Monday, October 12, 2009

This big country

Going from the west coast to the east cost is a loooong way to go. It takes almost a full day to travel - and with the 3 hour time difference you loose hours going east. In order to get to Atlanta I had to do a stop over in Denver. The flight to Denver is about 2,5 hours and the flight from Denver to Atlanta is about 3,5 hours. And you're not even right at the east coast...

I was dressed and packed for Atlanta weather (mid 70s and partly cloudy) and not for Denver's 20F and snowing... I was freezing when I got off the plane in Denver... And when the plane was delayed for 2 hours on the tarmac not knowing it we would get to start - I was preparing for a very cold stay in Denver. But luckly - after a total of 3 hours delay we took off.

If you fly for 6 hours south from Stockholm (which is almost the only direction you can go), were would you end up - northern parts of Africa? And you would still be in the same timezone.

This country is huge.

According to Google Maps it would take 1 day and 17 hours to drive to Atlanta. That is if you would great and not take any bathroom breaks...


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, if you fly south from anywhere you never have a time difference but it is more west and east..and you can fly to Finland Russia and have at least one hour?
Guess if you fly east 6 hours from Stockholm you'll end up in DUbai with 3 hours time difference

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, what the hella re you talking about? Studided geography much? Dubai lies very much south of Sweden. You would have to fly southeast rather than east. And Jacal, your comparison to Europe was unfair. The US might be huge but Europe is more huge. Europe is "shorter" than the US but also wider. I.e. to travel from the utmost western Europe to utmost Eastern Europe takes longer than traveling from the American west coast to the east cost but traveling from the Canadian border in the north to the Mexican border in the south takes loner than traveling from Northern Europe to Southern Europe. You see?

JaCal said...

Anonymous 1 - well - flying 6 hours east or west from Stockholm won't you to anything very interesting. ;-)And unless you go on a really long trip (like to Thailand or Florida for vacation - you rarely have to deal with much time difference).

Anonymous 2 - well, I wasn't out to compare the two areas in exact measures. I doubt you can't argue that the US is a huge country (especially compared to Sweden...);-) And besides - Europe is several countries and the US is - well one... ;-) You might be right about the exact measures from the northern most site to the southern etc - but that wasn't my point.

This picture I found was interesting - not fair at all since they've forgotten most of Sweden, Norway and Finland - and the Baltic countries which last time I checked were part of Europe. ;-) But it gives you some perspectives on the size of European countries compared to US states.

http://goeurope.about.com/od/europeanmaps/l/bl-country-size-comparison-map.htm

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And what's up with this anonymous comments - don't you have names or at least imagination enough to make one up?? ;-) I won't bite...