Souvenir Sunday

Souvenir Sunday: vegemite from Sydney Airport

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It’s Souvenir Sunday – a day to take a look at the fun, inexpensive and locally-themed items you can find when you’re stuck at the airport.

This week’s pick comes to us from world-traveler Jon Douglas, who found a bin of vegemite for sale at Australia’s Sydney Airport.

What’s vegemite?

According to the Urban Dictionary: It’s a “delicious Australian spread, made from used brewer’s yeast. Non-Australians tend to give descriptions of it similar to ‘tastes like a mixture of salt and battery acid’.”

On the road a lot? If you find yourself stuck at the airport, take some time to check ou the shops. If you find a great souvenir that’s fun, inexpensive and ‘of’ the city or region, please snap a photo and send it along.

If your souvenir is featured on StuckatTheAirport.com, I’ll send you a special travel-related souvenir.

Souvenir Sunday: Soothing salves from Singapore airport

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On my way home from Singapore, I considered buying a souvenir at Changi Airport tied to the country’s national flower: the orchid.

But I gravitated instead to the many displays of Tiger Balm in the airport pharmacies and gift shops.

Tiger Balm, made by the Haw Par Corporation of Singapore, is a pungent ointment made with menthol, camphor, clove oil, cajuput oil and mint oil, and is said to be able to cure everything from headaches, migraines and colds to arthritic pains, muscle strains and, according to one sign I saw at the airport, flatulence.

I was ready to buy a few Tiger Balm tins when a saleswoman sidled up to me and suggested I take a look at the tins filled with Electric Balm, which were stacked nearby.

“This product is also made in Singapore,” she told me, “But it’s less expensive and smells better.”

A box of 16 menthol-scented tins was 20 Singapore dollars, about US$16.

Sold. And this week’s pick for Souvenir Sunday.

Next time you’re stuck at the airport, take a moment to check out the stores. If you find something that’s fun, inexpensive and ‘of’ the city or region, please snap a photo and send it along. If your souvenir is featured on Stuck at The Airport, I’ll send you a special airport-related souvenir.

Souvenir Sunday: wireless powerkiss

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I’m a big fan of free Wi-Fi at airports. And with a three hour layover at Copenhagen International Airport recently, I was delighted to discover that free Wi-Fi had been rolled out there just that week.

Even before the arrival of free Wi-Fi, the Copenhagen Airport (CPH) was delivering something travelers crave for: power to charge gadgets.

And not just power. Wireless power.

CPH is one of a handful of airports where travelers can recharge gadgets wirelessly via the PowerKiss system.

Passengers who have a PowerKiss ring – or who borrow one from one of the cafes or restaurants at the airport – just need to plug it into their device and then place that device on a recharge spot attached to a table or other piece of furniture at the airport.

It’s a great idea. Let’s hope it spreads.

Souvenir Sunday at Copenhagen International Airport

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Each Sunday at StuckatTheAirport.com is Souvenir Sunday – a day to take a look at some of the inexpensive and offbeat things you might find yourself buying – or thinking of buying – when you’re hanging around the airport.

This week’s treats come from Copenhagen International Airport, which began offering free Wi-Fi to travelers the first week in December (yay!) and where I found almost too many tempting and offbeat things to buy.

Here’s just a sampling:

In addition to jars of herring and what seemed liked a dozen varieties of black licorice, the gourmet food store at the airport sells packages of Danish-style hollowed-out-in-the-center hot dog rolls.

Viking statuettes are quite popular –

But, of course, so is candy. And in amongst the choices in the duty free shop was this Haribo offering of candy larvae.

Even though the package says “Kids and grown-ups love it so,” I left the larvae behind and instead chose to bring home this Lego airplane.

Souvenir Sunday at Tan Son Nhat Int’l Airport in Ho Chi Minh City

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It’s Souvenir Sunday, the day StuckatTheAirport.com takes a moment to look at some of the fun, inexpensive and locally-themed items travelers can find when stuck at the airport.

This week’s souvenir comes from Jon Douglas, who was kind enough to snap a photo of these traditional Vietnamese hats he found for sale at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) in Ho Chi Minh City.

Traditional Vietnamese hats at Ho Chi Minh City Airport

Do you poke around the shops when you’re stuck at the airport? If you see something that’s “of” the city or region and bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along. As a thank-you, you’ll receive a travel-related souvenir in the mail,

Souvenir Sunday at SFO

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It’s Souvenir Sunday – when we take a a look at some of the souvenirs you can pick up when you’re stuck at the airport.

This week’s souvenirs come from San Francisco International Airport, where the Brookstone store has modern-day versions of Pan Am travel items;

Where several newsstands carry flight attendant-themed doll sets;

And where a new shop called Destination Green offers these cute pink (‘green’) cars that Barbie might covet.

Souvenir Sunday – Elvis at Memphis Int’l Airport

Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs,

It’s Souvenir Sunday, the day we take a look at unusual and inexpensive items you can buy at airports.

This week’s souvenirs come from Memphis International Airport, where Ron Rundus – the Stuck at the Airport webmaster – discovered the Elvis shop, where it’s Elvis, Elvis, Elvis all the time – and where “Elvis” often performs at the airport’s Sun Studio Café.

Do you spend time shopping when you’re stuck at the airport? If you find something fun, inexpensive and “of” the city or region, please take a photo and send it along.

If your souvenirs are featured on StuckatTheAirport.com, I’ll send you a special airport-related souvenir.

Souvenir Sunday: the buzz at Sacramento Int’l Airport

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There’s still quite a bit of a buzz around the new Central Terminal B at Sacramento International Airport, so my picks for Souvenir Sunday this week are a few items I spotted during my tour of the airport.

In addition to the cute bee above, I spotted this sweet bee-themed mug at the Sacramento Bee news stand in the baggage claim area.

And, over in the ‘old’ Terminal A, I found this classic:

For photos and a report of my tour of the airport, please see my previous posts here and here, and my At the Airport column about Sacramento International Airport on USATODAY.com.

Please join me in celebrating Souvenir Sunday: if you are poking around an airport shop and find something fun, inexpensive (about $10) and “of” the city or region, please snap a photo and send it along. If your souvenir is featured on Souvenir Sunday here at StuckatTheAirport.com, I’ll send you a fun travel souvenir.

Souvenir Sunday: Chicks fly in Sacramento

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The Aerospace Museum of California, in Sacramento, has some might impressive airplanes on exhibit. Among them, this Curtiss-Wright Model B-14-B Speedwing, which once belonged to the president of the Curtiss-Wright Aeroplane Company.

I saw this and a few dozen other aviation treasures during a recent tour of the museum and spent some time in the gift shop in search of items to share with you for souvenir Sunday.

I liked this 38-piece 3-D Space Shuttle puzzle –

And this cute plate –

But my favorite items in the gift shop were these glasses celebrating the fact that Chicks Fly.

Souvenir Sunday: don’t lose your coat

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Each Sunday here at StuckatTheAirport.com is Souvenir Sunday – a day to look at some of the fun things you can find when you’re stuck at the airport.

This week, I want to share a ‘souvenir’ that you might soon find inside the airplane. At the Airline Passenger Experience Conference (APEX), held recently in Seattle, I spotted this business class coat hanger.

If you’re lucky enough to fly in the business or first class cabin, a flight attendant will offer to hang up your coat.

To make sure your coat is returned to you at the end of the flight, the flight attendant will likely also ask for your boarding pass so it can be attached to the hangar.

This new business class hangar by the folks at Asian Pioneer has two wheels built in – so if you’re in seat 4B, the flight attendant merely dials up that combination when hanging up your coat.

If you’ve got an electronic boarding pass – as more and more people do – you have nothing to hand over. So this seems like a low-tech but spot-on solution.