Thursday — April 15
Earlier this year, Mui went to Turkey to visit family and friends; now it’s my turn. Had you asked me yesterday, I would have rated my chances of being ready for today’s trip very low. But here I am (mom, too), on United’s Flight 902 to Munich, Germany. This non-stop flight is one of the few convenient connections to our final destination — İzmir, Turkey.
From the US to Munich, Germany, to İzmir, Turkey.
Traveling and packing go hand-in-hand. I enjoy the first part; the latter is a necessary evil. For years, I’ve had this recurring nightmare in which I miss my flight (or train, or ship), because I’m still packing at home. To avoid having the nightmare become reality, I usually pack a week or so before departure day. Not this time! I didn’t get around to packing until this morning!!! In my own defense, 15-hour days at work these past two weeks didn’t help one bit. So, there I was at 7:00a, pulling clothes out of the closet. By 8:00a, I was separating toiletries and preparing my 3-1-1 bag. By 9:00a, I was copying files to my laptop and making sure I had enough flash cards for the camera. Even then, Mui had to actually pack the bag for me — thank you Dear Hubby.
In the midst of this controlled chaos came the news that air traffic in Europe was a mess. The culprit — volcanic ash from yesterday’s eruption of Eyjafjallajokull (try saying that fast!!!). (OK - here's the pronunciation: ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl.) I took time out to search the Internet for any hint that our flight to Munich was impacted, but found nothing. United Airlines had no alerts on its website; the Munich Airport site mentioned cancellations for England and the Scandinavian countries only. Keeping fingers crossed, we headed to the airport.
(By the way, the photo is courtesy of Time.com.)
Check-in at the United counter was surprisingly swift. We didn’t question our good luck; just asked if there were any seats available in Economy Plus. Yes, there were, but they were all middle seats! No thanks; we’ll keep our assigned seats.
In the interim since I last went through Dulles International, there have been several changes at the airport — security has moved to a new location, making for a more streamlined process; the AeroTrain people mover system has replaced the mobile lounges and is now whizzing passengers to the outlying terminals. All good changes that worked in our favor.
Before we knew it, we were through security (didn’t get tagged this time — yay) and on the train to Terminal C. With three hours to kill, we strolled down first one wing of the terminal, then the other. We walked all the way to Terminal D, stopping to peek into the occasional store. Eventually, we found our way back to Gate C3. The shenanigans of some of our fellow passengers kept us entertained while we waited for boarding to be called.
When the call came, mom and I were amongst the first to board, giving us extra time to settle into our seats. Despite a passenger in a bulkhead seat putting up a fuss (didn’t want to give up her oversized purse and her gigantic souvenir sombrero for take-off), the aircraft left the gate on time at 5:22p. Twenty minutes later, the Boeing 777 was wheels up. 
The Captain’s announcement that flight time was being extended by 43 minutes was not pleasant news. We’re apparently taking a more southerly route to avoid the ash cloud that is making its way across northern Europe. That our flight is one of the northernmost flights allowed to head to Europe today goes a long way towards making the additional time in the air more palatable.
We’re already five hours into the flight; there's just under four hours to go. There’s nothing but the inky sky around us up here and the pitch-black void of the Atlantic below. The flight has been quite smooth thus far. I did the crossword puzzle; mom read. We ate the usual bland airline meal; sipped at our beverages; watched “It’s Complicated” (starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin). Now, mom’s doing her embroidery. I’m going to stow the laptop and read for a bit.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the next leg of our trip is as smooth as this one has been. More later …
Up Next: Later … Willkommen an Bord!
No comments:
Post a Comment