This traveling journey was definitely an anomaly. There were things that have never happened before, happen on this trip. Looking back I should've realized something was going to go wrong when we first got to the airport. It started May 26th in Kansas- we had a routine (to us) trip with 3 legs ahead of us. Kansas to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Warsaw. All of our bags were overweight. All of them. Not just one, all 5. That has never happened to us before! *at least to my knowledge* We head to Chicago and it is all good so far. Originally our flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was supposed to leave at 10:30 at night. My 2 sisters, my Dad and I got some dinner and enjoyed our two hour layover.
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| Finding a charging station is a must. |
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| We found one next this dumpster, here I am so proudly sitting next to it.. |
Our boarding time was 10:00 so we made our way to our gate, then the attendants told us to line up according to row and then wait to board. At 10:40, everyone is still waiting. Suddenly an attendant made an announcement that our flight would be delayed for 18 hours due to the "main pilot falling suddenly ill". The main long flight to get us overseas was cancelled. Of course there was about 250-300 + people in line to get on this airplane that was no longer going to fly out. Everyone was tired, aggravated and demanding answers. The airline did say they were going to pay for a hotel room for each grouping of people and 2 meals for each person. All we had to do to receive our hotel assignment was to wait in line to get a voucher. Sounds simple right? Well there were 5 people working to get 300 + people a room at 10:50 at night.
The part that really got to me was how it seemed to be a race, a race for all the people standing in line for the flight to run across the Chicago airport to get in line for a room at a hotel. Literally everyone was trying to beat the other, and no one knew what the hell was going on- not even the airport workers. Once we figured out where to go we had arrived behind roughly 150 people already in line. That is not including families with young children or the elderly. They got to go first-which I totally and completely support- but the five airline workers getting people situated into hotels did not know what to do. It took them about half hour to get all their ducks in a row and start helping customers. So we're looking at the time being 11:15 pm and the spot we are in has not moved. We have not moved at all and I am growing impatient. My sisters are exhausted, my Dad is stressed, and I don't know what to do to help my family.
My family has something that we call, 'The Martin Curse'. This is where we wait in line forever and just before we are the first person in line, another line opens up and people behind us jump ahead or our line closes down all together. My Dad and I have developed a system where he stands in one line, I stand in another and then we all move to the line that moves faster, so that is what I tried to do. I surveyed the area, pulled a potentially rude move and moved to the shorter line, not knowing if it was for frequent flyers, families, or whatnot, I just thought it could work It turns out it did. Everyone was standing in one outrageous line when two lines were open at the front. When I figured this out, we still waited. The 'Ali Curse' is where I prematurely switch line and end up sending my family to the end of the line and I was not going to chance that with over 200 people standing behind us. When I was absolutely positive this line was okay, I called my Dad over. Once we got closer to the front of the line (about 10 people away from the front) 2-3 people my Dad had been taking to and standing in the long line with followed us. "You're smarter than all of us, young lady." This really nice gentleman said, "but if this doesn't work, we are blaming this on you." I definitely didn't want them all to have to go back too. It all turned out good though because we (just my family) got two rooms at a good hotel. Now we needed to get to said hotel. Smooth sailing compared to the 2.5 hour wait in the line from hell right? We ended up waiting another 30-45 minutes for a shuttle. That I could live with, it happens! But what I cannot stand is when a family of three older guys (like 20 years old and up) and their parents run in front of my 14 year old sister and take her place to get on the bus first. I'm telling you, I about punched a 24 year old. Okay, okay, punching him may be an exaggeration. But verbally abuse is a spot on, more realistic action that I would've taken. That family rushed onto the bus so quickly it was like watching clowns get in a clown car. Remember the nice gentleman from before? The one who complimented me? He was still hanging out with us and very politely turned to us and asked if it was okay if he went on that bus since there was only one spot left. Of course we told him to go ahead, we needed at least four spots. He smiled at us and turned to the driver and told him that he needed to get another driver out there as soon as possible because it was ridiculous that we all had to wait close to an hour for a shuttle that was supposed to run every 30 minutes. I thought it was really super awesome of the gentleman to say something but also of the driver who then turned to a co-worker of his and asked to take us to the hotel right then so we wouldn't have to wait any longer. After that I wasn't as aggravated at that rude family because the bus we were on was much bigger, much cleaner and had AC.
When we pulled into the hotel one of the 3 rude dudes on the other bus ran, you heard me, ran to reception and slammed his voucher down. I was close behind him and the thing is, he didn't start running in until he saw me walking in. That really bothered me. It might be the sleep deprivation, but still. It bothered me. I'm an aggressive traveler. Sorry. Needless to say, after all the lines all the races, all the confusion, we finally got a room, a shower and a bed. At about 2:00 am we got to sleep knowing that another enormous line/ mess was waiting for us.
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| And I needed caffeine to take it on! |
Well this is just one part of the story, I'll be putting up the second part soon - I promise!
TTFN!
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