The joys of travel

I feel the need to recount this journey, not so much to share how painful it was, which it was, but to show that miracles do happen. I had a flight on Atlas Jet leaving Sulaimaniya, Iraq at 4:30AM on December 19th. I had a hotel reservation at the Ottoman Imperial in Istanbul, Turkey for that evening and then my flight to Chicago, via Frankfurt, was at 8:25AM on December 20th. That gave me a day in Turkey to finish my Christmas shopping and go to the hamam for a scrub down, steam and massage.

I got to Sulaimaniya airport at about 1:30AM on the 19th and went through all the security and sat and waited. Finally around 2:30AM they said that the flight was canceled due to fog and they would call to let us know when the flight was rescheduled for.  I left my phone number with the airline and then called my driver and said in very poor Arabic "go Istanbul no". Yes, it is very bad Arabic. I left my luggage at the airport and went home. I went back to bed for a couple of hours and then woke up in a panic wondering if my flight was going to be leaving that day.

I finally get a call that my flight was rescheduled for 2:30AM on the 20th. Then at 3PM the fog rolled in. If the fog had not been so dense you would have heard my shrieks, but the very creepy fog muffled them. I started looking for alternate routes. Almost every place, Dubai, Amman, Geneva, cost about $3,000-$6,000. Then, I found a flight to Bahrain for $300 and the change flight would only cost another $1000. I bought the flight to Bahrain, which at that point had gone up in price and called United only to be told that there were absolutely no flights from Bahrain to the states. None. Then my driver came to pick me up and take me to the airport to pick up my luggage because there was no way that plane was leaving Sulaimaniya.

On the way to the airport I get a call that said to come to the airline's office right now because the buses to Erbil were leaving. Um, huh. They decided to bus everyone to Erbil and fly to Istanbul from there because of the fog. I get on a bus with the pilots and some airline staff and head off. Within ten minutes of driving the fog was gone. Thankfully, the roads to Erbil were dry. We arrived around 2AM. By the time we got checked through security and to the terminal it was 3AM. By the time everyone got tickets and the plane left it was 5AM. I knew my luggage was overweight and I was going to have to pay some cash. When the guy checking me in pointed that out, his supervisor said, "la mishkayla" or "no problem" and let me go through with out paying extra (miracle number one) At that point I thought I was not going to make my connecting flight in Istanbul.

Pull into Istanbul at 7AM (miracle number two) and pick up my luggage (which had been packed up by the airport people onto a truck and driven to Erbil. That would be miracle number three). I get my ticket and make it through security by 8AM. My flight was delayed by 1/2 an hour. Ok, I can still make it. Get on the plane and wait at the gate for another hour. I was not going to make my connecting flight to Chicago in Frankfurt.

I get to Frankfurt and get on a 5PM flight to Washington DC flying standby. The airport was a spectacular mess. All of Europe was a travelers nightmare due to snow. At this point I am thinking my backup plan is to go to Paris by myself for Christmas. I go to the gate and sit and pray. There were about twenty of us flying standby. Then they call my name and give me a ticket (miracle number four). I actually felt bad because there was a military guy trying to get home to see his kids, but there was no way I was letting go of that ticket. Somehow all of us managed to get on that flight.

We land in Washington DC with plenty of time to make my connecting Chicago flight (miracle number five). I go up to the counter and hand over my standby paper and the lady gives me a ticket with a seat number and I was booked on economy plus-whoot (miracle number six). My luggage didn't make it, but at that point I was so freaking happy to be in the States that I just didn't even care.

As we are ready to leave the pilot announces that there was a lot of snow in Chicago and I start to get worried. Thankfully, we take off. We land in Chicago and shortly after that they grounded all flights (miracle number seven). I made it to Dennis and Maria's around 12:30 in the morning after 33 hours of traveling. Not only did they have to provide me with shelter, but also clothing :)

Two days later they delivered my luggage. I have to admit, I've been pretty lucky traveling. This trip though, what is crazy is that every single thing that could go wrong, did go wrong, but then sorted itself out. It was a series of unfortunate fortunate events.