Eurafrika Pt 2 - Across the Atlantic

So I get back to the airport and we take off across the Atlantic. It's my first time flying on a two-aisled plane. I'm sitting in a window seat beside Bruce (or was it Bill - I'm terrible with names...), a middle-aged guy from Albuquerque heading to Bonn, Germany for a electric-tools conference. I share with him the little that I know about Alburquerque, namely that the Isotopes are from there and that they recently set up a commuter train line called the RailRunner. He is astounded that I know this obscure fact. I tell him I'm a transport geek; he laughs.

For my first flight over the Atlantic, I was really hoping to actually get to see the big blue ocean, to only see the sea in all directions. I imagined being Joshua Slocum sailing around the world in search of adventure.

I didn't get to; it was dark and cloudy. My buddy Julian told me that they have plenty of in-flight movies on long flights like this one and fortunately he was not wrong. I watched three movies: Transformers 2, The Hangover and an episode of The Office. The plot for Transformers 2 was surprisingly not bad (though unsurprisingly had many holes in it); The Hangover, though ridiculous, had an interesting way of presenting a narrative; and The Office was just plain hilarious. I slept the rest of the flight.

Posts Coming Soon

Ok, so I've finally got some time to get something up on the web. Right now I am blogging from Schiphol airport in Amsterdam and will soon have posts about my twelve incredible and exhausting days in Africa.

Stay Tuned!

First Stop: Minneapolis

Context is important in life. The context we create for ourselves in any given moment determines how we live that moment. For example, most people wouldn't be too thrilled with waking up at 4:00 A.M.

Unless they were going overseas for the first time.

And that's how this adventure began: first a 5:30 A.M. 'quick-hop' from Winnipeg to Minneapolis, then a 7-hr flight across the Atlantic to Amsterdam, and then finally another 7-hr flight from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro.

After landing in Minneapolis, I had seven hours to burn until my next flight, a perfect opportunity for a little adventure. However, my body was already weary from a lack of sleep, so I went and dozed off in the Delta lounge, being careful to wake up anytime someone walked by.

After having recovered, I decided to check out the city. Despite having been within the city's limits several times, I had never actually had anytime to check out the city. Fortunately, leaving the airport is easy: is directly connected to the city's light-rail system. So I left the airport and boarded the next train heading for downtown.

As a transport nerd, I found riding the Hiawatha Line interesting in its own right. It runs from Mall of America in Bloomington, through the airport to Downtown Minneapolis. Despite running through large industrial stretches, the line was fairly well used.

The best way to describe Downtown Minneapolis is a bigger, cleaner, Disney-fied Downtown Winnipeg. By far the most noticeable feature of Minneapolis' downtown is the ridiculous number of skywalks. Virtually every block is connected with them, some blocks are even connected with two. Several of them had a fair amount architectural effort put into them, mimicking the local bridges in their steel trusses. (I heard later that the city has a marathon on the skywalks!)

The skywalks clearly had an affect on the city's streetlife. I only saw a handful of pedestrians, even though I was there during the middle of a business day. As soon as I stepped inside I discovered where all the people had gone; I don't want to go into a big urban planning discussion about this, but for me moving all traffic indoors for climactic reasons doesn't work. The mall-feel of waxed tiled floors just seems sterile and fake; nothing can duplicate the feel and atmosphere of a lively outdoor street.

Through sidewalks and skywalks, I made my way to Target Field, the Minnesota Twins baseball park. It's amazing what you can do with enormous taxpayer subsidies. On the way back I saw an HB9, texting like crazy on her phone. I thought about about approaching, but I needed to get back to the airport.

Amsterdam was calling.

Onwards to Africa!

In a few hours, I will be making my first foray off the continent. My first stop is Kenya and Tanzania. After two weeks there, I will be heading over to Vienna. Not much is planned and I'm not really sure what to expect.

But at least I'll have some amazing pictures to post here in a month's time. My grandfather got me an Nikon D90 DSLR camera; it's pretty fantastic.

While the DSLR is a fine piece of technology, it will be the only I will be bringing with me. I won't have any phone, or laptop or internet for an entire month. I see this as an opportunity to divorce myself from the many distractions that come with these things and focus on the things that add value to life, like adventure. I have brought with me several books to read: Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum (self-explanatory); and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell which is about how ideas spread.

What is this?

If you've stumbled upon this blog, you may be asking yourself, "What's this all about?"

Why start a new bl0g, especially one that doesn't seem to be about anything?

I've been meaning to start a blog like this for some time. I already write a blog about a soccer team (Go Whitecaps), but I've always felt I needed a place that was more of an open canvas where I could chronicle the little fascinating things in life. A place where I can write down, share and discuss the little bits of wisdom that I stumble upon.

I've chosen the name Turn A New Leef because this blog is all about making every day interesting, either by learning something new or doing something differently. Every day is new and fascinating, with its own set of lessons and adventures.

And since I'm leaving for Africa in two days, there isn't a better time!