Getting Home

Ahh, traveling during the holidays.......

Yesterday, I was picked up by the Antrims to get to the Zürich airport. My flight left at 9:50 and we left in enough time to get there in time for me to check luggage, get Starbucks, and relax. Or so we thought. The border into Switzerland was jammed with traffic and so we were stalled for about 15 minutes there. Then, once we made headway into Switz, the fog was so bad and morning traffic was as well that we kept having to stop and go on the autobahn. I made it to the airport in record time, checked my bags, forwent Starbucks, somehow was able to get through First Class/Business security (no I did not fly first/business, but the line was shorter...and yes, I snuck in..and no, don't follow suit because you could get caught and they'll make you go to the other line anyway), and got to my gate as they started boarding.

The flight from ZRH to ATL is 10 hrs. I had already downloaded four episodes of The Mindy Project, two movies, and two books. But to my surprise, Delta was all set up with OnDemand-type entertainment so I still have four episodes of "Mindy" to watch and the two movies and the two books. This is needless information, but hey, why not plug Delta?

We landed in Atlanta at 3pm and my flight was supposed to board at 3:45. Awesome. I booked it to customs and then stood in anticipation waiting for my luggage to appear. A girl next to me was flying to Tampa and her flight left at 4:20, so we were both in the same nervous/where-is-my-luggage/situation. At 3:30 my bag showed up. I told myself that I still had time so that I wasn't frantically running through the airport. Checking the board, I saw that my plane was at D13. When I got there, I sat down and saw that we weren't boarding yet, so I pulled out Candy Crush (if anyone knows how to beat level 125, please let me know because I have been stuck on it for 3 weeks). About five minutes into that, an announcement was made about boarding the flight to Jacksonville....NORTH CAROLINA! Ok, frantic mode.

I tried to be calm asking the ticket agent where my flight was. B24. I was at D. This was when I wished I could be like Harry Potter and apparate.

I started running through the airport ala Home Alone and jumped on the train to B. I looked at my watch. I left at 4:25 and it was 4:05. I could actually miss the plane. It was two stops to B and when the doors opened, I started running yet again, nearly knocking over a man on the escalator (who was kind of rude to me in the first place because I tried to explain that I was late for my plane and he said, 'Well you could've taken the escalator next to us that doesn't have anyone in your way!" I almost looked at him and said, "Irrelevant right now, sir!"), and saw B24 in the distance. I got to the gate and there was no one there and my heart sunk thinking about the fact that I had missed boarding. No, they had just told me the wrong gate and I was at B23, down the hall.

Thankfully, when I got there, they were still boarding. Unfortunately, I was out of breath and coughing a LOT by the time I got on the plane. The flight attendant asked me if I needed a wheelchair and I thought, "She must think my coughing is really bad. Turns out, she was just asking the wrong person and meant to ask the person sitting across from me.

But all that to say.....I landed in Jax right on time, was greeted by my parents, went to eat dinner, and got to play with my niece-dog, Bella the Boxer. And yes, it's good to be home.

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