We managed to get to the airport in Vienna, get through passport control, get through security and get to our gate with 20 minutes to spare before boarding. We were standing around near the gate waiting to board…of course…there are only seats for about 50 people and our plane alone could hold four times that amount of people…and that doesn’t even cover the other 3 gates filled with waiting people! We were approached by an American gentleman who asked “Sprechen zie English?”. We were wearing our BB camp shirts with Russian on the back so I guess he wasn’t sure if we spoke English or not. Finally, Staci, you were not automatically picked out of the crowd as American! I told him, “yes, do you?” He was so relieved that he could speak to us and ask us questions. It turns out that he was one of 200 people from Cincinnati that had come on a high school boys choir club tour. There were several parents along with the priest who made the trip together. We had been on the plane with them before when they were just arriving in Europe. I’m not sure that I would have wanted to be a chaperone for 80 high school boys in Europe! (They all managed to pass our seats at least once per trip to “talk” to their buddies…er…check out the cute girl in 23D!!) They were a well behaved,,,in the airport…group of young men. We were letting the chaperones know a little of what to expect from this point until they got into Chicago.
We were actually first in line to board when the agent told us we needed more data on our boarding passes. Of course that meant another wait in a different line. He did tell us we could just go to the front of the line after we got the information we needed. Our new friends wished us luck as we left the line to get more “data”.
After a 20 million year wait in the other line….well maybe more like 20 minutes….we were told he didn’t look at the right spot, we did have it on our boarding passes….she circled the information already there and we went back to the original line. I didn’t look at too many faces of those in line before we walked to the front, showed our passes, and went through the second security check.
I sailed through, but Staci got stopped and had to unpack some stuff. She couldn’t understand the guy talking to her and kept saying “what??”. She finally told him she couldn’t speak German…and he then told her “I wasn’t speaking German!” She thought that was very funny….after she got through the check point! We had time for a round of Phase 10, and some reading before we actually boarded the plane. The boarding area was very full, but we managed to get on, and in our seats without more problems. I am thankful that Travel People put our seats together, it made the journey so much more pleasant.
We actually took off only 15 minutes behind schedule. There wasn’t much to see from the air until we passed over Greenland. I happened to open the window to see if we were over water or not when I saw the beauty of the mountains below us. After I told Staci “look at this” several other people started opening windows and looking down. It was SO beautiful…and it looked SO cold! The water that we could see up in the mountains in valley areas was SO blue! It was spectacular! A little later we saw the “green” part of Greenland with some ice and snow and some actual green/brown parts. The rivers and lakes, some with glacial looking areas surrounding them, were very beautiful as well. I was glad that we got to see them.
The next part of interest from the air was the Great Lakes. They are so much bigger than they look on the map! It was cool to see islands in the lakes. I guess I didn’t think about there being islands in the Great Lakes, just water and shore line…well…there ARE islands in the Great Lakes! The view was fanastic, and the water was so blue! You could see the difference in the color as the water got deeper was very clear from the air! I loved getting to see it.
When we arrived at O’Hare we walked at least a quarter of a mile from the gate to the Customs Area. There was a delay of 20 minutes after we got on the ground before they would let us off of the plane. Some people were in a tight squeeze for time in their connecting flights, so it was a few moments of tenseness before we started deboarding and were able to go on through Customs.
Chicago may be a windy city, but it wasn’t a “friendly” city. The airport staff were not very helpful or considerate. A lot of yelling and herding people with out many smiles or friendly looks. We got through fairly quickly, but there was a little confusion on where the lines were supposed to be. We did get our bags fairly quickly, and moved on through Customs and on out without much problems. The one problem we were able to avoid in future security areas was Staci moving the “weapon” she bought for her friend, Reid, to a check in bag. There is a souviner (is that how you spell that??) that is popular to buy in Ukraine that is actually a replica of an ancient Ukrainian weapon. Neither one of us thought about it (it goes right through their security checks because they know what it is) very much until our bags were checked and gone. Then I realized that there might be a problem in Chicago with security. We did not want them to throw it away after all the trouble to get it here. So…in line for the Customs people to ask us about stuff, we moved it from out carry on luggage to our check in luggage! Staci was glad to have that chance to move stuff. I was glad they were not going to toss it in some trash can in the airport!
After we got upstairs to the Austrian Air area, we decided to check on our compensation debit cards to see if we could use them in this airport. (They gave us some compensation for being bumped off of our original flight) Finding someone in the area that knew any information was like pulling teeth. Each person sent us to someone different. Finally, we got in the “Business Class” ticket area and were able to speak to an Austrian Air person who…of course…sent us to another person in a different area. She called her co-worker and sent us to the correct area. By that time the two cards were switched around and the “incorrect pin” number was being used. By the time Staci reminded me of that possibility, only one of them would work due to “too many attempts” to use the pin. We went back to the friendly, informative, lady and she gave us a number to call, which…of course…no one answered because it was after business hours. We decided to try again in Dallas, and quickly went to the opposite end of the airport where our terminal was. We had to go through security again but arrived in our boarding area with about 45 minutes to spare.
We did not plan on eating in the airport because we would eat in Dallas. Well….about 40 minutes before we were supposed to board…and after calling Dallas with our boarding time…they said there would be a two hour weather delay because of weather at DFW. We were SOOOOOO disappointed! We called Dallas again, and went to look for something to eat. I first asked, “is there any chance we will leave earlier than two hours?” and was told “No way, once they delay, it is the actual time they say or later”….well….the flight attendant who told me that was WRONG!! I went around the corner and got a “Chicago” hot dog, and Staci got a sub sandwhich (Coca Cola 20 oz = $2.09!!!) I got back to our boarding area and heard the gate agent say “For those of you who just walked up…we will begin boarding in 20 minutes”! Wow…what happened to the two hour delay we were supposed to have?? It was going to only be about an hour delay. I was praying that Staci would get back fast!!
We boarded the plane…very slowly…and switched around some seats so that three rows of us had a seat in between us for the flight. That was nice! We were so excited, we were only going to be about an hour late! Well…..we got up to the point of lift off…and we stopped. Something was wrong with one of the engines, and they said it was something they would need during our flight….think here…I thought EVERY THING inside of the engine was important to EVERY flight….and they were going to taxi back to the gate until it could be fixed. The groan from the crowd could be heard from every area of the plane! It was after 6:00 p.m. …..
We taxied back and were put into the gate. The pilot said that the part that was broken could be fixed in ’20 minutes’ when the part could be found and brought to the plane. We did get the part promptly and were ready for take off by 7:20 p.m. I wasn’t going to believe it until we were in the air!! After that…it was an uneventful flight!
