TBWAIN - AKA Jeff Svare's Blog

After I had checked my bag at Gardermoen airport last week I decided to ask about upgrading my seat on the Copenhagen to Chicago leg of the trip. Evidently Scandinavian Airlines has some whacky policies about issuing or purchasing upgrades. There were plenty of seats available in Business class, so seating wasn't a problem. After waiting about 15 minutes for the ticket agent to help me, she said there were plenty of seats, but the upgrade would cost about 8,000.00 USD. That's Eight Thousand dollars. Eight grand. Why so bloody much? Evidently SAS' policy is that if you upgrade one segment, you have to upgrade all of them. Even the ones that have already taken place. My Chicago to Stockholm leg, for example. Last year, I missed my flight from Chicago to Oslo because of bad weather in Chicago. So I had to stay overnight on my own dime. The United Airlines people had to change my flight from Chicago so I arrived in Europe in Frankfurt rather than Munich. This change al...

I took the train from Göthenburg to Oslo today. While we wewe stopped in Halden the Norsk Tolkontroll came aboard to talk to each passenger to see if they had any goods to declare. They're just looking for the usual stuff, asking the usual questions. "Where are you coming from, where are you going, do you have any alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs?" They've got all the makings of Latter-day Saint missionaries. They're in the second compartment right now (15:11) and it smells like they found something. :-) I think missionaries would approve of the dress code as well. T-shirt, blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a gorgeous black cocker spaniel. Who really likes getting his ears scratched. We're just pulling into Sarpsborg . Here's the latest in a series of odd-looking rail cars. A 29.2 cubic meter, 12 thousand kilogram container with a square opening running through the center of it. I wonder what it's for? While eating out a few times in Sweden I dis...

Or, If We're in Sweden, Don't Let Me Order the Drinks Do you remember that line from Star Wars (back when it was Star Wars , and not when it was Star Wars: A New Hope ) when Han says to Luke, "Don't get cocky." Hm? I was feeling pretty good about how well I was making myself understood here in Sweden. I was able to get through Immigration, customs, buy a ticket for the bus into town, check in at the hotel, and buy a few things and ask directions. Yeah, I thought I was doing allright. Then we went to dinner. The waiter came to take our orders and asked what we wanted to drink. I said, "Vann, vennligst." Or in English, "Water, please." Then I noticed he took away all the wine glasses from the table except for mine. "That doesn't seem right," I thought to myself. I a couple of minutes he came back with a bottle of water for our table, and a few minutes later he came with a bottle of white wine for me. I said, "No thank, I ...