Nice people, terrible food, good book, no luggage

I am in Nice after 25 hours of sitting down. Normally I would be appalled at the person who decides that the first thing he does after 25 hours of not doing any exercise and being stuck in a cabin is to sit and write a blog post on his laptop. However I've not got any luggage and am subsequently stuck in the Airport - but I'll get to that.

A few things I noticed on my flight over:

1. When faced with a choice between noodles/rice and 'western style' food - always go western style. Apparently no one knows how to serve rice on an airplane, but mash potatoes always comes out a winner
2. On a good plane (say an A380) choose the most interesting/alternative movie to watch first. You know, the kind of movies that aren't big blockbusters but have had accolades coming out the wazoo. The reason I say this is because I missed out on my chance to watch The Artist, choosing instead to watch The Hunger Games, and finding that The Artist was too alternative to be screened on my next flights.
3. Food will always come when you want it. Don't worry. Dinner served at 2:30am by your own biological clock is a godsend. (Unless it's sweet and sour chicken with rice, in which case it's terribad).
4. Don't go for connections that leave you less than an hour to get your shit sorted. Because
1. Some airports are freaking huge and will take you that long to get to
2. Some security stations are that annoying and will take that long to get through and
3. Apparently baggage handlers all work in turtle mode and need ample amount of time to get your bag from one flight to the other. You end up the other side having to wait for the next flight for your baggage to come to you, which is what I am currently doing. (Personally I blame the travel agent)

 I've been lucky so far. Met a string of very nice and talkative travelers to pass the time, including an older Englishwoman who told me about her sons' wanderlusts, a very young and touchy feely Italian couple who gave me their Wi-Fi password in my hour of need and some quite welcoming cleaning ladies at Nice Airport who accepted my broken French.

Also, I read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green - very, very good book. About young love and cancer, but not in a self consciously sappy or depressed way. Just quite real and touching. I'll blog about it and John Green in general on Red Underpants soon.

-ovenfoot