Category: travel

Silly Greek Ferries

Ashley Bischoff5 Comments

My family took the Jet One ferry from Crete to Santorini last Friday (both of which are islands in Greece). It seemed like a good idea at the time, especially since it would have taken about nine hours by plane (because there are no direct flights, we would have had to fly to Athens and from there to Santorini).

However, we later learned that the ferry nearly sank on its very next voyage:

The stranded holidaymakers were transferred to life rafts and other ferries from the Jet One catamaran by coastguards in a nine hour operation.

Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Anomeriti said: “It was a difficult operation because the waves were big and it was difficult to approach the catamaran. Thankfully, everything went well.”

Two rescue helicopters, a military transport plane and more than a dozen vessels were called up for the rescue, about 20 miles south of Santorini. […]

Yikes. Perhaps I’ll take the plane next time.

Trip to Greece – Ride to the Airport?

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

As I mentioned earlier, my family is going on vacation to Greece for two weeks, leaving on Saturday. We’re first going to Crete for four days, then San Torini for three or four days, and then Athens for a week.

We’re flying via Boston on the way there and coming back to Boston for my brother’s graduation at the end of the trip. Here’re my bookend-flights in and out of Boston:

To Boston:

  • Flight: Delta Air Lines flight 2100
  • Depart: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX (DFW) - Terminal E
  • — Sat May 24 at 12:55pm
  • Arrive: Boston, MA (BOS) - Terminal C
  • — Sat May 24, at 5:39pm
  • Airplane: McDonnell Douglas MD80
  • Meal: Snack/Brunch (ooh! But I hope it’s not pretzels)

Back to Dallas:

  • Flight: Delta Air Lines flight 1181
  • Depart: Boston, MA (BOS) - Terminal C
  • — Tue, Jun 10 at 5:00pm
  • Arrive: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX (DFW) - Terminal E
  • — Tue, Jun 10 at 8:23pm
  • Airplane: Boeing 737-800
  • Meal: Snack/Brunch

Anyhow, would anyone be able to give me a ride to or from the airport? I should probably be at the airport around 11:00/11:30am on Saturday (leaving my apartment around 10am or so) since it’s an international flight. On the return, the flight lands at 8:23pm, but it’d probably be 8:30 or even 8:45 after retrieving my luggage and so on.

Penguins Lower Ticket Prices

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I’m on the Penguins newsletter mailing list and I learned that they’ve lowered ticket prices (so often, it seems that sports teams just want to raise ticket prices).

In the D level, which includes 2,399 seats, the price per game for a full season ticket plan drops $9 — from $39 last season to $30 in 2003-04, a reduction of 23.1 percent.

In the F level balcony, which includes 1,112 seats, the price per game for a full season ticket falls $8 — from $28 to $20, a reduction of 28.6 percent.

The result is that more than 6,900 seats — 40 percent of the Arena’s capacity — are now available for $30 or less on a full season ticket basis. […]

Of course, most of the article talks about the reductions for season ticket buyers, but it also mentions that individual ticket prices will be lowered and that the new individual ticket prices will be announced over the summer.

It’s not often that I go to Penguins games, but that’s mostly because I’m so far away from Pittsburgh most of the year. All the same, perhaps I’ll try to fit in a Penguins game next time I’m in town.

Fabulous Powerbooks

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

I’ve occasionally had throughts about buying a laptop and, especially with WiFi proliferation, they’re becoming more and more useful. In particular, I started reconsidering Apple when those switch commercials came out. Mac die-hards, at least the ones I’ve talked to, tend to consider them cheesy, but I found them rather down-to-earth and unpretentious.

More than that, MetaFilter had a post back in June about some switch-logs (for lack of a better term) where regular users would write about their experiences switching from Windows to Mac.

Switch. Apple launches its first major ad campaign since “Think Different”. Rather than preaching to the converted, it's gunning for the other 90% — the unhappy Windows users. Can Apple double its marketshare to 10% as Steve Jobs is hoping? Does this represent a less smug, more aggressive Apple? Are you considering switching, or have you switched already?

Interestingly, I now realize that I’ve met Jish (linked to the word “switched” above) at SXSW, so that gives his account extra credability to me.

However, the PC-to-Mac Log at EdgeCurve.com is even more comprehensive. It chronicles one user’s Mac expereience from opening-the-box and onwards over two months. With that level of detail, I really got a feeling for what switching might be like (of course, in my case, it’d only end up as a somewhat-switch since I’d still have Linux and/or Windows on my desktop machine).

What finally sealed it for me was SXSW. At such a geek-friendly festival, I wasn’t particularly surprised to discover that the convention center had WiFi throughout. And, it wasn’t uncommon for attendees to bring along their laptops and browse the web and check their e-mail between or during panels.

What astounded me was the breadth of Mac users. Of attendees that had laptops, I estimated thatg about 9 out of 10 had a Mac. Jish, Leia, Ruaraidh, and even Ben and Mena Trott — all Macs. If I had a Real Web Job, I would have been tempted to borrow someone’s Powerbook, load apple.com/store, and order one right then and there.

PS: I considered titling this entry “Oh, my beloved Powerbook, how I love to lick your creamy center”, but it was too long and also a bit osbscure.