Notes From a Small Town

10.-17.11.2018

Everything is big. People, lines, portions, distances…

I arrived by airplane after watching movies like Deadpool 2, The Equalizer 2 and The Spy Who Dumped Me. Orlando airport is going through some renovations so at the moment it’s officially the ugliest and messy first impression I have ever received in airports anywhere. It was like going through a construction site. Passport control line was long as expected as two other flights came in just before ours. What would you do if you are not allowed to use your mobile phone….you read a book! The two hours went by having a compelling 100 years old adventure while trying not to step on the heels of a persons in front of you. After answering “hopefully both…” to a mandatory question “business or pleasure” by the officer in charge of my line I was finally allowed to the Theme Park Capital of the World.

After taking an in-terminal train and going through the customs, finding a taxi was relatively easy. It was just there where the signs showed me to go. The taxi driver was from some big South-American country and had been living here for decades. She had three sons and one very disappointing daughter who had just had her first baby. Now she will understand…she hoped. First things first…I was given a notebook where I should have written my contact details and date when I wished to leave the country. So that she can come and pick me up again. The reason for that became clear moments later when she complained that it would take at least 6 runs between city and airport to make the ends meet. I was the 4^th. And it was already evening. While google’ing the population of Orlando and talking about everything we almost had an accident. Just inches to spare. All went well and we arrived to the hotel. After explaining that I can’t have the tip placed on the credit card recipt and would very much pay it in cash…I got a lecture that I work in a very shitty company which doesn’t understand the American culture. I passed on the opportunity to fill in her notebook. We’ll probably never meet again.

After standing in a nonexistent line for a relatively long time I got the room key and went to look for the right building…because it’s a resort which means different buildings around the pool area. I made it although not using the straight line as I understood later. The room was simple but looked clean and had even more that I would probably use…like a microwave oven. And it was facing a highway and not the pool area at all. After taking a quick shower I went directly to the pool to relax the aching muscles I apparently had somewhere in my body. It had been exactly 22 hours and 22 minutes from door-to-door. After that I just slept and slept until 5 AM (noon at home).

Sunday – November 11th, 2018

When I woke up it was still dark. I went for a walk. The reception now also had my breakfast coupons which they missed to mention me the night before. Luckily the café was not open yet. I had to wait until 7. The continental breakfast might sound like something big and interesting (like a continent should) but instead it included a 200ml juice pack, a chocolate chip pastry (delicious) and the smallest yoghurt I have ever seen. And there have been yoghurts in my life before. So I ended up ordering also a breakfast bowl which meant a bowl of breakfast where potatoes, eggs, ham and some unidentified ingredients were mixed together.

I had done my research. I knew there were buses in the city. Google maps also showed me that there were two options to get there where I wanted to go. On took approximately one hour and the other option two hours. I thought that for two dollars per trip I could sit in bus for an hour easily. So I navigated myself to the bus stop only to realize that there were only one bus stopping there during the whole day. And that was an hour ago. So back to option 2. By that time I had already wasted 45 minutes of my valuable day. So right there on the street corner I downloaded the UBER app and ordered me a car. As Orlando is one of the test cities for the Uber Pass then I ordered that too. It means basically that even there are higher prices due to the demand then I drive with the normal prices. So it took me 20+ dollars instead of 30+ dollars. Although it cost some 14 dollars to get the Pass. But I figured that I’ll use UBER again at least a couple of times before I leave so it will be useful. The car arrived as planned. The driver was from some big South-American country and this time didn’t speak English at all and had never been where I wanted to go. So we ended up doing circles around the destination and following my directions where to drive next. Always happy to help the locals.

So there I was … at the entrance of the Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. With a big bunch of other equally happy people. It was 9:30 AM and for some reason the only line to stand in was the “check-your-bag-line-for-any-illeagal-substances-and-equipment”. The rest was easy. Changing the pre-printed voucher for a plastic card, pressing it against a reader and finalizing it with a finger print (why was that I never understood) and I was in…the Christmas movie. As I had no specific destination but more of a professional cretinism to see what all that fuzzes about, I decided to take it slow and see where I end up.

Going clockwise through the Park I started to get the lay of the land. Sometimes ended in dead-ends and doubling back to where I started to go wrong. Indiana Jones, the Muppet Theatre, brand new Toy Story land etc. Went through the Disney museum where the exhibition explained the story and history of Disneyland. “Here you leave Today and enter the world of Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy”. Next stop – Star Wars. Next to a huge parking lot of strollers. While standing in yet another line you could guess the answers to some Star Wars trivia questions on the screens and understand that size does matter…Master Yoda’s light saber on display was much shorter than a normal lightsaber and standing next to a live Wookie you feel really small compared to your normal ego. We are best friends now with the Wookie by the way.

There are gift shops everywhere and with different merchandise I might add. In that way you really need to go through all of them so you won’t miss some of your favorite characters related stuff. I had come to Disneyland knowing that it’s mostly for kids and took the chance of being the creepy old man among the small and screaming boys and girls. But after actually being there I learned that I had been wrong. I was still a little creepy but definitely not the oldest, I was even more on the younger side of the visual average of the crowd around me. That means it is really for the whole family from kids still needing the strollers to grandparents riding around in really fancy “strollers” of their own. That means accessibility issues are really important here and anywhere you went they had to have access as well.

For a park that big you need to have a way to gather information what your customers are actually wanting to do in the Park. It’s called the Fastpass. It’s free of charge and you can book specific times to access an attraction without standing in a long line. You can do it beforehand from home (which I didn’t) or you could use the kiosks on site (which I did). I think it actually works. For example the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacle (or whatever it was called). I got in almost without any line at 11:30, was one of the first to sit down in the Theatre and the waited another 25 minutes until they got all the other seats filled with people from the stand-by line. So it took about 30 minutes to get everybody in to see the show. It’s important because the show was really well done based on the Temple of Doom movie.

The stunts looked great and there were no nonsense…just that it took about 5 minutes and then it was over. And we all had to leave. I was hungry, so I went to get a burger. So did apparently all the other happy people as well. So the burger joint was really crowded.  There was a mobile app allowing you to order first and then come back when it’s done but I decided not to wait. By 1 PM I was done with Hollywood Studios and left the park to take a ferry to another Disney park called the Epcot (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/destinations/epcot/). It’s a nice trip although it took three boats before the line allowed me to have a seat there.

When I reached the Park it was about 2 PM. There were no lines whatsoever. Which was fine. The park consist of two parts: the World Showcase (11 countries) and the Future World. I was lucky to start my trip from the World Showcase gate because it turned out that there was an International Food & Wine Festival going on there. It started already in August and would end the day after I was there. It meant that all the countries there had a three national influenced dishes on their menu. These were more like samplers than actual portions but for 5-6 dollars you could get a different tastes from around the world. I ended up with some Moroccan beef for 6 dollars which really helped with my hunger issues. I thought that I’ll try some other stuff as well but never did because the lines were all too unwelcoming. But I went through some country exhibitions, listened to the drums in Japan and again in Germany, hoped to get a glimpse of Frozen Elsa in Norway (never did) and saw somebody who looked like Mulan in China. The Mexico with it’s pyramid and the Day of the Dead theme was really amazing. There was also a cool sign on the way saying that the smoking area is apparently now moved to the island between UK and France, which if I remember correctly is the Jersey island where they had the DTTT Content Campus this year. After the walk around the lake where the countries are located, I arrived to the Future. The first thing is the giant golf ball where I ended up only 4 hours later. The accessibility issues are important here as well because everybody won’t see that giant golf ball. For them all the maps in the park are written also in braille.

What happened next I really can’t explain. Well, I can. It had to do something with the Fastpass offering me a chance to go for a Character Meet. Meet who? I didn’t know until I stood in a line (with babies, children riding on the lap of their grandfathers electric “stroller” and tired young parents) rounded the corner and ended up having selfies with Mickey, Goofy and (my personal favorite) Minnie the Mouse. I must also point out that the service personnel in Disney Parks are exceptionally happy and could appear really authentic and sympathetic to all of those crying babies and angry Grandmas. And they also vary from young Students to real Grandmas.

Soarin’ – it said to be the best attraction in all the Parks. And it probably is. But I get to that. First I went to try my luck in the Land exhibition (where also Soarin’ is located). There were no FastPasses available for this site so I just went to see what’s that all about. It was basically a food court with different attractions. The Soarin’ had a 95 minutes waiting time so I went to look elsewhere. The one attraction with only 25 minutes waiting time was a gentle ride through several greenhouses to see what the Park is doing researching and growing different plants and fruits and fish which also end up to different restaurants on site. Quite interesting I might add. After the ride I went back to check the Soaring. And what do you know…only 60 minutes! But my feeling of hunger reminded me again and I decided that I wouldn’t make it in line for an hour with an empty stomach. So I went to grab a Mongolian beef with some rice and refreshing Coke on the side. When I arrived back to the Soaring line it had 55 minutes left. So that was decided. The line went actually quite fast. There were again land-related trivia questions on the wall what everybody around you tried to guess – like “is Nile the longest river in the world”. The attraction itself was a basically a three long rows of seats in a 5D movie theatre with a 180 degrees screen. The seats will take you to the air and you feel like you fly through deserts, Artic regions, rain forests and through big cities. It was really good experience.

It was already dark outside. Went to see Nemo and friends that were on the way. Not so interesting although I’m a big Dory fan. Next, it was time to hit that big Golf Ball. With only 35 minutes waiting line. It was an exhibition about space. Where do we come from and where are we going. The ride began with choosing your language and country on the screen and took your photo. Good way to get some data about your customers. The ride went through famous historical sites and moments up to today. Then the screen lit up again and asked you several questions about your preferences with several options to choose from. When it was all done you got your own personal view of your future in animated movie format that included all the choices you made through the ride. Which was kind a cool. After exiting the ride and reaching the main atrium, you could see your picture on the giant globe located where you said that you were from. As I was too slow to pick a country then I’m living now in the U.S and A. So that you know.

That was it. The park was closing soon and I had reached the gate. Took one of the free resort buses to Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort Hotel and asked UBER to pick me up from there. 18000+ steps later I was back in my hotel.

Monday – November 12th, 2018

I woke early. It was hot outside. No surprise there. It’s the Sunshine State after all. The Café was out of juice. So I got a coffee instead (together with the familiar pastry and smallest yoghurt in the world). Drinking hot drink in a hot weather was a mistake. I was sweating already when I reached the bus stop. Only to realize that it was only 7:30 and the buses start at 8. I chose the hotel after all because it was cheap and because it was a walking distance away from the Convention Centre. So I started walking. The dress code of the conference was smart casual. In our part of the world that means also a jacket. Here, you can get away with only a polo shirt. I wished I knew that. Although after a while I was happy to have the jacket to cover all the sweat that was pouring out of me. The first convention centre I saw was part of the Hyatt hotel. Inside there were a lot of signs convincing me that I was in the right place. Actually I wasn’t. Only some of the events were taking place there. The real OCCC was across the street. Thanks to Google Maps I reached finally the correct entrance. Picking up the badge went very smoothly. Scanned the barcode on your voucher, showed picture ID and got your badge and tickets.

The first educational sessions that day were Technology for Increasing Guest Spending at Water Park: Part 1 and Part 2. Different presenters and examples. And it ended just in time to reach the 11:30 shuttle bus to my EDUTour: Zoo and Aquarium Experience 2018 at SeaWorld Orlando. Just in time because the weather had turned from sunny and clear into a heavy rainstorm. Everybody in two buses were given different color wristbands which helped later to divide us into different groups. First order of business was a buffet lunch. Just behind the glass from a pool of pilot whales. So we ate and watched the whales showing s what they had learned to do. I was lucky to share a table with one very annoying waterpark fan and blogger from Orlando and very nice CEO of the SeaLife park in Hawaii. After lunch we were ushered to a theatre next door where a bunch of killer whales with their trainers put up another show for us. Part of the show were also tricks what they teach the whales in order to monitor them regularly. That included taking different bacterial swaps and now I have also seen how a whale is willingly giving the trainer a urine sample.

After that we were divided into groups and assigned to different tour guides with whom we were going to take the tour through the whole park…public side and behind the scenes as well. Luckily the rain had stopped and the sunny humidity had returned. We were taken through artic exhibition where I saw my first totally white beluga whale. Then we went behind the wall and allowed access to a special house for penguins. The temperature there was about 10 degrees Celsius which was a big difference from the humid 25 outside. I felt like home. One by one each and every one could pet a penguin. You were allowed to do it with two fingers and on the lower back only. Because the new dolphin area were under construction, we were able to meet and greet the dolphins there behind the scenes as well. We feed them some fish and jelly and were able to pet them on their sides. Surprising they felt like really grease fish.

Next we went through the shark pool to see the animal rescue operations area. Animal rescue is an important part of SeaWorld and they are very proud of all the birds, sharks, turtles, whales etc they are able to save throughout a year. SeaWorld is not considering itself a theme park at all…they are in reality a zoological organization which just happens to have some rides as well. Last show that they had prepared for us was a mix of bird and dolphin tricks. For that there is another theatre away from where the whales are.

During the walk back to the Port of Call one could see how the accessibility issues have been on their mind including my first “service animal relief area” which is in another words small grassy area where your guide dog can poop in peace. The tour ended at the same place where it had started. During the networking and snacks you could also take a selfie with the cutest owl in the world and to see what a fell fed python feels like in your hands.

The bus took us back to the convention centre where I hopped on the I-trolley that took me back to the hotel. There I realized that my body had started to produce salt because the shirt had white salty stripes like a car after going through the slush of snow in the wintertime.

Tuesday – November 13th, 2018

As the line in the Café was way too long, I took out the Tripadvisor app and checked out where else they sold breakfast around here. It turned out that just across the street was a place that had pretty decent reviews. So that morning I had my real American diner breakfast at Denny’s including bacon, sausages, eggs (sunny side up) and pancakes with maple syrup.

That was the first day when the trade show opened and all the exhibitors were ready to show their stuff. Well almost everybody because on stand in the front had a sign up that proclaimed that they were so future looking company that their cargo container didn’t manage to keep up with them. As my first educational seminar didn’t start before 2 PM, I took the chance to go through the fair. It’s not like any quiet tourism fair I’ve been before. From the first booth to the last it was all about action, lights and sounds. Row after row after row of video games, arcade games, VR solutions, cute souvenirs you can win in the games, cashless wristbands, POS systems, tents, slides etc.

My first lecture was about how to improve Labor Efficiencies by Utilizing New Technology. Followed by a lecture “What’s Data Got To Do With It?”. The program ended with the Opening Reception.

Before turning in for the night I took a short walk around the neighborhood which included also the giant observation wheel called the Orlando Icon and the world’s tallest StarFlyer. The number of steps matched the day in Disneyland which gives you an idea of the size of the EXPO floor.

Wednesday – November 14th, 2018

Day started early “in the office” as usual. After e-mail checking I went to have my “usual” breakfast. Lectures started 8:30 with “Respecting the Process: Systems and Checklists Can Increase Park Safety and Guest Satisfaction” which was followed by “Blurred Lines: the Convergence of Interactive Experiences”. After that was again a good time to continue with “mowing the floor”. A big part of the exposition was still unexplored. The day was extremely hot. As part of the exposition was outdoors then after being in the relatively dark air-conditioned room it was quite painful to go outside. It was so bright it hurt the eyes. And it is strange that you need to take of your jacket when going outside and putting it back on when coming back inside the convention hall. For lunch I tried Inca cuisine whish was surely copied from the countryside of my homeland. It was delicious. The lectures continued in the afternoon. That was also the evening when European, Middle East, Africa Reception took place. Luckily I had a chance to go through the hotel for shower and change. In the meantime the weather had turned windy and rainy. So the reception had been moved from the Pool deck to the other end of the Hyatt Regency hotel. It took me half an hour to track down the right place. Did I mentioned already that the public transport in Orlando sucks? In order to get to the reception I had to wait for the I-Ride Trolley which took its time to arrive. It literally went dark during the half an hour I had to wait for the damn thing. The sun sets here about 5:30 at this time of the year. Walking back from the reception took me passed an area called the Pointe. Many restaurants, bars and shops are located there. Among others Tommy Hilfiger with clearance sale. Took some pictures and sent them across the ocean to see if anything interesting caught the eye. I stopped briefly also in a BB King blues club where I promised to return some day to listen some more music and eat the big plate of nachos they offered me by mistake. Instead I had a nice flavored cigar and listened to some reggae music on the street outside a restaurant called “Bahaman Breeze”.

Thursday, November 15th, 2018

Day started like the others…”office”, breakfast and I-ride Trolley to the convention centre. The first lecture of the day was “Emotions in Motion — Using Quality Visitor Data to Drive Engagement”. Followed by “Cashless is King” which talked about the cashless payment systems that can help you to increase revenue and monitor your customers behavior. For lunch I went to the previously mentioned Bahaman restaurant and had a bowl of Jamaican food. It was a good choice. And if to believe the first rule of eating out in another country then that’s where the locals ate as well. As it was next door to the Hilfiger store then I brought my first ever dress as well during the lunch. It was not for me though…

After lunch the lectures talked about what to consider when “Moving Forward With Your Next Technology Implementation”. The last lecture was hosted by the admission and quest relations staff from Monterey Bay Aquarium who talked about “Onboarding: Establishing a Culture of World-Class Guest Experience”. What a training program that is!

The weather had turned cold. That means here about 15 degrees Celsius. The evening highlight was IAAPA’s Centennial Celebration at Universal Studios. The buses picked everybody up from the hotels and took us to the Universal. The music was already playing and streets were full on food trucks and beverage stands. We entered from New York and made our way through the park.  There were also some of the attractions opened for us. So the first place I ended up was the Transformers ride. It was strange to go through all those winding passages usually full of people queuing for the attractions. The ride itself was in 5D and allowed you fly through the streets while fighting with other transformers. After the ride I had also a chance to have a selfie with Bumblebee.  Some other characters I met on the way to the Mummy ride were Gru from Despicable Me and Minions a nd the most famous Kitty. Hello!

The Mummy was based on, well, the Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser. Again going through the pyramid and all the piles of artefacts and Egyptian sculptures were a bit creepy. The ride itself was pretty cool. More like a roller-coaster inside a movie. The exit from all the rides go through gift shops which sell only the merchandise related to the theme of the ride. In this case it made me buy a T-shirt with cool Egyptian picture on it for somebody who loved to play similarly clothed character in Assassin Creed Origin game.

Next I found my way to San Francisco, took a selfie with the Jaws and went to the newest ride in the park…the Fast and Furious Supercharged. It started with an instructions which was combined between the characters from the movie (like Mia, Dominic etc) and park stuff playing their roles on the site. People were put on big “party” buses and taken to the corridors of the ride. On both sides of the bus were screens with all the action going on. It was strongly recommended that you wouldn’t use cameras on this ride. Good thing because all the 5D effects would have probably ruined the camera.

Another character meet took me to mystery world of Scooby Doo and the gang. Another cool attraction was the Jimmy Fallons Tonight Show which started in the Studio with the studio band and Hashtag jokes and ended as a race in New York. The audience won!

Last but not the least was the big mean roller coaster. Put everything you own in the locker, put on your favorite music and scream your lungs out on this roller coaster from hell.

The concert was provided by Barenaked Ladies from Canada. “If I have a million dollars” is still hunting my days ever since. The cake was good too.

Friday – November 16th, 2018

The café had run out of pastry. So I had two bagels with cream cheese instead. I had realized in the morning that I had 5 breakfast vouchers left and only two days to use them. So I had double breakfast before calling for UBER. Lisa was a nice African-American lady with a small red Honda. She used to be professional volley-ball coach whose main job today is driving UBER. She came from a big family of 9 brothers and sisters which made her 88 year old mother to have 70 children/grandchildren etc. She left me on the curb of Disney’s Animal Kingdom parking lot at 8 AM. The Park opens officially at 9 AM but I wasn’t the first to arrive. From 8 to 9 is considered to be a magic hour. It means probably that anything can happen. This time they started to allow people in already half past 8. It was fun to watch all the people running to the same direction. I understood completely. It was the same destination where I was going. Pandora. The land from the Avatar movie. It includes one of the must attractions in the whole park – the Flight of Passage. Walt Disney World’s newest ride is like Soarin’ on steroids. Riders climb aboard the back of a banshee and link to an avatar flying through Pandora for a simulator experience that is far more active than any past attraction of its kind. You can feel your banshee breathe between your legs, the wind and spray of the ocean in your face, and smell plenty of scents along the way. Being among the first to arrive there I managed to e among the first to get in. By 9 o’clock (the time Park officially opened) I was already in the instruction room in the middle of Pandora and ready to meet my banshee. If I would have come to the place a couple of hours later then the waiting would have been many hours.

The weather was still cold and clear. From Pandora I went directly to Africa. Found a lady with an Ipad on the way and booked myself three Fastpass rides to go later. But first I took part of the Animal Kingdom’s flagship safari ride through “natural” environments exposing guests to a wide array of animals. Kilimanjaro Safaris is an amazing attraction, exposing guests to a multitude of animals in what appears to be their natural environments. It takes place in real safari vehicles similar to the ones used in Africa. Or driver was an African-American lady who had a good sense of humor. How they do that all day along and day after day and still sound authentic and funny is admirable.

It’s Tough To Be A Bug is a 3D show with the cast of A Bug’s Life. This is a prime example of how you use Disney characters to make an educational (at least partially so) film feel like pure entertainment. It’s a lot of fun and when you could actually feel the bugs crawling under your butt and hearing the screams from the children and grandmas alike make this a truly fun experience.

The Festival of the Lion King is a true musical show with acrobats, singers, and other performers in tribal attire and vibrant costumes, plus parade floats with Lion King characters and other creatures. The show just works. And they allow to use cameras there as well which was a big plus for me.

Before going to the Kali river rapids I stopped by the land of dinosaurs. The roller coaster there was really boring after all I had experienced before. That’s all I have to say about that. The Kali river rapids is a whitewater raft ride spinning freely down a river through rainforest, ruins, and deforested areas with message of conservation. The suspense of whether you’re about to get soaked will have your full attention. You will get wet on Kali River Rapids, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get absolutely soaked. So many people wisely used ponchos there. I wasn’t one of them.

Before leaving the park I had pizza with mandatory green salad to regain my strength. There are buses running between the parks and resort hotels every 20 minutes or so. That was the way I reached my fourth and final park – the Magic Kingdom – by 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

The first impression in the park is of course the Cinderella castle looming in the distance. After mandatory pictures I ended totally by accident to the Pirates of the Caribbean, which is a boat-ride back in time to the days when pirates ruled the Caribbean. The attractions features Audio Animatronics pirates, including Captain Jack Sparrow. It’s great fun for guests of all ages, contains great detail, tons of characters, darkness and gunfire.

The next plan was to try the Spalsh Mountain ride in the Frontierland but just before I reached the boat the ride had a malfunction and was stopped. Everybody were sent away and they started bring the people home who were already in the boats. Good for me because everybody got an additional Fastpass for the lost time. On the way I finally found a kiosk selling churros, which is a mandatory snack for many people visiting the park. It’s a fried-dough pastry served with chocolate dip. Next place on the route was the Haunted Mansion. The Haunted Mansion is a slow-moving dark ride that is home to 999 happy haunts that are dying to meet you (and follow you home afterwards). No further explanation should be necessary.

Next destination – Tomorrowland. Next ride – Space Mountain – which is a dark roller coaster through outer space. This was really dark in there but it was really fast. So you can’t really see where you are going but you get there quickly. The final attraction I had time for was Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor – A screen-based “stage” show during which monsters interact with and tell jokes to guests and about the quests. The jokes change depending upon the audience and involve the selected few from the audience who they pick on.

It had become dark and the Cinderella castle was like a beacon which pulled everybody towards the main square. It turned out that this was the evening when the Christmas celebrations officially started. In that occasion there was a show taking place just outside the castle involving beloved characters from the Frozen movie. After a short storyline involving Anna, Olaf and others it all culminated to Elsa using her magic powers and made the castle to turn into snowy wonderland where all the towers were covered with ice and colors.

This time I took the bus to Disney’s Saratoga resort and called UBER from there. My driver was James and he picked me up in his blue Dodge RAM 1500 truck. Definitely not your usual Uber because it requires to have empty milk crates in the back to help the sweet old ladies to get into the cab. The first question was if I was Finnish because he had a friend with almost similar name. It turned out that he had been in a conference in my home town 4 years ago and complemented our Maritime Museum.

Back in hotel I had a short rest and then tried to make me move again. The plate full of nachos was calling. I answered to the call and made me go to the blues club again. This time it was fully packed with people from all the colors and sizes. Nachos were as good as expected. Music too. On the way back to the hotel I heard some other kind of music coming from a place called Senor Frog. There was a concert by (as far I could guess) some really famous Mexican singer who talked very much. In fluent Spanish. So I didn’t understand a word they were saying or singing. But the rest of the people were singing along and laughing at all of the jokes. When I got back to the hotel it was already…

Saturday – November 17th, 2018

Woke up, packed the bags and exchanged my three remaining vouchers to whatever the café had left after my week-long visit. Checked out and walked to the I-Ride trolley stop. Only that the trolley forgot to stop there. So I walked to the other bus stop. This time the trolley stopped and I started my ride to the International Premium Outlet mall. Somehow I managed to come out in the wrong stop so that I had to take a short walk before I actually reached the mall. Next 4 hours came and went. On the way back I stopped one more time to visit a video game store which turned out to be more like a small store with many different comic characters. It wasn’t total waste of time because in the same building was a good Mexican restaurant. I had some good chimichangas and chips with pesto.

My final UBER ride took me from the hotel to the airport. The driver Tariq was original African-American from Morocco and knew very well where my country was located.

The airport procedures went surprisingly quickly. For the first time there were no need to take all the computers and other stuff out of the bag during the security check. In the contrary it was important to leave everything in the bag. I could only guess that technology have reached the level where they know everything already without looking. The flight was overbooked and some people were left behind (voluntarily). Not me. Instead I watched three movies like Red Sparrow, Solo – StarWars Story and Hidden Figures. In Frankfurt airport the gates kept changing so walking up and down the very long corridor felt really good after the 8 hours sitting on the same seat. From door-to-door it took this time 18+ hours.

It was good to come home!