Over the years I have ordered from UK, Poland, Germany,
>France and Bulgaria. Always selected surface shipment, yet received the items
>within a week or two. (Faster than some CONUS vendors!)
> Question) Was I just lucky or do "surface" shipments actually go by air to
>overseas destinations?
You were lucky. It's possible that after your orders were packed it was found that air rates were actually *less* than surface (I know this happens occasionally from personal experience as an eBay seller) or were so nearly the same as surface that your orders were sent by air anyway.