Day 0: A Planeful of Priceline Passengers

In the beginning was a company called Priceline, and mistakes were made by Priceline. YYZBlog noticed one such mistake and published it, which caught the eye of my friend Stephen, who then forwarded it to a few of us, causing a minor stir in an otherwise mundane workweek. I really couldn't pass up a stupidly cheap deal that cost $280 to go from NY-Europe-Asia, and apparently, neither could a lot of other people.

Fast forward to today, and I stood in line at the Alitalia ticket counter, where the queue that snaked around behind me was filled with Canadian backpackers, sprinkled with a few Americans. (YYZBlog is a deal site based out of Toronto). Maple Leaf badges were so prominent that the ticketing agent commented aloud that she'd never seen so many Canadian passports on this flight before.

Usually I only chat up strangers who end up sitting next to me on the plane, and only if they're not already engrossed in their book or phone - the universal sign of "don't-talk-to-me-i'm-pretending-to-be-busy-for-the-next-8-hours". This instance was different, since the whole scene quickly turned social. We naturally ended up asking each other if we were traveling courtesy of Priceline...which was true for over 50% of the passengers. Perhaps the prevalence of single travelers with largish backpacks mimics alcohol's inhibition lowering effects? Or maybe people are much more extroverted on these types of journeys? Either way, my fears of being alone this trip were quashed within exactly 2 min of standing in line. Thanks for that answered prayer!

Overall, it felt like the first week of freshman year in college, with introductions flying around left and right. I made a few acquaintances already, and due to YYZBlog's prescriptive suggestion of NYC-Milan, Prague-Paris/Amsterdam-Tokyo, we'll be seeing more of each other over the next 10 days.