Wednesday, June 25, 2008
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee." - Abraham Lincoln
***
Baltics trip
Day 1 - 15th-16th May - Flight, Amsterdam Transit; Vilnius, Lithuania (Part 1)
We flew in to Vilnius, Lithuania via Amsterdam. The first flight was the racially homogenous flight I'd ever taken.
One thing about KLM that distinguishes them from other airlines is the food you get. They really pay a lot of attention to it (yes, even in Cattle Class), from the packaging to the contents:
Breakfast tray
Extolling the symbolism of soup: "For all of us, soup means protection, food for the soul. It's one of the most primitive and simple ways of saying I love you." You just need to mess up the grammar a bit and add "Please enjoy this soup" to make it Engrish. It's probably due to shared translation and intercultural issues.
Meanwhile, the packaging of the pumpkin seeds and croutons read: "This food was prepared especially for high altitude consumption". Don't ask me why.
Breakfast tray
Breakfast spread
A primer on Dutch breakfast: "The main ingredient in a traditional Dutch breakfast is bread. The Dutch usually eat slices of white or wholemeal bread spread with butter and topped with cheese, jam, chocolate sprinkles, peanut butter or ham (or another type of thinly sliced cold meat). Alternative or additional breakfast fare consists of rusks, rye bread, ginger cake, currant loaf, a boiled egg or a bowl of porridge. As well as coffee or tea the Dutch like to drink dairy products such as milk or buttermilk with their breakfast"
This was amusing, since there was no bread in the breakfast set (I had the pancake but the other option was an omelette), and I know the Dutch feel sick when they smell hot food in the morning. Of course, if they served Dutch breakfast no one else would fly KLM.
Unfortunately, not as much attention was paid to the in-flight entertainment as to food. The system lag was the worst I'd ever seen. TVs and CDs under the Kids' section were not available under the Adults section (this might not sound problematic, but they put the Simpsons under the Kids section, so).
Worse, the standard of in-flight service was totally unacceptable. On two occasions, I pressed the attendant call button, and when the light above me lit up, no one attended to me even after many minutes, so I gave up. How un-gezellig. I like that at the back of the plane (and presumably near the other galleys) there were carts set up with water, Orange Juice, Coke and chocolates for passengers to help themselves, but this probably resulted in moral hazard (the stewardesses were tiao kar-ing [putting their legs up] and reading magazines or newspapers when I peeked in the galley to ask for stuff). In fact, one woman asked one of the stewardesses for something, and the stewardess pointed to the self-service trolley and response. I prefer self-service actually, but service is paid for, so KLM gets bottom marks for service.
As a minor point, there weren't sanitary pads in the toilet, but since this doesn't affect me I won't harp on it.
Commands to cabin crew were made in English, not Dutch. Hah.
Schiphol's X-ray machine is like an MRI chamber - a long plastic tube (YC has a pic somewhere but I haven't gotten his pictures yet).
***
Baltics trip
Day 1 - 15th-16th May - Flight, Amsterdam Transit; Vilnius, Lithuania (Part 1)
We flew in to Vilnius, Lithuania via Amsterdam. The first flight was the racially homogenous flight I'd ever taken.
One thing about KLM that distinguishes them from other airlines is the food you get. They really pay a lot of attention to it (yes, even in Cattle Class), from the packaging to the contents:
Breakfast tray
Extolling the symbolism of soup: "For all of us, soup means protection, food for the soul. It's one of the most primitive and simple ways of saying I love you." You just need to mess up the grammar a bit and add "Please enjoy this soup" to make it Engrish. It's probably due to shared translation and intercultural issues.
Meanwhile, the packaging of the pumpkin seeds and croutons read: "This food was prepared especially for high altitude consumption". Don't ask me why.
Breakfast tray
Breakfast spread
A primer on Dutch breakfast: "The main ingredient in a traditional Dutch breakfast is bread. The Dutch usually eat slices of white or wholemeal bread spread with butter and topped with cheese, jam, chocolate sprinkles, peanut butter or ham (or another type of thinly sliced cold meat). Alternative or additional breakfast fare consists of rusks, rye bread, ginger cake, currant loaf, a boiled egg or a bowl of porridge. As well as coffee or tea the Dutch like to drink dairy products such as milk or buttermilk with their breakfast"
This was amusing, since there was no bread in the breakfast set (I had the pancake but the other option was an omelette), and I know the Dutch feel sick when they smell hot food in the morning. Of course, if they served Dutch breakfast no one else would fly KLM.
Unfortunately, not as much attention was paid to the in-flight entertainment as to food. The system lag was the worst I'd ever seen. TVs and CDs under the Kids' section were not available under the Adults section (this might not sound problematic, but they put the Simpsons under the Kids section, so).
Worse, the standard of in-flight service was totally unacceptable. On two occasions, I pressed the attendant call button, and when the light above me lit up, no one attended to me even after many minutes, so I gave up. How un-gezellig. I like that at the back of the plane (and presumably near the other galleys) there were carts set up with water, Orange Juice, Coke and chocolates for passengers to help themselves, but this probably resulted in moral hazard (the stewardesses were tiao kar-ing [putting their legs up] and reading magazines or newspapers when I peeked in the galley to ask for stuff). In fact, one woman asked one of the stewardesses for something, and the stewardess pointed to the self-service trolley and response. I prefer self-service actually, but service is paid for, so KLM gets bottom marks for service.
As a minor point, there weren't sanitary pads in the toilet, but since this doesn't affect me I won't harp on it.
Commands to cabin crew were made in English, not Dutch. Hah.
Schiphol's X-ray machine is like an MRI chamber - a long plastic tube (YC has a pic somewhere but I haven't gotten his pictures yet).
Labels:
travelogue - Baltics 2008
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