Well, we are finally home in St Louis after nearly 24 hours of flying and being (waiting) in airports. Just like when we began our journey TO Hungary, the journey FROM Hungary also had problems. We got up early Monday morning and the president and secretary of the Duna Conference picked us up and took us to the airport. That part went well. No problems. We gathered in a circle outside the car and had prayer together. As I said, I’m sure we will be back again.The problems started once we boarded our Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Boarding went fine, but then we proceeeded to sit on the airfield just meters froom the gate for nearly 2 hours. Why? Because there were six pieces of luggage which were mistakenly put on the plane. So for the next two hours they proceeded to unload all the luggage to find the six missing pieces. Meanwhile everyone is missing connections, and unfortunatley for us that means missing the connection from Frankfurt to Chicago (the most important one!).
So by the time we arrived in Frankfurt we had already missed the flight. This can be a problem because international flights sometimes only depart once or twice a day. Missing it could mean having to stay overnight. First we were told to go United to get rebooked, then we were told to go to Lufthansa. Since a Lufthansas service center was close by we waited in line there. It was excruciatingly slow. That’s OK if you’re by yourself, not so good if you have two small kids.
After waiting in line for a while, we were told to go to the main Lufthansa service center because they wouod need supervisor approval if we had to stay overnight (cause Lufthansa would be paying for it).
Actually staying overnight in Germany for free didn’t seem too bad. We could rest, be together, take the girls to the indoor pool, and get a good long night’s sleep.Except that we had already checked our six pieces of luggage. That meant having either having to stay overnight with no luggage, no toiletries, no extra clothes, etc, or retrieving our luggage and having to carry six pieces back and forth to the hotel with two small kids. I don’t think that’s going to work (-:
Unfortunatley the main Lufthansa service center was on a different side of the airport. (Frankfurt is the second largest airport in Europe). When we finally got there we were serviced immediately and got the nicest German lady who spoke excellent English. It took a while, but she was able to get us on a flight to Washington DC (instead of Chicago) the same day. Unfortunately this meant getting home after midnight instead of 7pm. While we waited they even let us make two international calls on their phones. So we called my parents and Rob, who was picking us up.
The flight to DC would not depart for a few hours, so I asked them about some vouchers for food. Tthey gave us 40 Euros to eat at the airport (about $60 US dollars). I am amazed though at how airlines don’t volunteer this information about giving us vouchers for food when they cause you to miss your connection. You have to ask for it.
After being rebooked, we had to go down to the United ticket center to get actual seat assignments. Carting two kids all over this airport is not exactly fun, especially when one of them isn’t fond of escalators. (-: Once we got to the United ticket counter, one directed me to a certain counter. So we went there. When the woman waited on us, she told us she doesn’t handle this and to go somewhere else. She pointed us back to the man who pointed us to her. Then I went back to him to inquire and told him she sent us back to him.
Then they both had an animated discussion (Emiley is crying and having a bit of a melt down simultaneously). Finally, we get to the right counter and a delightful lady assigns us seats and takes care of everything– we got a whole row of 5 seats in the middle of the plane in the ecomony plus section, more legroom).
Now, it’s time to eat and spend the 40 Euros Lufthansas gave us. So we decided to go through security and get to the right section of the airport first. Going through security is always an ordeal with two little ones (take off shoes, coats, get at laptop, belt, wallets, cell phones, carry on luggage, purse, coins, etc). Phew! Now that we got through security we inquire of a place to eat only to discover there are no sit down restaurants in that part of the airport. To go to a sit down restaurant requires us to leave the secure area, go downstairs, then to back through security. Marquita was not fond of that idea. Fortunately, there was a little deli-like place where we were, so we opted to eat there and spent the whole 40 Euros, needless to say the manager was happy.
A few hours later we find ourselves on the plane bound for Washington DC– 9 hour flight. But the girls again did wonderfully on the plane. They even slept for quite a while. Once we landed in DC I was pleased that we cleared customs and immigration in record time, probably less than 30 minutes. However, when we looked at the board listing flights we discovered that our flight to St Louis was delayed just a little, only 12 minutes or so. But nevertheless this made our arrival time in St Louis midnight or later. That last flight went fairly quickly because I think almost everybody on the plane was sleeping!
Finally we arrive in St Louis and get our bags. But alas, no cart is availabe. Well there is no way we are going to carry six suitcases plus 4 carry on’s outside. Marquita tracks down one cart but it is not big enough. So I spotted an American Airlines big cart, only used by the Sky Caps. However, it is midnight and I am not going to trifle over little details, so I “borrow” it for a little while.
Surely American will understand (-: We wheel everything outside and, praise the Lord, there is Rob waiting for us. 30 minuntes later we are home and our journey is done.
What is the spiritual lesson in all this: Evangelism is never easy. (-:
