First trip to Europe
Ever since I posted the other day about Cathy Sheldon, I have been trying to pull up other memories of that trip. For some reason, I can't find the photo album from that summer, but I did find my trip diary. I have diaries that I wrote in nearly every day from 5th grade through college. I'm not sure why I was compelled to chronicle in that way; perhaps I was preparing for blogging. I started reading the diary last night, and decided to transcribe parts of it for the blog.
What's interesting is how the narrative captures physical details, without going into the emotions of the experience at all. Perhaps that's the way I am, or perhaps it is the process of a 16 year old. The funniest part of the story is how I explain to the "reader" my experience of airports and flying - because, of course, it was my first time traveling any great distance. I didn't know how mundane and commonplace these things would become - even to me. I liked the food served in the little compartments and explained how we sat in groups of three "chairs". I even counted the rows of seats!
-----------------------------
June, 1971
A totally unbelievable experience so far - at 6am Mom, Dad & I left for Springfield and we arrived about 1pm. There's about 70 kids here at the hotel for a meeting - pre-departure for Switzerland. It didn't last very long and we had from 3pm to 9:30pm with nothing to do because the plane was delayed four hours and wouldn't leave til midnight. Somehow we spent the time - walking around Springfield and talking with others. A lot of the kids here were from New York and couldn't go to the language camp because of Regents. We took two buses to the airport in Hartford, Bradley Field, and since for this entire time I had not had a group or a leader because I'm the only one in my group that went to Springfield, I had to find mine. Well, first we weighed in and got our tickets. Then I found my leader - Mirjana - she's really nice. She introduced me to various members of the group who tried to realize my name wasn't Eleanore as they had all planned upon.
Then, we waited, and waited, and waited. The plane, because it was chartered, was getting more and more delayed as it went on. So when we all finally got in line with 250 others, it was 2am, and liftoff was 2:30am. It was raining, but very cool. I have a fair seat - it's a window seat but it happens to fall between windows. There are 45 rows of three on each side of the plane. After about an hour, maybe two, we saw the sun rise - it was really beautiful. Just like this huge rainbow set on its side. Then, as we moved into heavier clouds, it swallowed up the sunrise and the effect was that we had gone over the edge. Very far out. About 4am - I still hadn't gone to sleep - we ate dinner. It was good, steak and potatoes and peas in all those neat containers.
I'm afraid my writing isn't too good right now because now it's 7:30am and I just woke up from about a three hour sleep. As you look out the window, all you can see is funny patterns of blue and white fluffy stuff, real far below you and occasionally you can see the sea - blue with tiny white dots in it. The captain just made us fasten our seat belts - due to some slight turbulence. I hadn't noticed much, maybe that's why I can't write. We land in two hours and right now we're being served a "continental" breakfast. I'm not sure but I think it's coffee, orange juice and rolls (I haven't been served yet).
I'm sitting in a threesome set of chairs with Mike and Cathy. Mike is from Indiana and likes photography and computers and Cathy is a vegetarian. Well, the breakfast was a cold roll, orange-grapefruit juice and milk or coffee. Ugh. Our plane left the American continent over Nova Scotia, they said, and we took sort of a loop up and back down over England. We have been cruising at 31,200 feet. The clouds are too much, it's impossible to explain. You can say they look sort of like cotton, or whipped cream, or foam, but they really don't look like anything. One time - at sunrise - we saw this cloud that was a thunderhead and we went over it. The clouds were all flat and low below us, then all of a sudden this huge ridge looms in front of us, going straight up.
We're turning, we think maybe we're coming near Europe. It's too cloudy to tell what we're going over, but I'm sure it's still land. After this we came to the shore - amidst the clouds you could see patches of divided land and tiny, tiny houses and towns. We flew over the English Channel and over France, which looked about the same except more rivers. Then all of a sudden we saw this huge lake with green hills all around it and the pilot said, "There's Lake Geneva." and then the Alps - it was fantastic. These huge gray and white peaks looming just below us - with glaciers between them and tiny mountain huts and little villages. Too quickly, we left that scenery and went over Italy - seemed to be a flat, wooded area with straight roads (very few, though) and orange roofed houses. A whole town appeared as an orange spot until we got closer. And then, we circled for a long time to Milan. The airport we landed in was modern and clean and efficient - except I had to wait a long time for my luggage, since I was early getting it on.
What's interesting is how the narrative captures physical details, without going into the emotions of the experience at all. Perhaps that's the way I am, or perhaps it is the process of a 16 year old. The funniest part of the story is how I explain to the "reader" my experience of airports and flying - because, of course, it was my first time traveling any great distance. I didn't know how mundane and commonplace these things would become - even to me. I liked the food served in the little compartments and explained how we sat in groups of three "chairs". I even counted the rows of seats!
-----------------------------
June, 1971
A totally unbelievable experience so far - at 6am Mom, Dad & I left for Springfield and we arrived about 1pm. There's about 70 kids here at the hotel for a meeting - pre-departure for Switzerland. It didn't last very long and we had from 3pm to 9:30pm with nothing to do because the plane was delayed four hours and wouldn't leave til midnight. Somehow we spent the time - walking around Springfield and talking with others. A lot of the kids here were from New York and couldn't go to the language camp because of Regents. We took two buses to the airport in Hartford, Bradley Field, and since for this entire time I had not had a group or a leader because I'm the only one in my group that went to Springfield, I had to find mine. Well, first we weighed in and got our tickets. Then I found my leader - Mirjana - she's really nice. She introduced me to various members of the group who tried to realize my name wasn't Eleanore as they had all planned upon.
Then, we waited, and waited, and waited. The plane, because it was chartered, was getting more and more delayed as it went on. So when we all finally got in line with 250 others, it was 2am, and liftoff was 2:30am. It was raining, but very cool. I have a fair seat - it's a window seat but it happens to fall between windows. There are 45 rows of three on each side of the plane. After about an hour, maybe two, we saw the sun rise - it was really beautiful. Just like this huge rainbow set on its side. Then, as we moved into heavier clouds, it swallowed up the sunrise and the effect was that we had gone over the edge. Very far out. About 4am - I still hadn't gone to sleep - we ate dinner. It was good, steak and potatoes and peas in all those neat containers.
I'm afraid my writing isn't too good right now because now it's 7:30am and I just woke up from about a three hour sleep. As you look out the window, all you can see is funny patterns of blue and white fluffy stuff, real far below you and occasionally you can see the sea - blue with tiny white dots in it. The captain just made us fasten our seat belts - due to some slight turbulence. I hadn't noticed much, maybe that's why I can't write. We land in two hours and right now we're being served a "continental" breakfast. I'm not sure but I think it's coffee, orange juice and rolls (I haven't been served yet).
I'm sitting in a threesome set of chairs with Mike and Cathy. Mike is from Indiana and likes photography and computers and Cathy is a vegetarian. Well, the breakfast was a cold roll, orange-grapefruit juice and milk or coffee. Ugh. Our plane left the American continent over Nova Scotia, they said, and we took sort of a loop up and back down over England. We have been cruising at 31,200 feet. The clouds are too much, it's impossible to explain. You can say they look sort of like cotton, or whipped cream, or foam, but they really don't look like anything. One time - at sunrise - we saw this cloud that was a thunderhead and we went over it. The clouds were all flat and low below us, then all of a sudden this huge ridge looms in front of us, going straight up.
We're turning, we think maybe we're coming near Europe. It's too cloudy to tell what we're going over, but I'm sure it's still land. After this we came to the shore - amidst the clouds you could see patches of divided land and tiny, tiny houses and towns. We flew over the English Channel and over France, which looked about the same except more rivers. Then all of a sudden we saw this huge lake with green hills all around it and the pilot said, "There's Lake Geneva." and then the Alps - it was fantastic. These huge gray and white peaks looming just below us - with glaciers between them and tiny mountain huts and little villages. Too quickly, we left that scenery and went over Italy - seemed to be a flat, wooded area with straight roads (very few, though) and orange roofed houses. A whole town appeared as an orange spot until we got closer. And then, we circled for a long time to Milan. The airport we landed in was modern and clean and efficient - except I had to wait a long time for my luggage, since I was early getting it on.
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