Merry Christmas to All

The story of my Christmas break adventures will have to be several posts long. It has been a crazy week filled with nothing I could have predicited.

I left my house for the aiport on Sunday evening, planning to catch a 6:00 plane. I was nervous because I only had a 34 minute layover in Vienna before heading to Frankfurt. However, the airline had assured me that I had a "valid transfer time" so I was hopeful.

As I was waiting to board my plane, a lovely announcement came on that my plane would be delayed 15 minutes. I'm assuming there was some sort of language barrier, because it was actually delayed an hour. I talked with a guy at the check-in counter who told me that because of bad weather in Vienna, all the flights were delayed, so I would still make my connection.

Guess who didn't make her connecting flight?

Yeah. So, I totally missed my flight in Vienna and had to wait in line for two hours with the angriest humans I've ever met. My only comfort was that at least it wasn't Americans pitching the fits. I received a free hotel room for the night and was taken by bus along with all of my angry friends to a hotel outside of Vienna around 12:30.

 
 Of course I took a picture of it.

4:30 that morning, I was back on a bus to head to the airport and get re-issued tickets. Here is where I learned a valuable lesson. When your plane is delayed overnight, as tempting as it might seem to take the offer of the hotel room for three hours of sleep in a bed, stay at the airport. Why? Because when I got there at 5:00 am, there was already a three hour wait to be reissued tickets. 

After that line, I was given a new ticket and I rushed through security and to my gate. When I finally made it to Frankfurt, I must say I wasn't really that surprised to realize that my suitcase hadn't come with me. 

Another line, some phone calls, and a filled out form later, I left the airport with my friends, praying that God would have my suitcase delivered in time for my trip to Paris.

To break up all the travelling, I went to a Christmas Eve service with my friends. It was wonderful to sing and read in English and do Christmas Eve the way I'm used to. We also had a fun Christmas Eve dinner with some other families in town.

The next morning, I woke up to find that my friends had been very busy, cooking breakfast! We had quite a feast.
 

After breakfast, we took turns opening presents. Mine were in transit at this point, still flying between Vienna and Frankfurt. Even so, we had a fun pile of loot under the tree!

 

Later in the day, after some Christmas movie watching and a good nap, I received a wonderful present:
 
my suitcase arrived!

Here's our "family shot", courtesy of Jennifer:

 

In the evening, Rindy made us a yummy dinner. Just see for yourself: 

I had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with my friends! Christmas is one of my favourite days of the year, and it was special to celebrate Jesus' birth with friends who understand what it's like to be living alone overseas.

The story of Paris and Warsaw is coming soon!
 



 

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