Spent a couple of hours at Logan airport this afternoon before flying to San Jose. As I looked through the windows and saw the familiar scene of terminals, planes and the control towner, suddenly I realized how much this airport has impacted my life since I moved to East Boston 3.5 years ago. Oh don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about the noisy, which I can rarely hear from my apartment. I'm talking about some interesting experiences due to my proximity to the airport.
First of all, I no longer have to take public transit or uber to the airport. I simply walk -- yes, it's possible to walk from my apartment to the airport. After passing through nearby streets and waterfront trails, the sidewalk after an intersection leads all the way to terminal A. And it's not only walkable, but also bikable! There's actually a bike rack in front of terminal A, and I often see bikes there (although I'm not sure if they belong to passengers or airport workers). It's been quite convenient -- the path from my apartment to the airport opens 24/7, is very safe, and gorgeous at night with Boston's waterfront skyline.
Secondly, I got to know some people who work at the airport or airlines, from TSA, JetBlue to the control tower. I started hearing their stories at work, such as seeing some celebrities at security, or using the crew's spare seat and coworker's hotel room to get a free sunny vacation in the Caribbean islands. They're also good people to answer my air travel questions. In summer 2017, I flew to Jasper National Park in Canada for camping and planned to bring my tent as carry-on on the flight. Not sure whether the tent poles would pass the security, I asked my TSA friend and got an interesting answer -- if not explicitly specified, the personnel would usually judge by whether or not it can be used as a weapon. Therefore, things like tent pole or tripod are usually ok. After hearing this answer, I brought my tent and sleeping bag as carry-on all the way to Calgary without any trouble, and successfully saved the checked luggage fee.
Lastly, I mentally feel much close to foreign countries. If you go around the airport to take photos near the runway, you'd see planes from plenty of countries around 4-6pm -- Lufthansa, Hainan, JAL, British, etc, and you can even catch Iberian, KLM and Cathay Pacific if hanging around longer. Even Israel's flag carrier El Al can be seen here. Seeing these airlines makes me feel great when unable to travel. Spotting Cathay Pacific and JAL also makes me feel closer to my homeland. Really wish one day the Taiwanese carriers China Airline and EVA can come, haha :D
Alright, now this post is unexpectedly long, and I'm just on my way to Bay Area, a destination that doesn't excite me much. But hopefully I can still discover something interesting over the next week or so when I'm there.
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