Just to wish her “Happy Birthday”

26 hours without sleep, 22 hours traveling and one lost suitcase.. all just to wish Kerrie “Happy Birthday.”

I got out of bed at 11:00pm Monday night ( Detroit Time.. it was 6:00am in Bulgaria), packed and headed to the airport. The other people I was traveling with had flights from the other terminal, but I didn’t mind hanging out in the airport alone.. even if few people spoke English, and I can’t read the Cyrillic Alphabet, the airport is small.. a few stores and a coffee shop. We got to the airport 2 hours before my flight, so I ordered an espresso and got ready to enjoy a cigarette… One of the great things about Europe.. Smokers abound and everyone caters to them. Non-smokers are the minority. Just as I was getting ready to pay for my espresso, the announcement came over the loudspeaker that my flight would be delayed 30 minutes. No big deal. My layover in Munich was only an hour.. that would mean a run to the plane, but I could manage it… so, I ordered another espresso. A little while later the news came again.. my flight would be delayed 1 1/2 hours. My first thought was that there would be no way to make my connection in Munich, but I was told they would get me on another flight and have everything arranged before I got there. I was already scheduled to come in pretty late, but decided there was no reason to get upset.. would just have to deal with it. All that mattered was that I got there for her birthday.

Once on the plane, I was given the bad news… my flight out of Munich was the last one to Washington D.C. that day.. if they weren’t able to get us on another airline we’d have to spend the night. Part of me was a little excited, as our German “Brother” lives in Munich and I could call him and tell him I was in town. The other part of me was really upset, because I wanted to make it back for Kerrie’s birthday.

As we started our decent into Munich they started naming the missed flights that connections had been found for. My flight was not listed. I just sat in my seat and cried, because there would be no way to get back to Kerrie in time. O.K.. I’ll get off the plane, smoke a cigarette, have a drink and figure out what I’m going to do.

As I walked off the plane, there was a woman there yelling for all people who were supposed to be on the plane to Washington D.C.  It turns out there were 50 people, on my flight from Bulgaria, who were supposed to be on that plane to D.C… so, they held the flight for us. For more than an hour… 50 people from Sofia, Bulgaria going to D.C.? Seemed odd, but I wasn’t going to argue. No time for a cigarette before the long flight back the the States, but I only thought about that 5 or 6 times on our run through the airport. They barely had us go through border control. One glance at my passport and I was pushed through..

Ahh, but what about our luggage? As I settled into my seat, I looked out the window and saw the truck pull up with the suitcases and the handlers start throwing them on. I was pretty sure I saw my suitcase get loaded on, so not to worry. Long flight.. 9 hours is too long when you’re tall. That convinced me! I had been saving my frequent flyer miles for a free ticket to Europe, but decided I was definatley cashing them in to upgrade my ticket for my trip to Paris and London next month. Just dreaming about the extra leg room got me through this flight.  

Land in Washington, go through border patrol, go through the “so what were you doing in Bulgaria?” routine and head to the baggage area. No suitcase. 200+ people got on that plane.. 30 suitcases came off. Lots of mass confusion, people being frustrated and yelling in several different languages and pathetic looks of having given up coming from the poor woman taking all our complaints. “You’ll have to file a luggage claim if your bags aren’t there when you get to Detroit” she tells me. But I saw the luggage get on the plane? There was lots of luggage on that plane. Really? How do you only have 30 bags?  Oh well, just get through customs. 

“so.. traveling light?” I hand him the piece of paper that explains my luggage has been lost and he waves me through. The whole time, I’m thinking how glad I am that I wasn’t smuggling anything in this time. NOT that I’ve done it before :)  Just a few little trinkets that I didn’t want to pay the extra tax on and perhaps a bottle of absinthe ( Illegal in the States and half of Europe)… But, good thing  I don’t have anything “unclaimed” in my suitcase this time. You can bet that when my luggage shows up at customs, without an owner, that it’s going to be given a really good search. I hope they have fun digging through all my “unmentionables.”

Grab a Starbucks, grab a cigarette and call Mom.. then the announcment comes. My flight to Detroit will be delayed 2 hours. Arggh.. I’m starting to get tired.. and crabby.. and where’s my damn luggage? I mean really, every time I fly United/Lufthansa they lose my luggage. Last year, the luggage made it from Poland to Chicago.. but they lost it between Chicago and Cleveland.

Finally get on the plane to Detroit and start to drift off in my seat. The flight attendant must not have seen me. I think the cart must have been blocking her view and I, ofcourse, was sleeping so didn’t notice that I was practically hanging out of the chair.. with my head in the aisle.. until.. bamm.. she hit me in the head with the lovely, little drink cart. She felt horrible, but I was too tired to care. Just get me off this plane.. I can’t take the lack of legroom anymore. I can’t wait to upgrade that ticket to Paris!

Land in Detroit.. No luggage. Fill out the form and head to get the ride to the parking lot. The guy pulls up in the van, looks at me and says, “Traveling light?”  I wanted to smack him, but was too tired to even smile. Get to the car, scrap off the layers of ice and head to the hospital..

 I was able to make it to her room a little after 2:00am…She was sleeping, so I crept in and sat next to the bed just looking at her .. when she woke, she looked around, say me sitting there and burst into tears when I said “Happy Birthday.” It was well worth the time/energy it took to get back… and the luggage made it back Thursday night. Took a little trip to New York and Chicago first.

It’s taken almost two days to recover, and I still feel kind of out of it, but Kerrie and I have had a good time taking naps and going to bed early. Last night we went to bed at 7:00pm and didn’t wake up until 6:00am this morning.  I suppose the jetlag wouldn’t be so bad, but I barely had time to adjust to it in Bulgaria, before I hopped a plane back to the States.

As I sit here writing this I get an e-mail.. It’s from the Work and Travel Student Exchange Organization I use when hiring the European students. They’ve made my reservations to Paris and we’re all set. I open the flight itinerary and prepare to log right on the my frequent flyer page and upgrade my seat.. We’re not flying United/Lufthansa this time. Damn! I don’t have enough frequent Flyer Miles on Northwest/KLM to upgrade. 🙁

Oh-well, KLM’s international flights have those fun, little individual seat-back entertainment systems with the GPS plane tracking and 20 movies to choose from.. and.. they’ve never lost my luggage.

 I suppose I can live with it.