Saturday, December 6, 2003
It’s actually here, the day I leave for Vienna! Leave for my trip of a lifetime! A trip to Europe! A trip I’ve dreamt of, but never ever thought I would actually take.
Four months ago my friend and Dogtown Historical Society founder, Bob Corbett, invited me to be his travel companion on a trip to Europe. He is a retired Philosophy Professor and a very intelligent, kind, gentle and soft spoken man. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. And we have been working and planning for this day ever since. Some days we wondered if it would ever, ever get here. But here it is. Our plans are to spend 3 weeks in Vienna, and a week in Paris! I can hardly believe it.
And here I am sitting in a waiting room at St. Louis Lambert Airport, my bags checked through to Vienna! And I can look up at the ‘board’ and see my Delta flight, # 5645 to JFK, and see that it says “ON TIME”. That might be common for most travelers and on most travel days, and ordinarily it wouldn’t give me such a wonderfully happy look on my face. But today, Saturday, December 6, 2003, there is a snow storm moving up the east coast. Yesterday the same storm moving eastward, delayed and cancelled flights in and out of the DC airport. That put me in a bit of a panic because in my inexperienced mind a cancelled flight meant a cancelled trip!! My trip of a lifetime, cancelled? Oh, please, no. Please, please, no.
“No”. Bob, Anja, Lisa, Pat, and even Donald said, as they tried to reassure me. The airlines would not stay in business long if they did that, Anja told me from her TSA station in Miami. If a flight is cancelled, passengers are put on the next flight to their destinations.
I watched the weather channel yesterday, and heard the weather folks say that this storm was beginning to look like a blizzard as it moved to the east, and they wondered if they would be measuring the snow fall in feet, not inches. Feet of snow!!
Right at this minute from my seat at the airport I am watching 4 or 5 military type planes taxiing and taking off one right after the other on a clear, sunny day in St. Louis. And now there are 4 or 5 more doing the same thing. A training mission? I imagine it is. And right after them on the same runway, there is a Southwest Airlines plane taxiing for takeoff. Interesting, I would have thought that the military planes had a separate runway.
It was 5:00 am when I woke up this morning and my first silly idea was to try to “beat” Donald’s call and take my shower quick so I could be dressed when the phone rang. WRONG. Not going to happen. He is so programmed that his 5:00 phone call rang just as I was running the shower water to let it warm up. It was very nice of him to call me and also to take me to dinner last night. I think he is more accepting of me now, and I think we can be friends.
After I showered and dressed I went downstairs to check my e-mail and write a quick note to Nina, DHS president, and to Bob. But Bob’s note from last night said he had to unplug his PC for his nephew Johnny, who would be doing some maintenance on it while Bob was in Europe. And would I call him this morning? So after I closed down my computer for last time (and for the next four weeks), I called him. He told me all was in place for him to pick me up at 7:15!!
And then he said “It’s here, Sally, it’s finally here!” Bob has been so ready for this trip that he would have left on November 6th, maybe even October 6th, but he was the one that chose December 6th, and it is finally here!
He arrived right at 7:15 and said surprisingly, “hey, your suitcase is lighter than mine!”. I had warned him that it was heavy when he lifted it into his trunk. Maybe, I thought, I did a better job packing than I thought. Everything I had read about packing said something close to: “Lay all the clothes you plan to take to Europe on your bed, then….take half the clothes and twice the money”.
We drove to Dogtown and pulled into John’s driveway and all the way into his back yard. His house and garage are set way back from the street. I was a surprise for John. He didn’t know I was going until he saw me in his backyard.
John drove us to the airport in his PT Cruiser. He is a kind and fun loving man and a caring brother to Bob. We were at the airport in plenty of time for our flights (Bob’s at 10:15 and mine at 1:15). We walked to separate check-in lines, as we were leaving on different airlines. Bob on American and me on Delta.
The next silly thing I did was NOT put my passport in my day bag. So there I was at the counter, having to pull my shirts (sweatshirt and turtle neck) up and reach back under them to open the ‘money bag’ I wore over my shoulder (that my son Mark lent me). I pulled out the passport (in its sandwich baggie) and gave it to the clerk. Luckily for me there was nobody in line either in front or in back of me. That way I could retrieve it without giving the world around me a ‘show’.
Oh dear, after the Delta clerk checked my ticket and passport, he said to me ”I’m not sure the airport at JFK is ‘open”. But when he checked Austrian Airlines for my connecting flight and said in a rather surprised voice “they are flying today!” I was so relieved to hear him say that!
Bob, at the same time was standing in a rather long line at American, waiting to be checked and given his boarding pass. His disappointment was that they could NOT check his bag through to Vienna as he had requested. It had to go with him on all four stopovers on the way!
Until he saw the snow storm in New York, Bob had asked if I might agree to check his (wheely) bag along with mine through to Vienna, and just carry on my smaller bag (that my daughter Lisa had lent me). That way he wouldn’t have had to retrieve his bag in Gatwick, London and load it onto the bus for Heathrow himself, where they would check it through the remainder of his trip. But the snow gave him second thoughts, so he decided to just take it himself. And at this point neither of us knows who will be in Vienna first. If there had been no snow storm I would arrive first at 9:15 am tomorrow, Vienna time. He would arrive a little later at 2:15 pm.
Bob and I had time then for coffee, tea and a muffin apiece at the airport restaurant. Then we said goodbye and he headed off to his American Airlines gate and the first leg of his flight, which is Chicago, then to Raleigh Durham, then to Gatwick London, then Heathrow London, and then Vienna.
My third silly choice for the day, I don’t even want to talk about, but I did it and it made my security check ‘interesting’. For some really dumb reason I slipped a metal swiss army knife type gadget into my ‘day bag’… well of course it didn’t pass the X-Ray machine!! I’m just happy it didn’t get me into big trouble. It just cost me a few extra minutes and they kept the gadget. What was I thinking?
It’s 10:40 am, now, and I think I will get my book out and start reading, I still have two hours to wait.
12:30 pm, I have been reading the book I brought along, “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin. And every so often I stand up, walk over and check the board. This time I noticed that the gate number was changed to gate A4 from A2. So I put my book away and walked over to gate A4. I couldn’t help but notice that there were people crowded around the counter there. I already had my boarding pass so I didn’t go to the counter, just went over and sat down to wait. But people were.. leaving! And some looked very unhappy! Oh no! I decided I better ask about my flight! So I walked over to the counter but the clerk who was there a few minutes before, was gone! So I asked another clerk at the other end of the counter about my flight and she said, in a very unpleasant tone; “I just made that announcement… that flight was CANCELLED!!”
CANCELLED!!! That flight was CANCELLED!! My flight to JFK was CANCELLED!! My flight to Vienna was CANCELLED!! My flight to Europe was CANCELLED! My trip of a lifetime was CANCELLED!
I was shocked, and so disappointed. But I was also hurt, angry and confused. And not sure what to do first, or second, or third! I didn’t even have 50 cents for a phone call! Nor did I have my phone or my phone card with me. A lot of people I noticed were at the telephones calling someone to come and get them. I realized at that point I didn’t have a backup or even a plan B!
My best decision of the day was when I asked another passenger what she was going to do. The woman who was with her daughter said, “Go upstairs and get re-booked!”. She said they were going to Paris, and told me that we all needed to get our luggage and stand in line at the Delta counter to have our tickets exchanged for another flight.
When I got to the luggage carousel, my luggage wasn’t there! While I was looking for my bags, I heard a page… my name! ”Sally Sharamitaro, please come to the information desk between carousels 5 & 6”. I looked up, first found the carousels, and then the information desk. The woman at the desk handed me a small piece of paper with a telephone number written on it. I knew it was Mark’s number, but I didn’t have my phone, or my phone card to call him. (At the time I didn’t think about 1-800-COLLECT. Joe told me later I could have done that).
So at that point I went back up to the Delta counter to stand in line with the rest of the passengers from my flight, but I noticed that some of them already had their luggage. So I asked them where they found their luggage,,, downstairs! Back I went downstairs, found my bags and came back up to wait in line to get my flight re-booked.
I was in line for over an hour. And when it was my turn, the clerk told me, after searching her computer, that there was no flight that day that would get me to Vienna. But she found a seat on the same flight # 5645 to JFK tomorrow, Sunday, December 7th. I said to her “but what if JFK is still closed?” So she also booked me on a backup flight thru Cincinnati, and then Paris, arriving Vienna @ 11:40 am, not much later than my original arrival time.
After I had those arrangements made, I knew I somehow needed to get back home. And at that point I was still pretty “verklempt” as David would say. But I took one of the $1.00 bills I had and bought a pack of gum, getting change for the phone. I tried Donald first… no answer, but I left a message that my flight was cancelled and I was stranded at the airport. Then, because I needed another 50 cents, got another dollar, and bought another pack of gum, getting more change, and called Tricia, no answer! Ok, with two quarters left, I tried her cell phone. No answer! Damn.
Finally, I bought a phone card, which wasn’t quite as easy as that sounds, but I got it. It had 20 minutes on it for $10.00. I used it to call Mark, and told him what happened. He already knew! He was tracking my flight and that’s why he had me paged. I told him I tried but couldn’t get anybody to pick me up. He said “Mom, take a taxi”. I did. It cost $60.00, but at least I was home!!
I was anxious, angry, disappointed and frustrated but I was home. As I struggled to drag my bags inside, I started to cry, just letting out all my frustrations, I guess. The problem was that Tricia called me right at that moment. And it upset her that I was that upset, and that she hadn’t answered her phone. “ I will learn to have a plan B”, I told her. She was so worried about me that she drove to the house and even offered to stay overnight with me.
In the meantime, Lisa and Joe called me to see how I was doing, and to ask if I needed help me with anything. Lisa helped me realize that I needed to send a message to Vienna for Bob, who wasn’t even in Vienna yet and wouldn’t be until the next day. Joe said “Mom, you could have rented a car, and it would have been half what the taxi cost”. And then I could have driven myself to the airport the next day too!! This way I have to find another ride. Aahhhhh. If only I had thought of that!!!
Donald called me too and came over. After he heard my message, he knew I was upset. He even opened a jug of wine and poured me a glass while I was talking to Lisa. Then after things quieted down, he took me to supper at Steak and Shake because I had no food in the house.
I felt a bit calmer after I talked to everybody and had a bite to eat. But I was exhausted. I had asked Donald if he would drive me to the airport in the morning, and he agreed. So when Tricia offered to stay the night and drive me herself, I told her thanks, but she could go home and get a good night’s sleep in her own bed, and to please stop worrying about me, I would be fine.
Sunday, December 7, 2003
My flight was not leaving until 1:15pm, so I really didn’t need to be there first thing this morning. I had slept soundly till 5:30. I was up, showered, dressed and having tea and some banana bread from my freezer (at least I had that to eat) when Donald called me at 8:00.
As soon as he hung up, Dave called and asked how I was doing. It was so comforting that all the kids called and were so concerned about me. Of course they all knew how long I had planned for and looked forward to this trip and how very disappointed I was to have my flight cancelled. I am blessed to have such great kids. God love them all, I sure do!
Lisa and Mark helped me yesterday to get a note to Bob via e-mail to the Pension Schonbrunn Hotel where we are going to stay. And so this morning, still a bit concerned, I used the 10-10-9-8-7 Long Distance and called Vienna. Lisa told me to say “English” first thing, and I did, the woman who answered said “yes”. I then asked her if they received my e-mail note, she said they did. She was very kind and helpful and said she would see that Bob got my message. I felt better after I talked to her. This is the message I sent:
Dear Sir or Madam, May I leave the following message for your guest ROBERT CORBETT, who is arriving at Hotel Pension Schonbrunn on December 7, 2003, at approximately 4:00 pm? Message to read:
Note: backup flight if needed = ETA =December 8, 2003, flight # 8336, at 11:40 am.
Many thanks for your assistance, Sally A. Sharamitaro
So, here I am on Sunday, December 7th at Lambert St. Louis Airport, all checked in again. Donald drove me to the airport, which was very kind of him. e The board says my flight #5645 is “on time”. However, the clerk at the Delta check-in counter told me that 4 of 5 flights to JFK this morning had been cancelled …soooooooo, I won’t hold my breath for the JFK flight, but will keep in mind that I have the backup flight through Cincinnati and Paris.
To have two flights cancelled in two days would be awful enough. But I can’t imagine that the flight to Cincinnati would be cancelled too… If that happened, I might think that maybe I wasn’t meant to go to Europe on my trip of a lifetime, AT ALL!!
It’s now 12:15 pm and the Delta clerk said our plane is expected in 10 minutes. I was speaking with a fellow passenger as we stood in line for our security check, and he told me that after we get to JFK it is another hour to the International flight area! And he suggested that I tell one of the Delta agents there that I need assistance to meet my connecting flight to Vienna. Oh dear, I may have to do that. We are looking at our Delta plane taxiing up to our gate as we stand for our security checks, a very positive sign.
5:30 pm. I’m sitting on Austrian Airlines flight # 88 – in seat 15E, and we are almost ready to depart New York! The Delta flight to New York was very nice, smooth, no turbulence and though the arrival at JFK was not what I thought it would be, I loved it all. We came in over water when we landed. That amazed me. There was snow, but not nearly as much as I expected. And we had to walk off the plane, down the stairs and to a bus, and be driven to the terminal. I don’t know if that is normal or because of the snow.
Then I found out what my ‘fellow’ passenger meant about getting to the International flight area! We had to walk from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1. That means walk about the length of Lambert Airport through terminal 2, THEN go out the door, and walk another city block outside in the snow, well, partly shoveled snow. Go in the door of terminal 1, up an escalator (I did ask for help along the way) to departing flights. Find the Austrian Airlines counter, stand in lines for 1) check-in, 2) security, and then 3) for boarding the plane. But right this minute I am sitting in my very own seat on an airplane that will take me to Vienna, Austria!!
Monday, December 8, 2003
The good news! After quite an adventure flying overnight to Vienna Austria, I arrived safe and sound, and on time!! The bad news! I arrived..... but my luggage didn’t!!
Each seat on our airplane (Airbus) had a pillow and a blanket on it when we boarded. And when we got our things put into the overhead compartment and sat down, each seat had its own small TV screen on the back of the seat in front of us!! (All of us, except those in the front row. Their screen was on the wall in front of them.) And in one of our arm rests there was a ‘remote’. We had a choice of at least 5 different “channels”. One was for music, (In the pocket in front of each of us there was a set of earphones with foam covers) another channel was for shopping (I didn’t even try that one), the third was for games (they had hangman, and I did play that one many times), the fourth was for movies, I think there were five to choose from, 3 for adults, and 2 for kids.
The channel I liked best was the one that tracked our flight. It had a small map of the US and Europe. And in graphic form, a small white plane ‘flew’ from New York JFK to Vienna, Austria and the little plane moved bit by bit letting us know where we were in relation to where we departed and would land. There were additional screens that would change automatically and would give other information, ie., altitude, hours in the air, hours to our destination, even the temperature outside the plane! Minus 30C!! Each screen, including the map was shown first in German, and then in English.
When the pilot announced our landing, that same screen switched to two live video cameras on the underside and on the front of our airplane. First, from the underside camera we saw the countryside as we flew toward the Vienna airport. Then it switched to the camera in the front of the plane and we saw the runway, and could watch (and feel) our landing, which was surprisingly smooth for as large an airplane as we were riding in. There were four seats across in the middle, and two on each side. And at least 40 rows of these 8 seats.
Sleeping was a challenge, but I did nap a while, and even got up in the night to use the rest room. It was good to get up and walk around a bit, as it was a long flight. You can’t tell from the times of departure and arrival, because of the time difference, but it was a 9 ½ hour flight.
Dinner was served about an hour or so into our flight. I had salmon with rice and veggies, a roll, salad, water and a wonderful custard filled pastry for dessert. I thought it was delicious. For airline food!
I had women on both sides of me on the flight over, one a young mother of a teenage son. Her son was sitting next to her on the isle and helped me with my earphones. In fact he put the foam pads on for me. On the other side was an older woman of maybe 70? Who spoke English (the others didn’t). She had been living in New York for the past 50+ years, and was going to Vienna for a week long visit. She was not pleased with the Airbus (the airplane we were flying in) and how crowded it was. She was sure that someday they would install the type of “hang on” holders, straps I think they are called, like busses have. And have “standing room” flying status to further fill their airplanes. We both felt sorry for anyone larger than we were, because the seats were quite narrow, especially in the center section where we were sitting.
I remembered what my daughter-in-law, Anja told me, “don’t take your shoes off, because your feet will swell and you won’t get them back on”. Sorry Anja, I just had to take my boots off, they were just not comfortable to ‘sleep’ in. You were right, though, my boots were a challenge to get back on when we landed, but I did it!
About an hour before we landed (9:15am Vienna time, 2:15 am St. Louis time), breakfast was served. A small ham and cheese sandwich on a croissant, a tiny carton of yogurt, a small container of juice, a small square of nut bread and coffee or tea. A very nice and tasty start to my first day in Vienna!!
We were able to watch the screen until our plane taxied to a stop. Then we walked down the steps and into busses again! No snow this time! The busses took us all to the airport terminal. We took the escalator to the baggage area after going through the passport check.
I waited and waited, looked and looked. But my luggage was not there. Somewhat of a surprise for me, though I knew it was a possibility. (Note to self: Pack a second set of undies in your carry on) I was not the only one without luggage and thank goodness some passengers (without luggage) even spoke English. They said we needed to go the Austrian Airlines Lost and Found counter, stand in line and fill out paperwork about our ‘lost’ luggage.
I stood in line for a short time, but the line was very, very, very slow. Only two clerks for maybe 10 or more of us. I knew that Bob was somewhere in the airport waiting for me. And he wouldn’t know that I was in line at the Lost and Found. So I chose to leave the line and walk out of the secure area and go into the main terminal and find him. My thoughts, when I was winding my way through the terminal, were: “If I’m not totally out of favor with the Gods, Bob will be here waiting for me”.
He was, he was there waiting for me! And was very happy I came out to find him, because he didn’t even know I was on this flight, nobody would give him any information. I told him about my ‘lost’ luggage and we walked back to the Lost and Found area, where I waited in line to fill out the paperwork (or as they call it “the Property Irregularity Report”) for my two bags, and he found a chair and waited for me.
I didn’t know it at the time, but after landing yesterday and lugging his bags up and down the many flights of stairs as he took the two or three underground trains to the hotel, Bob’s knees and legs were really, really hurting. It was the worst decision he has ever made, he said, and he vowed never to do it again. Much as he loves Vienna’s public transportation, with luggage he will take a taxi to and from the hotel. But for now, I had no luggage. And that meant that once I had my paperwork completed, Bob and I were free to do whatever we wanted to do, and go wherever we wanted to go. We didn’t even have to go to the hotel first.
It was still morning in Vienna and we had the rest of the day to sightsee!
Sally Ryan Sharamitaro sally@sharamitaro.com