Getting to the meeting point was the easy part. Making sure we had a way to get all passengers (37 total) AND luggage (61 stuffed suitcases and 70-plus carry-on bags) was no easy task. Our 2005 trip yielded many valuable lessons; one of which was to enlist a pick-up truck just to haul luggage. Thanks to trip participant Anne Olson’s husband, we had a truck, packed to the gills, and a driver to help get our stuffed bags to Chicago. The Wesley bus and a large passenger van hauled the rest of the luggage and group members.
Vienna Calling
We arrived at O’Hare International Airport more than an hour ahead of our preset time of 2:00PM. Yes, I take all of the blame for wanting to make sure we had plenty of time to reach Chicago. Unloading the luggage and hauling all of it into the airport took some finesse. But our group managed to get everything inside. We waited roughly 15 minutes for Austrian Air’s ticket counter to open and then we started the check-in process. Check-in was relatively painless. We are flying to Vienna and then taking a second flight to Kosovo’s capital Pristina. Everyone cleared security screening with no major problems. Whew!
Too Good To Be True
We waited about an hour in the gate area before boarding our plane. Things had gone SO smoothly up to this point that I was beginning to wonder when the other shoe would drop. It dropped as soon as we were getting ready to board the plane. Half-a-dozen families with multiple small children were booked on our flight. I don’t think the screaming ever stopped. One child was particularly vocal for most of the 8 hour flight, prompting participant Keith Porter to send the following Twitter update upon arrival in Vienna, “the screaming baby express has landed in Vienna.” The flight to Vienna, outside of the screaming babies, was uneventful. More than half of the participants this year visited Kosovo in 2005, giving the few who have not traveled with this group plenty of resources.
Killing Time at The Airport
We arrived in Vienna just after 8:00AM local time (Vienna is 7 hours ahead of Iowa time). As I write this update, the group has scattered throughout the terminal. Many of the youth are napping in an area near the gate. Others are walking through the maze of duty-free shops. Keith Porter and I are working on our laptops and BlackBerries (big surprise!). We are scheduled to leave Vienna in a few hours. Our flight to Pristina is two hours. Our drive to our final destination, Gjakove, is another 90 minutes or so. Until next time…. Kristin McHugh-Johnston
