The LONG Flight Home

We were up at 2:00 am and in the car by 2:45 am to head to the Kiev airport and start our journey home.  We were down to 2 suitcases, having left an old one full of clothes at the orphanage.  This made it easier to get everything loaded.  At the airport, check-in was fairly easy, but had long lines - even this early in the morning.  Our flight was for 5:25 to Frankfort, Germany.  The nice thing about the airlines is that they feed you.  So it was an easy 2 hour flight with a tasty "snack" (mini-meal) for breakfast.  

Once we reached Germany, we had a 6 1/2 hour lay over.  We didn't know the gate number of our next flight, so were stuck in "limbo" for awhile.  To go to any of the possible gates, we would have to go through security.  We found a few seats that reclined and were away from the smoking zones, so we tried to rest for a while.  My scarf from the Monastery came in handy as I used it to cover my face and cut down on the lights in hope that I would fall asleep.  Didn't happen.  

After awhile we moved near where the departures were being posted.  This of course was next to the smoking areas.  There was a flight for SFO leaving at 9:55 that we decided to go see if we could get onto.  With 1/2 hour till it's departure, we took the tram to the correct terminal, stood in line to go through security, then went to find the correct gate only to be told that the flight was full.  We also asked then, if we could upgrade our seats from economy to economy plus or business.  Eleven hours scrunched into a seat didn't sound fun.  But, we were told we would have to ask at our gate (which we still didn't know).  At least now, there were shops to browse and a place to grab a bite to eat.  Not even close to the number of options we have at SFO or San Jose, but better than a chair and smoking zone only to look at.

With 4 hours still to kill, you can only walk the halls so many times and look at the same shops so many times.  We settled in to wait.  I hate the thought of sitting and waiting, knowing I would would be sitting for 11 hours.  But really, what's a girl to do?  Once the ticket agents came to the desk we tried again to upgrade, but were told to come back at 1:15.  They would know more then.  We met several other people wanting to upgrade as well.  Knowing this,  we again asked (a different person) at about 12:45.  We were told that the flight was full and Business already had a waiting list of 20 people and that they did not make a waiting list for Economy plus.  Not wanting to give up, we waited another 10 minutes and went back to the first person we spoke with.  He had 1 seat in Economy plus.  We gave to another passenger we had spoken with earlier since there were 2 of us.  We were told to wait another 5 minutes, but nothing became available.  Thus, we spent 11 hours in the second to last row of the 747 on a "every seat if filled" flight.  William was on the aisle and I was wedged between him and a broad shouldered Italian gentleman.  Oh well, such is life.

I was able to doze some, but didn't really sleep (does any body every "really" sleep on airplanes?), watched 4 movies, read, ate (with my shoulders in my ears and elbows attached to my side), and tried not to look at my watch all the time.  The landing was fine, customs was easy, and then we waited for luggage.  Ours was some of the last to come off the plane.  Our ride picked us up curbside and I sank into the seats.  A short ride home and then we were greeted by enthusiastic children, dogs, grandparents and neighborhood kids.  After hugs, all I wanted was sleep.  It was now about 6:00 pm local (4:00 am Kiev).  We had been up for 26 hours.  Next was dinner, bed-time for kids and we finally got to bed about 10:00 pm.

It is now 5:15 in the morning.  I have been away since 2:00.  I am sitting on the floor of my closet writing this (and the 2 previous) blogs.  William is sound asleep.  My mom is downstairs on the couch.  Dad's on an air mattress in Mason's room, and the dogs have the garage.  It's good to be home.