Travel

Flogging passports

Business, Economy, Finance, Thought Provoking, Travel

The FT’s Tim Harford takes on the cost of EU citizenship.

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I hardly think that €650,000 cheapens the EU passport. For the typical British citizen, the message Malta is sending is that the passport in your pocket is worth more than your house and your pension pot put together. Which may not be far wrong: take a typical UK citizen, dump her in Calcutta or Dar es Salaam and see how she gets on. EU citizenship is more valuable than most EU citizens realise.

Riga Airport

Bern, Helsinki, Switzerland, Travel

In transit between Helsinki and Bern. Grey day outside. Riga has a small but functional airport. Found a nice cafe with a spare power socket. Free wifi but it keeps showing adverts every second minute.

Air Baltic seem like the Ryanair of Northern Europe. Sneaky charges for checking in and a couple of staff who have horrible customer service skills. Can’t forget that horrible woman in at the check-in in Vilnius airport that I dealt with a couple of years ago. It was by far the worst checkin experience I have had so far.

 

Giving yourself a chance to get your smartphone back

Mobile, Tech, Thought Provoking, Travel

Very informative post about how one techie got an iPhone that was in flight mode back to its owner.
Robert Freeman’s post about how he got an iPhone back to its owner.

One of the main points was at the end of how any smartphone owner can help a finder get in contact with you if you ever lose your phone.

If you have a smartphone, take a look at it and think how anyone would get it back to you if you lost it. Why not put your contact details on the lockscreen right now?

iOS users can do this by replacing their lock screen wallpapers (screenshot above) .

Android users go to Settings > Lockscreen > Owner Info (if you have Jellybean).

Settings > Security (if you have Ice Cream Sandwich).

I need to do that myself later. One commenter suggested getting stickers done also. Nice idea.

Norwegian airlines now offers direct weekend flights between Helsinki and Dublin all year round. #aerlingus #norwegian #helsinki #dublin

Dublin, Finland, Helsinki, Ireland, Travel

I was searching for a flight home yesterday and was surprised when hipmunk found a direct flight between Helsinki and Dublin. When I saw it was offered by Norwegian Airlines, I headed to kayak.com as they offer a tool for looking up direct flights from any airport. In addition to the usual Aer Lingus schedule (Saturday and Tuesday), I saw that Norwegian offer direct flights on Friday and Monday which is much more sensible for a weekend break. I personally prefer this schedule and have already booked an extra trip with Norwegian. I wonder why the schedule planning team in Aer Lingus couldn’t have offered what the city break consumer wanted on the Dublin- Helsinki route?

Biking with headphones

Fitness, Health, Thought Provoking, Travel

Being a regular cyclist every day that doesn’t heavily rain or snow, I’m shocked when I see fellow cyclists ride around wearing earphones in both ears. It was nice to read this article in Slate about why it’s stupid to do so, especially missing the cues about vehicles that are not in your line of sight that only come from hearing.

But even a burbling sonata can prevent you from picking up on subtler cues, and cyclists need all the cues they can get. Cars have air bags and crumple zones. Bikes do not. Cars have side and rearview mirrors. Most bikes don’t. Cyclists must crane their necks and look backward constantly. If your head and your front reflector aren’t pointing in the same direction, then auditory signals are essential to staying upright.

Helsinki City Photos – September 2012

Finland, Helsinki, Photography, Travel

Some photos I took in the city of Helsinki, Finland in September 2012. Lots of evidence of the transition from summer to the autumn. This is most clear in the photos of the terraces at Latsipalatsi which were mostly deserted. The most beautiful moment was the impromptu classical concert outside Cafe Java on an evening in which I was on my way to see some friends.