My Pilgrimage: June 19

Ah travel day.  Hurry up and wait.  Hurry up and wait.

The majority of the group headed back to the States early this morning, so I woke up to see them off at 7:00.  I was awake anyways, so it wasn’t a big deal.  Then it was time for a little breakfast and rest before I had to vacate the room at 9:00.  But at least I was able to hang around at the guest house until the two of us travelling to the airport together left at 10:30.  We had a taxi scheduled to pick us up at Notre Dame Hotel (where we had waited on Friday) at 11:45.  That gave up plenty of time to make the walk, which is uphill the whole way (we were happy about going downhill Friday, not so much today).  We then had a nice lunch at their café (a pretty good chicken, mushroom, and onion sandwich with lemonade) before we had to wait for the van to pick us up.  When the guy pulled over to pick us up, he says “Jennifer?”  Um, no, Michael.  Oh well, get in to the airport.

We arrived at the airport around 1:00 because my friend’s flight was at 4:30.  I am not allowed to go through security until 3:30 for my 6:30 flight, so I have some time to wait in the main lobby.  I actually went through the first line of security to get to the counter, hoping I could get on the earlier flight to Vienna, but they said “no, you must wait.”  At least it’s a clean airport and there’s a decent amount of seating around a coffee kiosk.

So it took me about an hour to get through security.  There are essentially three levels of it.  The first weird part was when I went up to the ticket counter three hours before the flight (3:30).  There were about two dozen people waiting in line, and four people behind desks, but none of them were helping anyone.  Someone else asked about the flight to Vienna, and the guy behind the desk said “not until three hours before.”  The questioner replied, “that’s now,” which garnered a response of a shake of the head but no help.  About five minutes later, they reluctantly said “ok, Vienna.”

Once I got my ticket, it was our normal security.  Except that when they saw my laptop, the girl said “follow that man,” and a guy took back around to the front to a special area where I guess they check electronics.  It wasn’t bad, it was just a little annoying that they didn’t say anything about why I was there.  Anywho, I got through, passport check was easy, and now I’m waiting in the food court thinking about getting dinner before the flight.  It’s an interesting setup here.  A main area in the middle with spokes coming off it with different series of gates.  One spoke is the food court, so all restaurants are in the same place.  Also, even though there are two or three “free WiFi” connections, all of them do not work.  I guess that means I need to read for a little bit before dinner.  A feel a hamburger calling me soon.

It’s funny how, though I don’t eat hamburgers often, after three weeks I was really craving one.  And even a mediocre one, like I just had, is good enough.  The fries though.  In general, they are just not good in Israel.  Then again, I’m not a huge fan to begin with.

It’s always interesting to fly on a new national airline.  Austrian Airlines certainly is different.  First, they didn’t call group numbers for boarding, it was a free-for-all.  And chaos ensued.  When you entered the aircraft, you immediately noticed something else different: Mozart playing.  Overall, the flight was just fine.  It was only about 1/3 full, so there was plenty of room for everybody.  Also, apparently I didn’t need to get dinner beforehand because they served dinner (a pretty good pasta in cheese with chicken and tomatoes; I couldn’t eat it all due to the hamburger).  We arrived about a half hour earlier than expected, which was good because I’m tired.  I’m looking forward to some sleep before a busy day in Vienna!