US Customs is getting more and more stringent. I was yelled at for not writing my flight number down on that ridiculous piece of paper you have to fill out swearing you haven't been in contact with any farm animals while abroad. Who remembers their flight number?

Another weird thing is that, apparantly, if you are caught using your cell phone (at least at O'Hare) before clearing customs, you "risk having it confiscated". That's the warning that United Airlines gave us as we disembarked. They mentioned it 3 times, so clearly someone thinks it's a big deal. But why? I've been googling for an answer, and I found nothing.

I just got back from a journey from London to San Francisco via Chicago that, door to door, took about 24 hours. Ugh. Still, it was all worth it. Tragically, my camera broke the day I got to London and hasn't started working again. Guess that's an excuse to buy a new one. Anyway, one of the highlights of the trip was a surprise visit to Bilbao, which is absolutely fantastic and most definitely ought to be on anyone's lists of places to visit. If you're into architecture, it's a must, but the best piece of architecture in Bilbao, in my opinont wasn't the Guggenheim - it was the airport. Sondika Airport, designed by Santiago Calatrava is easily the coolest airport I've ever seen. Sort of like the Milwaukee Art Museum, but the size of an airport.

The only time during my entire travels that I took any photos was in Bilbao, where I bought 4 disposable cameras and used them all in 2 days. Unfortunately I have to wait for them to be developed. In the meantime, here's a link to someone else's photos of the airport in Bilbao.

I love this irony. I don't know what the coverage is in the United States, but this Mexican convoy has been on the TV every 30 minutes for several hours here in France, along with a bunch of people protesting at the White House. The US looks really bad to people here (and in the UK) right now, everyone keeps asking me questions about it... how could we so magnificently screw up? Are we really becoming a third world society? Is it really "every man for himself" as a rule? There's some truth to all of it is my general reply.

I've never flown RyanAir before, opting for EasyJet when I lived in London. But now I've gotten to experience them in all their glory and I have never been nickled and dimed and subjected to more humiliation in my life as a traveller. These guys make Southwest look like a first class cruise. I bought a ticket from London to Montpellier for about $65, which is actually very expensive for RyanAir (who are known for giving away tickets for free), but it was the best I could do.

First things first, immense lines full of sullen and hungover English folks, then a general irritation that I did not write down my confirmation number. Who writes that down? They had to spend an extra 12 seconds looking up my reservation by my last name and they were not happy about it. My mistake, no big deal.

Then, they baggage fees. 15kg is the limit. Most airlines will give you 30kg, or 50lbs in the US. But I had 21kg. Bam! £27 fine. Then they almost made me check my laptop bag - no way I was going to allow that.

The flight itself was fine, and I knew in advance there would be no free food of any kind (at least Southwest gives you peanuts and Coke). On Ryan Air, they only serve name-brand junk food, which they presumably get for free from the Mars corp, and they will even charge you for water. Later, they come around and try to sell lottery tickets. Ok, these are technically for charity, but still!

But the ultimate demonstration of their cheapness came when we landed in a blinding rainstorm in Montpellier. RyanAir is too cheap to pay the fees to have the jet bridge extended to the plane. So we pulled up to the gate, within about 20 feet of the jet bridge and had a staircase brought to the plane. Everyone had to run about 100 yrds through the rain and an inch deep river to the terminal. People where falling over on the tarmac and droping things left and right. Hilarious.

My hands are still covered with some horrid glue that got all over my suitcase from the cheap (now soaking wet) tags they stuck all over it. Anyway, what can i say? You get what you pay for, but I paid too much!

I forgot how fabulous the summers can be in the midwest. I'm literally between flights on a deliberate 16 hour layover in Chicago and managed to have a nice swim in balmy Lake Michigan today followed by a nice romp around town. This is the way to travel. Who needs a non-stop flight?

I usually find NYC vs. SF comparisons to be really boring, but for some reason people love to compare the two. Anyway, this one is very funny and actually pretty dead-on accurate.

My favorite line is an irate account of SF taxis: "When you call to have one pick you up, you need to know your address even if you’re at a restaurant, and intersections don’t count".

This is actually true, and totally baffels me. "waiter! what's the address here?" Chances are the waiter dosn't even know. Equally annoying is the fact that SF taxis pay no attention whatsoever to the light on their roof. Light on - means nothing. Light off - means nothing. Just hail anything and hope they stop.