The first time we really noticed culture on-board was on a flight from the USA to Austria via Austrian Airlines. Instead of waiting 9 hours to arrive in a new country, we stepped instantly from Washington DC into Austria as we boarded the plane. The Austria-red outfits (including somewhat shockingly red nylons), the classical music, and the Austrian-German accents put us instantly in a traveling state of mind. They served Ottakringer beer, a delicious light beer made at a Viennese brewery, and Almdudler, something like Ginger Ale and known informally as the national drink of Austria. We were in the air, but we were in Austria too. I don’t remember that they served Wiener schnitzel but they just might on some special flights.
It’s not just Austrian Airlines. On British Airways, we were served Sheppard’s Pie by a man with a lovely accent and an enormous selection of BBC television radio shows kept us all entertained for the entire trans-Atlantic flight. I even heard a rumor that Air France used to distribute warm bread. They should add champagne right?
Last Christmas, we flew EVA. We were inundated with Hello Kitty via a Happy Holidays film strip that ran on a loop on every single seatback screen while we were on the ground. My kids discovered congee, rice soup, for breakfast and we enjoyed sweet milk tea after meals. It was a great Taiwanese experience.
Recently, I bought a ticket on United and, through the magic of shared flight codes, ended up on an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight to Thailand. What a great surprise! I never left the plane or Narita Airport but it really feels like I visited Japan for a few hours. The absolute best part was ANA’s special drink, Aromatic Kabosu. There was an entire page in the menu dedicated to describing the fruit and its harvest. The description was mouth-watering. The taste is different from anything I’ve ever tasted before, something like grapefruit juice with honey. The flight attendants offered large cold pitchers of it regularly. I plan to search this drink out at our local Japanese grocery.
Meals came in little boxes full of little things, many of which I could not identify. Most were delicious but not all. Luckily breakfast included Japanese yogurt in a cute little package because it was the only thing I could really stomach. As adventurous as I like to think I am, cold fish and seaweed for breakfast just isn’t my thing. Please note that they provided scrumptious Hagen-Dazs ice cream cups for desert on both flights – not Japanese but awesome.
The flight attendants bowed and apologized profusely for forgetting my coffee. And they offered to refill regularly, circulating through the aisles with big pitchers of various beverages including plenty of hot and cold green tea. I don’t think they spoke much English but they were gloriously polite. There was a nice selection of world films and a whole channel just for J-Pop for additional cultural enrichment.
What really inspired this post was my first trip to the inflight bathroom. Wow. Japan! There was a panel of dangerous buttons, a fancy hi-tech automated faucet, and an auto-toilet-lid-shutting-robotic-arm.
Yup. You leave the seat up (instructions provided) and then when you push the flush button, a small plastic arm pops out of the wall and slams the seat shut – somewhere between Get Smart and The Incredibles. I had to try it several times. I love this thing. Maybe I can install one at home?
Thanks to writers at http://www.thepiripirilexicon.com/ and at http://alldonemonkey.com/ for sharing their on-board experiences.
What on-board cultural experiences have you and your family enjoyed?
