The Day has Finally Arrived!
After all of our planning, it’s Tuesday, June 30, 2015, and time to head to the airport for our 7:04p flight. Today’s fourteen-hour journey will take us to Washington, D.C. on United with a connection to a Lufthansa flight to Munich and then Krakow.
I had purchased Polish and Czech Republic money in Tampa to be sure I didn't experience the non-working debit card as I did in Ireland.
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| Polish Kings |
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| Almost quadruple our money! The Brits are still ahead though. |
We got to the airport by 4pm and had to check in with United since our first leg is on this carrier. Due to the dual airlines in this trip, we couldn’t check in online with either carrier. Luckily, we met Susie at the United ticket/baggage counter. She was personable and had visited Poland and wafted on about the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a restaurant in Krakow with two angels over the door and is lit only by candlelight, along with a church housing the twelve apostles. I guess she has convinced me that I should take my courage in my two hands and go down into the mine despite the tiny claustrophobic elevator ride to get out. I’ll be thinking of my 9-year old Kurt as he comforted me in that tiny elevator in the Bahamas surrounded by stone walls. She said she would be at the ticket counter when we returned and we needed to stop by and let her know how our trip went.
Paulina and family will arrive at airside F and we depart from A. In checking the board for the status of her 5:01 arrival, it has been delayed to 5:56p!! We board at 6:29 which will probably be about the time they get to the main terminal. Oh well, guess we won’t be able to meet after all. So we trash our sign and head to our gate. Having the TSA pre-check number to use until its 2020 expiration date was nice. They had a special line to go through, no shoe removal, no worries about liquids or computers, and an easy walk through the sensor without the X-ray. Well worth the $85.
Once we reached our gate, the sign for departure changed from 7:04 to 7:45!!! We could have met Paulina after all but we were afraid to miss our flight so I sent her an email and later called the parking facility to make sure they had no problems in collecting my car. The attendant assured me they were on their way without a hitch.
Now to worry about our connection in D.C. with Lufthansa since we won’t arrive until 9:50p and our boarding of the next flight starts at 10p with a 10:30 departure. Guess they’ll have to hold the plane since we have to jog to another tram and airside. We’ll see what the stewardess can do to get us a cart to hurry the process. No food on this 7:15 TPA to IAD flight so we sat down to enjoy a salad from the close-at-hand shop next to the gate.
We’re flying high, literally, and the stewardess just asked to relocate a passenger into our one empty seat in our row because she needs to get off to make a Munich flight! I explained we were in the same boat so she found out some info about how to get to our gate as quickly as possible and kept saying “just don’t panic”! We’ll see how that goes. ;-)
Weeeeell, it didn’t go so well. Our wild goose chase had us hopping a cart to ride back to the train that we PASSED and we reached our gate 10 minutes before the plane departure!!! But we made it!
Almost.
It seems that United canceled Melodie’s reservation on Lufthansa from IAD to MUC because they didn’t think the plane would make the connection on time. WHAT? I was on the same plane and they didn’t cancel mine!? So now we wait while they figure it out since they had already given HER seat away to someone else. The seats that we paid extra for in the exit row for more legroom. Twenty minutes later we’re getting on board while two other passengers were still being detained. One was the “chosen one” by the TSA for their random spot check. He had been pulled off the plane and was waiting back at the gate 10 minutes before our arrival. A cop to boot! Don’t know what happened to the other man. We never saw him board. Our 10:30 flight departed the gate at 11:00p with Melodie in 34H and me in 30E. And the extra legroom that we paid for was a scam! There was NO extra legroom. That makes two angry letters to be written when we return, one to United and one to Lufthansa.
My 30E seat was in a quad seating between Joe and Chris. Nice guys who made some conversation fun before settling down for a restless nap. Chris is from Kenya but teaches math in Virginia. He met wife, Mila, who is Romanian and teaches Latin at the same high school where they met, married, and were now traveling with their 3 children to visit BooBoo (grandmother) in Romania. You wouldn’t even know the children were there they were so good. Chris speaks Swahili, Luo (his tribe’s language), and English but says his Romanian is only 70% fluent. Mila, on the other hand, speaks German, Romanian, English, and a little French. I got a quick lesson about Kenya and Africa as I tried guessing his country of origin. He was impressed that I started with Africa as many people try to place him from the Caribbean. He said if I visit Kenya that I MUST go into the countryside to villages because that’s where the real Kenya lives and not in Nairobi. “Cities are the same the world round. So you must get into the countryside.”
Krakow Arrival - July 1
Shortly after take-off came snacks and drinks.
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| Melodie's apple cake that I resisted. Ugh! |
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| Mini Coke with the "Light" delineator as with beer. |
Now for a fitful night of cramped napping, changing hips, stretching legs, bending legs, wiggling feet, and hoping I didn’t snore when I finally dozed off. And 6:30a I awoke to breakfast which I declined and took only a cup of coffee with cream. One taste and I could feel the hair growing on my chest! So water was drink of choice.
Reaching Munich right on time…German efficiency at its finest…we are now sitting at our gate G81 for our final 2:50p leg to Krakow. Monika, Paulina’s friend in Krakow, had checked the flights looking for a plane from Prague per Paulina’s message but no plane existed and she became worried.
We got off the plane from Munich, boarded the short bus ride to the terminal and waited at the conveyor belt for our bags. People grabbed bags and left. Then there were ten of us. Then there were 3 of us. Then there was me but no bag. Add this to Melodie’s canceled seat and now I’m frustrated beyond belief. So as I rounded the corner to declare my lost bag, there was Monica holding a sign with my name on it! Boy was I glad to see her! She took control and together we went to the attendant in the baggage claim area to complete the papers. Luckily she was able to give them her phone and Paulina’s mother’s phone number since neither Melodie nor I had any cell service!!! And we even changed our plans to make sure we would have a phone for maps and contact while here. They stated that usually all is well within 24 hours. It’s supposed to be in the 80s for the next few days. I guess I’m planning to sweat in the same clothes, with no toothbrush or make up. Ugh!
Monica drove us back to Paulina’s as I quizzed her on the road sign meanings. She was very patient with me. Her English is superb!
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| Our home away from home. |
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| Welcome! (szhen dough-bree) |
Reaching our home-away-from-home location, we climbed the 3 flights of stairs to our 2nd story apartment home and Monika continued with notes from Paulina about the various things in the home, how to use and park the car, and on the care and feeding of the cat and two rats. “If you take the rats out of their cage to hold, be sure you put the black-and-white rat on the top cage or he will bite the other one’s feet through the wire mesh stackable cage floor.” OK. Maybe I won’t be taking anyone out of their cage!
After an overload of information, Monika left for a little more than an hour and we had a nice Polish dinner prepared by Paulina’s mother of beef, rice, and gravy. Don’t know the name of the dish but it was delicious! When Monika returned, I got a quick lesson on the idiosyncrasies of the Yaris and took it for a spin by going to the billetwy for our tram tickets 2,80 zl. each way into Krakow. The tickets are by time so the 2,80 zl ticket gives us 20 minutes of travel time. That works with the 17 min. ride into town. We bought 6 since we knew we would be making those trips into town. Then we went to the Bedronka (grocery) and got coffee and cream for the French press coffee pot. Good thing we Googled how to use that during our Copenhagen exchange. Long day and 1am before hitting the hay after a quick clean up with no toothbrush or clean clothes. I had been up since 7am Tuesday morning and it was now 1am Thursday morning (or 7p Wednesday in Florida). Gosh I hope they find my bag!
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