The past days have eventful and insightful. Often I say the suitcase is my karma, and this is definitively one of those months where I spend more hours packing and unpacking than being at home.
So one of the travels will be had to forget: getting in a cruise and arriving in Copenhagen after 16 hours.
What an experience.
It is a typical case of seeing The Good The Bad, and the Ugly! But I will remember the Good (which outweighs the rest) and that is the fact that you can actually avoid airlines. That to me is a blessing. I dislike airlines because of the way the treat passengers who are not business travellers and because of their efforts to water down climate responsibility.
So getting going by boat or train to another country will always make me happy even if it takes longer. And how cares, I have plenty to observe, read, write and think about!
Another reason why I was seriously happy inside the cruise is that that you are surrounded by water the whole time and a water view relaxes me. It cleanses me, I'd say.
Viva el agua!
Plus for someone who does this trip for the first time, the cruise is so big that it does feel like you are in moving building (after all it has elevators, several restaurants, TV, shops, etc)
And that "quase-building" experience is also the downsize. The business model of the boat is about making you forget you are travelling. They want to you spend time in the duty free shops and the many restaurants with all-you-can-eat buffets. It is interesting to observe how this type of type of experience triggers the universal reaction of "desperate shopping". That greedy feel we have got at some point where we get weak and decide to go for the "2 for the price of 1" even if we don't need the items in the first place.
That was the downsize of the trip, shopping-mall atmosphere you experience. I don't want to sound too judgemental. The point is more about global trends and that tendency toward
low-quality purchases of things or food only because they are "on sale".
Perhaps I still have this idealised version of Scandinavia where these things don't happen!
They do happen. They difference is that they sales happen less often and that due to 25% sales taxes on a daily basis, the young locals go a bit wild in duty free shops!
Who knows, perhaps I will be like htat in a few years. I will keep this blog entry in mind.
