Where to start...

Traveling was, well, an adventure to say the least. I arrived at O'Hare Terminal 5 at 4:30 on Tuesday for my 8:35 flight just in time to take 15 minutes checking in and 20 minutes going through security. For those of you who have not been to Terminal 5, past security exists a whole lot of nothing. So I sat and enjoyed four hours of reading and phoning friends--my last chance to do so for a very long time.

At 8:35 I hopped on my plane and watched the Skybridge slowly detach. This process was followed by a not so happy clunking sound--not exactly the first thing you want to hear before take off. A few minutes later we learned that the air system had misfired when the auxiliary power was turned off causing a pressure back-up. Oh goody. But the engineers sent us on our merry, ocean-hopping way.

I shared a lovely row with an ex-pat heading back to Bordeaux and a nice guy going to visit his family in India. They were pleasant companions especially the woman. She had such an easy going nature which was nice. We hit some amusing turbulence in the middle of dinner. It was interesting to see everyone waving their elbows around as they attempted to eat with little plastic knives and forks. I was waiting for the grumpy, whining Brits behind me to stab an eye out. I suppose karma is not quite that instantly gratifying.

Things eventually calmed down. After my food I was completely exhausted. I had taken a Tylenol PM to knock me out right at the start of the flight and that coupled with the wine was taking it's toll about an hour in. Five beautiful hours of sleep later and we were only an hour away--so we thought.

Anyone familiar with Seattle knows that when it snows, people go crazy. It turns out, when it snows in London, Heathrow goes beserk. First of all, at least from the airport it did not appear to be that much snow. I know I am from Illinois and all so we fly unless it is ACTUALLY still snowing and white-out conditions, but this was ridiculous. First, we had to make a loop about an hundred miles out to give them time to clear off a runway for us to land. It was amusing to watch the flight path on the little television screen--it was this nice long arc with a little plane making a circle at the end before covering up London. This delayed us about an hour which was fine. Why worry when you have pleasant company and a team of pleasant flight attendants to bring you drinks? When we were finally allowed to land we were forced to sit and taxi for another 45 minutes before finally making it to a gate.

Remember that happy little noise at the beginning of the trip? Well, it turned out we blew our entire auxiliary power (makes you feel safe, neh?). So, after flying around in a circle for an hour and then taxiing for another hour, we were forced to wait another thirty minutes while we plugged our plane in. (This seems like a strange idea to me--hehe "I am sorry, hold on just a minute. I need to go plug in my airplane!")

So, after a somewhat eventful flight (for all I know more could have happened in the four hours that I slept but I was so dead to the world I never would have known) I finally arrived at Terminal 5, said farewell to my seatmates and caught a bus to Terminal 3. The next three hours were spent in line, talking to a number of people heading to Barcelona. Why? Well, if we remember the craziness about snow--every BA flight until 6:15pm was canceled.

Everything from there was kind of a blur. I met a nice man named Joe also stranded by the same canceled flight. We had a nice discussion about Vancouver where he was returning from and his job as a international game reviewer. That was a bit of fun. The stressful part of all of this was I had no idea where Noelle was. We were supposed to get in within a few hours of each other but with the canceled flights and all the chaos, I ended up being transferred airlines and we never found each other. When I finally made it to Vienna, five hours after I was supposed to have arrived, I was never so happy as when Noelle called my name at the baggage claim.

Some lost luggage paperwork later and we finally had a bus to take us to our hostel. We dropped our bags and ordered our first Austrian beer before crashing for the worst night of sleep of my life. How I can stay up for so many hours and then not sleep is beyond me. Completely beyond me. But I managed it.

I promise a more exciting update in the next few days. All I can say is this: I have a balcony view onto one of the main streets of Vienna. Life is so beautiful!

Happy layovers!