Ruminations on Traveling

All of this traveling has led me to think about how awful it must have been traveling in older times. Sure, a 22 hour flight at 600 MPH from Sydney to Vienna isn't all that fun, but think about the horrible things people had to endure 200 years ago, for example. I'm not talking about horse-wagons that average 50 miles a day or the tendency to get scurvy if you're on a boat too long. I'm talking about arriving in a new country for the first time and not being sure if that order you just placed with the local coffee proprietor will be any good.

Yes, I just arrived in Vienna, and what was the first thing I did? I ordered a Vanilla Frappucino from the airport Starbucks. It was just as good as the ones I used to get from the El Camino/Lawrence Expressway Starbucks in Sunnyvale.

God Bless American Corporations, for now we are not forced to endure the surprises springing from business heterogenity.