: Iberia Dalí Lounge

Andrew and I headed to expedited security due to my Platinum status. However, since we were flying economy, they would not let him in with me. Instead, we headed back to the instant scanners. He scanned in first without issue, but my pass was worn and wouldn't scan. So, I went back to the expedited booth where they did some voodoo magic to make my pass work, and we met up after security. I felt like it was a private screening just for me in there, being totally empty.

After security, we headed to the Dalí lounge, our only option for Eurozone flights (despite the fact that it's not Schengen--very disappointing). The food was poor in quantity and quality, but we found things here and there before the flight.

The flight: IB 3790

The Iberia Express flight was an A321 3-3 configuration packed to capacity. I had no leg room, to say the least. No IFE, either, and the plane's age was showing. Despite the fact that our boarding passes had KSML (kosher meal) listed, the nearly three hour flight did not serve complimentary food. That said, when we showed them our passes, they apologized for the confusion, and the purser courteously offered us one complimentary snack and drink. A Kit Kat was in order, and with that and a modest lack of sensation in my legs, we touched down in Dublin Airport, marched through their antiquated halls to customs, and made our way to our hostel on the 41 bus.

Look at all the leg room!!!

Trudging our way through Dublin in the evening--sun still up!

Two nights and a day in Dublin:

We arrived our hostel in Dublin in the evening, tired and ready for bed, but first, some dinner was in order. The gentleman at the restaurant next door to our hostel welcomed us into the Marlborough Cafe, and--being so tired and hungry--we couldn't resist. He was attentive to our meal needs and catered to each of our picky issues, making delicious meals for us to eat. We then headed back to our 20-bed room Spire Hostel. It was somewhat loud and filled with mostly unfriendly Spanish tourists, but I eventually managed to fall asleep for a couple of hours.

My new life philosophy

The next morning, we awoke to some snoring from our bunkmates and made our way down to breakfast, helping ourselves to cereals and the like. We then headed onto Dublin for a free SANDEMAN tour. It was lovely, with our amazing guide Carl taking us through the streets of Dublin and teaching us a brief history of its people, language, and culture. We ended at a local pub, where we helped ourselves to a Guinness (which I will now refuse to drink outside of Dublin, since it's 100000x better there) and some local food for 10€.

We headed from there home to take a quick nap (which never really happened, thanks to some girl telling me of her sexcapades of the Irish and her worldly experiences), and we were immediately off to the Irish Whiskey Museum for a lovely tour and four shots of whiskey, followed by a pub crawl and many more pints of Guinness. I also had the pleasure of catching up with an old college friend who was also traveling through Dublin, although he would soon be on his way home. Sometime into the night, we headed back to the hostel for a quick sleep before heading to the airport early for another day of flying.

Let the Guinness flow!

Reunited with old friends!

The grandest waste of Irish wealth..well, this and the countdown clock.

...but we still love it.

Preflight: Dublin Airport Executive Lounge

Of all of the airports we have traveled through on our trip, with the exception of the L gates at O'Hare's T3, Dublin Airport was by far the most dated. Bathrooms were few and far between outside security, the lounges were small and limited (although the staff were quite friendly), and the gate areas were relatively sparse in activities. Still, we were able to have a small breakfast in the lounge before making our way to our flight, getting lost, turning around, getting lost again, and finally finding our gate not too long before boarding completion.

"Two bottle whisky for the way..."

The flight: AY 930

Since both Andrew and I are under 25, we were able to utilize Finnair's youth fare prices, which allowed us to travel from Dublin via Helsinki to Tel Aviv for less than $200 per person. Surprisingly, Finnair flies only one direct DUB-HEL flight daily, and on an Embraer 190 at that. The 2-2 configuration was simple and spacious. I'm still upset that Finnair followed suit of SAS and stopped serving complementary meals on flights to Europe and the region, but their service is still immaculate and their lounges pristine. We arrived without issue into a sunny, green Helsinki, quite different than the wintertime cloudy landing we had last November. We deplaned by jet bridge, taking a bus to security.

Yes, Dublin is 3 words in Irish...

Dublin by wing...

...and Helsinki by window.

Connection in HEL: Finnair Premium Lounge

In Helsinki, despite our cravings for cloudberry jam, we decided to avoid the hassle of passing through security, instead heading to the Finnair lounge. After meeting our chocolate hero Fazer and--ahem--ascertaining some chocolates for our luggage, we sat and enjoyed some quite delicious food and drink and made conversation with the attendants, including one who tried her best to find us some jam somewhere in the airport (to no avail--only jelly). I've always appreciated that hardworking, determined quality of Finnish culture, along with the fish. So much fish. Herring, salmon, and so much more. Plus, aside from the hour before all of Finnair's flights to Asia, the lounge was a quiet space for rejuvenation. After a quick trip to the Finnair sauna (also highly recommended if you like the heat) and a shower, we ate dinner in the lounge and headed to our flight bound for Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.

Such a nice airport, but can handle so much more capacity...

Yummy yummy fish

Rest area in the premium lounge

Spacious normal lounge

My friend the alcoholic

The flight: AY 797

The Airbus 320, in a 3-3 configuration, was another pleasant flight. There were overhead TVs, but I mostly slept or distracted myself otherwise by talking to fellow passengers. The flight was simple and efficient, arriving TLV early. We made our way through security, customs, and headed to baggage claim. In TLV, as far as my experience has held, a "priority" tag means nothing. Still, we got our bags and ran to make our evening 369 Metropoline bus to Beersheva, taking me back to where this blog began.

A few days in Israel:

Despite arriving quite late to our host (who graciously let us in anyways), we had busy day on Thursday. Our host made us a delicious breakfast when we awoke (shout out to her future culinary school skills). My friend was invited to a wedding in Caesaria, and so we made our way by train a bit early over there to head to the beach and soak in the sun. The beach was filled with those little fish that nibble off the dead (or living!) skin on your feet, like some onsen baths in Japan, for whomever that's relevant. The water was warm and the beach was hot, and a little gelato made everything better (far superior to Spain's, I must say). We then changed and got ready for the wedding. I ended up as a witness for their ketubah (Jewish marriage contract), which was a perk, and we ate so many amazing vegetarian foods (due to the number of veggies in the family). Andrew and I hitchhiked a ride back to the train station (since Caesaria port is quite a distance from both Pardes Hanna and Binyamina stations), hopped on one of the last trains of the night, and made our way back to Beersheva. It's so fun to make conversation with random people a world apart, as long as you're safe about it.

A beautiful afternoon on Caesaria port

On Friday, besides going to buy wine for our second hosts of our Israel experience, we didn't do very much. The entire trip was one continuous lack of sleep, so a bit of doing nothing was quite welcome. We made our way to our hosts for dinner, which was composed of an eclectic bunch and made for some great conversation with delicious food. Feeling sleepy but in that can-I-leave-the-table-if-we're-staying-here bind, we made it through until the other guests departed before heading upstairs. Sleep was not an easy thing for me, though, so while my friend slept soundly, I spent much of the night reading.

Our cutest little host

Shabbat services and lunch were lovely on Saturday morning, along with a needed relaxing afternoon. At night, we headed to Burgerim for some delicious beef and lamb sliders in Beersheva's Old City before turning in.

On Sunday, we decided to head with our luggage to Tel Aviv. We dropped our things at Andrew's friend's place (got the address right the second time around) and headed to the beach. The sand was scorching but the Mediterranean was clean and calming. We met old friends and made new ones over dinner in the afternoon, and then Andrew and I headed up to Haifa to stay two nights with one of my good friends from college.

Monday was a day of exploration, but, unfortunately, our compass skills are not what they should be. Andrew and I were supposed to head to Park Nesher, but we couldn't find our way. All turned around and 1000+ stairs later, we decided to get a bit of ice cream, head back to my friend's place, join them for a simple and yummy Chinese dinner, and then turn in.

We love stairs...no really, especially when there are more surprise stairs around the bend

On Tuesday, we headed in the morning to the Baha'i gardens in Haifa, a spectacular sight of natural beauty deep within the city. After that, we headed to lunch with a childhood friend who is studying medicine in Israel (like me!) and schmoozed over some pita and hummus. We then walked down to Hof HaCarmel beach, dipped our feet into the water, and headed back to Haifa to pack and head for the airport. Part 2 coming shortly!!!