Yay! We're finally going!

10/17/2012

Finally! The trip we've been waiting an year for has arrived! We couldn't be more excited about the next three weeks.

After a tiny, tiny hiccup leaving home (ahem, we couldn’t get the van out of the garage with all of our luggage in it! And then the garage door just completely broke!), we were off. I had enough mileage to redeem for two free BA flights (although the taxes nearly equaled the plane fare!) so Angel and I went by British Airways. 

Mom and Dad went via United because it was the cheapest option, so we split up at SFO with the intention that they would arrive 3 hours earlier than us, rest and shower, maybe explore a bit of Vienna, etc. But their flight to London Heathrow was delayed—sad case of incompetent United, who you’d think by now would know how to load cargo properly but don’t—they had to clear out 4 whole aisles and redistribute the passengers so the weight would be even when flying because they loaded the cargo all on one side of the plane. Ridiculous! 

As a result, Mom and Dad barely made it to their connecting flight… and their luggage didn’t make it at all. United was unapologetic, and gave out paltry “emergency kits” to them. Only problem is, if this is really supposed to be an emergency pack with the necessary toiletries and a clean shirt for sleeping in… where’s the clean underwear to go along with it?! After running through the whole terminal, getting sweaty and going through security yet again, Mom and Dad were not happy about having to sleep in their dirty clothes tonight. United informed them that their luggage would not arrive until tomorrow… and that someone would have to be at our vacation rental to sign for them when the luggage came. What a load of crap! Thank God our landlady was willing to step up; she offered to wait for our luggage tomorrow when we go sightseeing. Otherwise, we’d be really pissed at United. We would have wasted a whole day waiting for the luggage to arrive on our precious vacation time! 

Alternatively, Angel and I had a great time on British Airways. The food was excellent! Dinner was Chicken Tikka Masala with Basmati Rice and a yellow curry mashed potato, with Eli’s famous Chicago cheesecake (although Dad ate it later and said it was nasty), a cherry tomato salad and a Kaiser roll. Snack was a very moist cranberry orange quick bread with a weird granola-like nugget thing and organic raisins. Our connecting flight had a chicken and pork mayo sandwich on a seeded bread. Oops, my pardon. With a seed “topped” bread. We were originally going to save it for Dad but then Angel got hungry so we shared one. It was so good that we ended up eating hers and mine! Service was superb and the alcohol selection is pretty awesome… where else can you get little bottles of Johnny Walker whisky?! The only downside was that we waited at Heathrow for 5 hours for our connecting flight. 

Going through Vienna airport was a breeze and finding the S-Bahn (S-Bahn S2 and S7 connect directly from airport to city—make sure to validate your ticket before you get on the train! Or you’ll be subject to a heavy fine if caught) to get to our vacation rental in ritzy downtown was pretty easy too. Only hitch was when we got to downtown, the train station was having its escalators refitted. We looked at the intimidating three flights of stairs… very long when you’re lugging a 50 pound suitcase and a really heavy backpack. 

Angel went downstairs to check out how to exit; I went upstairs to figure out how to exit… collectively, we probably ran through the whole station trying to find a freaking elevator. Found it at the very back of the train station at long last. But then it took us up to the part of the station that is being completely gutted, so my pre-mapped Google route was of no use. Thank God we had the map from our previous trip to Vienna to guide us to our apartment. As we walked along the empty streets, a car rammed headlong into a taxi. It sucked for both of them, so late at night. We finally got to the apartment at 11pm, exhausted and ready to sleep. So yeah, happy birthday me J (It's 10/18/2012 right now, as we arrived the next day)!