notes on espresso 5

yeah I thought that was the last one too
*espresso count: 17.5 (+5) *

1800 Italy time
Here I am, again!

I honestly thought the last newsletter would be the last but thanks to some storms and the British Airlines pilots timing out , I’m currently on a plane to London instead of being in London for my connection due to our flight being three hours late.

At first it was 15 minutes. Then 45. At that point I was starting to get nervous about my connecting flight. No matter, right?

Then it was an hour. No updates until 2 hours hit. And of course it ended with a whopping 3 hour delay.

And thus, esteemed subscriber Noah Curran and I were free to explore Milan’s one and only regional airport: Linate.

After learning about the two hour-long delay, we decided to try some Italian McDonalds. This is now my fifth or sixth foreign McDonalds and I was a bit intrigued. I ended up with a 10€ prosciutto burger or something as well as something that basically amounted to Italian cheese curds (like Culver’s). I’m gonna go with … 7/10. It’s McDonald’s, after all.

We got to our gate, hoping the two hour delay would be the end of it. It was not. We finally hit three hours at some point and the people in our little international terminal were furious. And as everyone looked from their phone to the gate — it was empty. Nobody was there.

That’s when the buzz started to rise a little more. Another British Airways flight was due to arrive and take off in about an hour — could we be on it? Many people wondered so. It actually seemed that most of the people with connections were the most fine with it all. Noah and I were definitely not happy but we were making the most of it.

And I did that by getting two espressos from the machine!

All trip I’ve been having humans make my espresso. Which to be clear is generally how I like it. So when I found this espresso vending machine I just had to give it a shot (not as cool as robot barista in SFO).

I selected lungo, paid and watched as a tiny cup appeared in the gentle grip of a set of claws. Before I could even think a tiny spoon rattled down the chute, perfectly slotting itself in the mini mug. Then, the espresso came.

To be honest, it wasn’t that bad of an espresso. There was definitely a fuller body and had a decently pleasant taste before it drifted into a thorny brush of bitter taste. I was mostly enamored with the process in which it was served and brewed!

Forty minutes after my last espresso, our flight was finally ready for boarding. And now here I am, wondering what the hell is in store for me in Heathrow. I’ll update below in a section and publish … at some point today!

1930 London Time

We boarded!

Noah and I were a little concerned about not making it on our next flight. The nice British couple next to me wished me the best (Simba is a connector of cat peoples) and I rushed off the plane to meet with the missed connections coordinator.

And there he was — and luckily I got a good deal. He had me booked on the last flight to New York but a few other travelers going elsewhere weren’t so lucky. Hotel transfer shuttles, it seems, were not part of the package.

All Noah and I got was a £10 voucher, which we used at a Starbucks near our gate. Thankfully the Starbucks worker (who is one of the nicest British people I’ve ever met) gave me an extra shot of espresso.

This little stop has really changed my view on England. It’s pretty nice!

And with the final espresso (I think), that puts my total espresso count at 5 today. I feared that we’d get here but unfortunately we must in order to make it through the entire travel day. What a wild end to this trip!

And yes, though the barista was nice the espresso was not good. Better luck next time!