Leaving Europe

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Spencer

Bright and early! I got breakfast at the hostel, 3 EUR for a croissant and coffee. But given unlimited Nutella and jam and milk, I did pretty well. On the hostelier’s advice, I got the combined airport ticket at the metro, and the transport was a cinch.

At the airport, I looked around for places to spend my remaining 8 EUR but the prices were so unappetizing I thought, what the heck, how bad can it be to come back with 8 EUR :)

So I went through an obnoxious security process. My passport and boarding pass must have been checked about 8 times. Fortunately I had Papillon to read :D

Once through, I sat down at a table and replied to some messages. There was a piano nearby and I surreptitiously plunked out a few chords. Then it was time to get on the plane, which I did without incident. I grinned–I’d made the whole trip without missing a single booked transport :)

I read Papillon and read and read, ate a tasty meal. I had some good System 1 banter with the stewardess inspired by Papillon’s carefree attitude. Then I slept. I got a good 3 hours or so, but then couldn’t sleep. I ended up finishing Papillon, then writing some logs. The flight was over before I knew it. I hopped out in Dallas FW for another obnoxious security process–it should have been streamlined but there were a LOT of people. Nevertheless, I made it through and then found I had to go through security again. No trouble–I decided to sit outside first. It was nice to breathe unfiltered air. I checked out my old buddy Issa’s website–I have to find a way to hang out with that guy when I get back in Seattle. He’s still working like crazy summarizing the work done by various AI safety organization and stuff like that :) Reading his website, even the dry descriptions of completed tasks, I got the sense I could hear him talking. The writing matched my remembrances perfectly.

I kept logging and then went back in.