Back at home
I am finally home. It was a longer trip than expected.
My journey back to Israel began easily enough, with the only hiccup being that I hadn't realized that the luggage regulations had changed and now instead of 70 pounds per bag, I was allowed only 50. So I ended up paying $50 for the overweight bags.
On my puddle jumper to Washington DC, we had a funny flight attendant. Funny as in ha-ha, mostly, but also a little strange.
The ha-ha stuff was like when she made the announcement about how she was going to give us the safety demonstration and said "and ya'll can pretend to follow along." And when she was telling us about the food service on the flight and how the drinks were the general soft drinks, but for food, she was going to make barbecued chicken, steak, etc.
The strange was at the end of the flight when she thanked the two small children for being so well-behaved and followed it up with singing us Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All" over the microphone. No kidding.
At least she had a decent voice. And didn't sing the entire song.
DC to Frankfurt was a long and uncomfortable flight. I hadn't switched to an aisle seat, and I ended up squashed by some grumpy man. He ended up being slightly less grumpy when I received my kosher meal, and it turns out that he and his wife have a vacation house about a mile from me. He was still grumpy, though.
Then I got to Frankfurt. And stayed in Frankfurt an extra 14 hours or so.
The national union in Israel had declared a strike. Since the strike began Wednesday morning, it was not even on my radar when I left Detroit on Tuesday morning.
So on Wednesday, as I was waiting and waiting and waiting for a gate to be given for my Frankfurt-Tel Aviv flight, I had no idea that I wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't until I went to the information desk to ask when a gate would be announced and got told I needed to go to the transfer desk that I realized something was wrong.
It turns out that Ben-Gurion Airport was closed, closed, closed. And there I was, stuck in Germany, of all freakin' places to be.
The kind people at Lufthansa even gave us meal vouchers -- 7 Euro for breakfast, 10 each for lunch and dinner.
Did I mention that in the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, there is nothing resembling Kosher?
So from 8am Wednesday until after midnight Wed/Thurs, I had a bottle of Diet Coke, a bag of animal crackers, and 1.5 liters of water.
But I did sleep in the airport. A lot. With the help of my little friend Nyquil Geltab.
When I got on the plane, I saw someone lying on a cot/stretcher with a curtain mostly around her. At first, I thought it was a flight attendant or something. It turned out that it was someone being transported to Israel who needed medical care.
And as I think I figured out when I checked the news after getting home -- I think that girl is the reason we got home. Most flights were still not being allowed in or out of Israel, but because that girl needed to get back here, our flight was given clearance.
Nothing like a little guilty feeling to round out a trip.
So now I'm home, and I turned the heaters on, and I have had the water heater on for the last hour so that when I get up, I'll have hot water for a shower.
And I think it's nap time.
My journey back to Israel began easily enough, with the only hiccup being that I hadn't realized that the luggage regulations had changed and now instead of 70 pounds per bag, I was allowed only 50. So I ended up paying $50 for the overweight bags.
On my puddle jumper to Washington DC, we had a funny flight attendant. Funny as in ha-ha, mostly, but also a little strange.
The ha-ha stuff was like when she made the announcement about how she was going to give us the safety demonstration and said "and ya'll can pretend to follow along." And when she was telling us about the food service on the flight and how the drinks were the general soft drinks, but for food, she was going to make barbecued chicken, steak, etc.
The strange was at the end of the flight when she thanked the two small children for being so well-behaved and followed it up with singing us Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All" over the microphone. No kidding.
At least she had a decent voice. And didn't sing the entire song.
DC to Frankfurt was a long and uncomfortable flight. I hadn't switched to an aisle seat, and I ended up squashed by some grumpy man. He ended up being slightly less grumpy when I received my kosher meal, and it turns out that he and his wife have a vacation house about a mile from me. He was still grumpy, though.
Then I got to Frankfurt. And stayed in Frankfurt an extra 14 hours or so.
The national union in Israel had declared a strike. Since the strike began Wednesday morning, it was not even on my radar when I left Detroit on Tuesday morning.
So on Wednesday, as I was waiting and waiting and waiting for a gate to be given for my Frankfurt-Tel Aviv flight, I had no idea that I wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't until I went to the information desk to ask when a gate would be announced and got told I needed to go to the transfer desk that I realized something was wrong.
It turns out that Ben-Gurion Airport was closed, closed, closed. And there I was, stuck in Germany, of all freakin' places to be.
The kind people at Lufthansa even gave us meal vouchers -- 7 Euro for breakfast, 10 each for lunch and dinner.
Did I mention that in the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, there is nothing resembling Kosher?
So from 8am Wednesday until after midnight Wed/Thurs, I had a bottle of Diet Coke, a bag of animal crackers, and 1.5 liters of water.
But I did sleep in the airport. A lot. With the help of my little friend Nyquil Geltab.
When I got on the plane, I saw someone lying on a cot/stretcher with a curtain mostly around her. At first, I thought it was a flight attendant or something. It turned out that it was someone being transported to Israel who needed medical care.
And as I think I figured out when I checked the news after getting home -- I think that girl is the reason we got home. Most flights were still not being allowed in or out of Israel, but because that girl needed to get back here, our flight was given clearance.
Nothing like a little guilty feeling to round out a trip.
So now I'm home, and I turned the heaters on, and I have had the water heater on for the last hour so that when I get up, I'll have hot water for a shower.
And I think it's nap time.
posted by M at 07:07
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