GlobalTrash 2017 - London, Estonia, Slovenia and United States

[EestiTiger]

After all I have learnt on here in the past couple of years, my annual 'EuroTrash' tour, has this year, been upgraded to ‘Globaltrash’ as part of a OneWorld Award fare. The plan sees me spend a shorter time in Europe this year in order to spend a bit of time in the states as well.

Due to the long lead in time to book some of the flights I wanted, the wait has been positively tortuous but I am nearly there!

My OWA flights are:

BNE-SYD QF J - can check out the newish QF Business Lounge in BNE.
SYD-NRT JL J - was originally F but new plane saw the F cabin disappear as well as access to QF F lounge
NRT-LHR BA F - 787 Service.
LHR-HEL BA J
HEL-LHR AY J
LHR-JFK BA F - Concorde Room and probably my last flight in a 747.
JFK-LAX AA F
LAX-HKG CX F
HKG-BNE CX J

If anyone has any words of wisdom with things not to miss as part of the flight / airport experience I am all ears. I have read a lot of trip reports and reviews online but always keen to learn more.

Aside from my OWA destinations, I am spending most of my time in Europe in Estonia catching up with friends. I have been booked on a trip to Portorož for a beach getaway at some stage too.

My time in the states includes time in Baton Rouge to go to a college football game and then a few days in and around New Orleans. After that I am heading to Daytona Beach for some more beach and another game of college football at Gainesville. A few nights around Harrisburg and Washington DC before re-joining my OWA ticket out of JFK.

Let the fun begin!

 

[I love to travel]

You will get to sample the new AA F dining room in JFK its not bad at all. Enjoy

 

[craven morehead]

This should be interesting look forward to some commentary.

 

[EestiTiger]

Not that I was super keen to get the ball rolling, but midday saw me turn up at BNE Domestic for my 4pm flight. Today's lounge cantina choice was nachos - yummo. Had to have two, admittedly small, servings to make sure. After lunch I wandered down to the far end of the lounge and basically had it to myself. It was strangely quiet down there but there was at least a staff member manning the wine bar to keep me hydrated.

 

[EestiTiger]

With the early morning departure I thought it would be wise to stay at Rydges so I can simply walk across the road to the terminal. It was an early night but I at least checked out their new 'on Cloud 9' rooftop bar. It had only been open 5 days. It has an indoor and outdoor area and looks out over the airport.

 

[theweaselsteve]

Nice sounding trip. Checking in for this one!

 

[EestiTiger]

I think I have a new favourite airline - JAL. Everything about the flight was superb. Comfortable seat, great IFE, good food and drink and impeccable service. I don't really watch too many movies so it usually easy for me to find something to watch on IFE. That Matt Damon Martian movie was very good.

Bento box as an assorted entree.


This was a Shepard's Pie I had later in the flight. It wasn't exactly what I expected, but was lovely regardless.


Seat 1k - quiet and private with the privacy screen up but is a little tight to squeeze into from the aisle.

 

[EestiTiger]

I didn't really see the point for one night venturing too far from Narita airport. I know Narita had hotels but have always been a bit fascinated by capsule hotels. I stayed at Nine Hours Capsule Hotel at Terminal 2 NRT. It was everything I was after - easy to find, central, quiet and comfortable. Definitely not for everyone but it is right up my alley.

 

[EestiTiger]

Oops - I forgot about this auto rotation of images 'feature' of vBulletin Note to self to only post landscape pics...

 

[Pushka]

Oops - I forgot about this auto rotation of images 'feature' of vBulletin Note to self to only post landscape pics...

Snipping a little off the bottom of the photo works on the App. Looking forward to more.

 

[Major]

Don't forget to taste lots of different wines

 

[EestiTiger]

I think I might have been just a little too keen to get into the JAL F lounge. My flight was booked for 12:55pm yet I was at the airport by 8am. Not much open, especially the BA desk. It was the only one not manned I had checked my luggage through to London in SYD but wasn't too sure if I should wait and do the old school check-in or try using the BA app. The thing that held me back was I wasn't sure how I'd go skipping the considerable security lines without a fast-track printed pass, or even if I'd get in the lounge without some sort of paper invitation.

I eventually rolled the dice and it all went smoothly. The lady at the security fast track line had a long hard look at my phone before I was deemed fit to pass. The lounge was easy to find and despite having to manually type my details in, I was in the lounge in no time. The lounge was packed when I arrived and it wasn't too easy to find a seat. Must have been a lot of morning flights as when I left a few hours later there was hardly anyone there.

The lounge was nice without being spectacular. Probably the first time I have had Sushi for breakfast followed by a massage.

Mid-morning snack.


Sushi / Saki Bar

 

[kermatu]

Enjoying this so far, and subscribed for more. I've only had a few JL flights and am keen for more of them too!

 

[amaroo]

Looks like a good all-round trip....enjoy!

 

[EestiTiger]

My 787 BA6 flight to LHR was one of the best I have done. The all male F cabin crew were most attentive and the food and wine was delightful. The cabin in its dark hues had a very luxurious feel to it. The flight seemed to pass very quickly and it wasn't long before I was landing to the London summer rain.

 

[JohnK]

Looks like an interesting trip.

Baton Rouge would be an interesting place to visit. Hope you enjoy the college football. I remember the fuss in Cincinatti one Saturday morning in October 1990. It was a college football game. Stadium packed. Think it was 80,000 capacity.

 

[EestiTiger]

I was staying with friends in London out at Chiswick. Despite having been to Europe many times this is actually my first time in London town.

The first day I made a beeline for a phoneshop to get a 'Euro' SIM sorted out. With EU roaming regulation changes, things are going to be a lot smoother than they have in the past managing SIM cards.

As I am only here for a few days there was no point trying to run around doing too much. My plan was to basically catch up with friends and maybe see a few sights, without overdoing it.

First morning, once I had my SIM, I headed to the Churchill War Cabinet Rooms. I didn't pre-book as I wasn't sure if my plans would hold so wanted to get there early to hopefully avoid the queues. I waited maybe 5 minutes with only half a dozen people in front of me, before I was in. A very painless process. I was there for close to two hours. When I exited the queue was hundreds of people long stretched waaaaaay down the street!




The rest of the early afternoon - I walked. Followed by more walking and more walking. I didn't really have any plans other than walking around the sights and just enjoying the history.




Mid afternoon I popped into Charles Tyrwhitt to do some shopping. It is a UK men's shop that I buy all my business shirts from online. I can never seem to get the size just right and also wanted to get sized up for some pants and suits. Being on holidays I had to ship the fruits of my shopping to my sister's on the Gold Coast. I hope she doesn't mind

That night saw me meet up with some friends for dinner in some sort of private club one of my friends was a member of called Home House. We had a lovely meal, way too much champagne and ended with retro beats on the dancefloor. We were last to leave around 4am - I am getting too old for this... This is what you get hanging out with Estonians

 

[EestiTiger]

Early the next morning, with two hours of sleep under my belt, I made my way to St Pancras station to get the train up to Leicester. As a student I was forced to study Richard III and ever since have been fascinated by him and his story. This interest exploded when his remains were found under a Leicester carpark in 2012. Unbelievable story and I said if I ever ended up in the UK, I would be heading that way for a visit.

It is perhaps a 15 minute walk from the train station at Leicester to Leicester cathedral. Next to the cathedral they have created a visitor's centre covering that period of English history, Richard's life and death as well as his recent re-discovery. It is really well done. The visitor centre is built over the carpark where he was actually found and you can see the trench where he was discovered.

After the visitor centre we went over to the cathedral to see his tomb. It was an amazing experience to just think about the story whilst being here in front of his final resting place.

 

[EestiTiger]

I am back... Sorry for the lack of updates on here. I have been having way too much fun and haven't found the time for sitting in front of my laptop

My London stint was short and before long I was winging my way to Helsinki. I have been to Helsinki many times and despite the prices it is one of my favourite cities. Helsinki certainly turned on the weather for me with a stunning Summer's day.



I had some friend's pickup directly from the airport and whisk me off to their hometown of Porvoo less than an hour away from Helsinki. They are amazing hosts and every year they stuff me full of too much food and too many drinks. The following morning I found my way back into Helsinki in order to have lunch with a couple of my closest friends. I went via the LindaLines ferry terminal so I could dump my luggage in a storage locker. I was heading to Estonia on LindaLines later that day and it beats dragging luggage around. Below is a picture of the avocado burger one of my friends ordered for lunch. I love avocado, but not that much...

 

[EestiTiger]

Estonia - my home away from home. I get such a buzz whenever I land in Tallinn. I have spend quite a lot of time here over the years so know it pretty well. It is all a bit of a blur so I will just post some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

I did a roadtrip with a friend one day outside of Tallinn in the countryside.

Keila church


Rummu Quarry - still not too easy to get into but many of the local Russian kids seem to know the way.


Near the Ämari Airbase there is a cemetery for Soviet pilots. Some of them have aircraft tail-fins as headstones. It is in the forest just off the road to the base so wasn't too hard to find. We had American A-10s buzzing around at the time which was pretty cool to see them.