We made leaps and bounds of progress the first week we were there, that N didn't feel it necessary for us to stay there the remaining few days. My position was support for the remaining work, so if the key person was leaving then there really was no point in me still being there. Of course, I was doing cartwheels in my head, but remained calm. Not that I was having a horrible time, but it was really rough being 6 hours time difference and many thousands of miles away from my new husband. It really was a bit different being married then just being together. I don't know how or why, but it was harder this trip.
N called the travel agency for work and was on the flight out on Thursday. She handed the phone to me, so to speak, and by the time that happened, all the flights on Thursday were gone. Poof. Vanished. Thankfully, the travel agency was on speakerphone. N chimed in and said, "What about Wednesday? Can you get us both on a flight Wednesday?" Yup! Now, remember, this is Tuesday. Flight leaves at 7:30 am tomorrow. TOMORROW!
Lunch was the pizza we had last week. Well, not the same pizza, but pizza from the same restaurant. It was delicious pizza! I ordered a salad to go with my pizza, again. Their salads are delicious! The vegetables are so fresh and tasty. Now I know what my friend meant when she said the veggies in the states taste plastic. The tomatoes were so yummy! The cucumbers were so crisp and the corn sweet. Just like farm stand fresh vegetables in summer. YUMMY!
Okay. There's no way to get to the market and do some shopping before it's time to head to the hotel to pack up. So, that means no trinkets and sweets for the office. I should have gotten some at the grocery, but surely thought I was going to have a few more days to find something. I guess...shit happens? LOL
Dinner was the left over pizza from lunch. Of course I didn't eat it all and knew I didn't want to order anything from the restaurant at the hotel. I just wanted something simple to nosh on while I was packing up to HEAD HOME! YAY! Heading home!!
So, the trick to getting out of Sarajevo is to make sure that the plane from your respective airline lands the night before for. Consequently, I was watching their arrivals website LIKE.A.HAWK as I was packing up.
I had two bottles of wine to pack up. EEK! How in the world am I going to pack wine to travel thousands of miles AND NOT break ruining all of my clothes. One of them was cherry rakja, mind you. I can imagine ALL my clothes dyed red from it in some freaky, tie-dyed pattern. Thankfully, the hotel didn't see my swipe three wash clothes. Now, these aren't regular sized ones. They're almost the size of hand towels. They were the perfect size to wrap around these bottles. The other trick is to make sure that the larger suitcase isn't over the weight limit. So, I crammed my carry on as full as I possibly could to sure that I wouldn't have to pay a fee to get the larger luggage checked. N had 6 bottles. She shelled out about $170 to get those bad boys on the plane. Wow. Thankfully, the wine itself wasn't all that expensive.
All packed up! Now, just need to wait for the plane to land, then try to get some sleep. Thank Macy for the iPad and free movies online. I don't think I would have been able to fall asleep otherwise. I don't sleep well away from S. But, this is not the first time nor will it be the last time I say it. I just don't.
The alarm went off at 5:15. That way I could pack up the rest of my stuff, check out, and get some breakfast before the cab arrived to take us to the airport. It took about 15 minutes to get there, about 20 minutes to get through passport check and to the gate. A few stops to the duty free shop and we were on our way to Austria to catch the last flight home. YAY!
This is what it looked like when we took off. See all that fog? I was concerned that there would be turbulence, but there wasn't really any to speak of. Pilots can't land in this, due to the way the runway is butted up against mountains, but they can take off in this. That's why it was important for the last plane to land the night before. If it didn't, then we wouldn't have been able to leave.
When we landed in Austria, we had to stand in a rather long line to get a new boarding pass. I'm not quite sure that this was about, but it's a passport check and re assignment, I guess. It took about an hour. Then we had some nibbles. I was DYING for some water and just couldn't resist some cookies to take back to the office and pretzel! HOLY! It looked TO.DIE.FOR!
It was nice and crusty outside and tasty and moist inside. It was exactly what I hoped it would be. It was so good, that I kept part of it to take on the plane with me. I wasn't sure how many meals we would get, and I knew I would get hungry if it was only one. I mean, I had been up almost 5 hours at this point with just a small breakfast. Considering how stress it is for me to fly, I'm always worried about my blood sugar dropping too low, so I always try to have a snack with me.
We were allowed to board with the special people. YAY! I love boarding early. That way I don't have to worry about putting anything under the seat in front of me. I settled in and every else boarded. There was a slight shift of seats and as luck would have it, I was in the middle again. This time, I reserved my right to at least one arm rest on this flight. I WAS NOT going to get gypped out of one again.
I had my book, my knitting, and my headphones for all the movies I was going to watch. I wasn't sure if I would even sleep on this one. I was too excited to get home. Sleep was going to be a luxury. Now, I haven't been on a TON of airplanes, but I'm not new to flying. However, this was new to me.
A coat hook. On an airplane. Yup. I used it for my coat! I have a tendency to get chilly on the plane and I'm not a huge fan of those blankets. You just never know where they've REALLY been. So, I almost always keep my jacket with me. It was nice to not have to fight with it the whole way home in my lap.
I settled in and then the worst thing happened. Someone sitting near me decided to fart. And I'm not really talking just one. This was several. And it's going to take a while for my nose hairs to grow back. It was HEINOUS! There is a rest room on the plane, ya know? Seriously! *herck*
About an hour into the flight, it was time for lunch. Or was it dinner? I can't really figure this one out. In any even, it was pasta or chicken curry. Since pasta didn't set well with me last time, I opted for the chicken curry. It smelled good. And tasted pretty good, too.
The rice was nice and fluffy. The sauce was creamy and the chicken was too tough. And that thing in the back left? That's mousse. Delicious mousse. That thing in the back right? It's a cup of water. It was weird. I asked for water when the beverages service came around, too. I felt dehydrated.
I think I dozed. Maybe 30 minutes or so? I watched a few movies; again trying not to watch something that S hasn't seen. That's not easy in this flight. There were mostly new movies. There were a few oldies that I could watch. I read a bit. I didn't knit. I watched movies and my watch. I knew this flight would be longer than the flight over. You're flying against the jet stream. Duh.
But seriously, it felt like FOREVAH! I watched 4 movies and some Big Bang Theory, which is strange because we don't watch that show at home. I only watch it while I'm on travel. I don't know why. It's hilarious, but we just don't watch it at home. We don't usually watch sit-coms like that. *shrugs*
About 2 hours before we land, they serve sandwiches. I think it was turkey? I can't remember and for some reason I didn't take a picture of it. It wasn't as interesting as the sammy on the flight in. It was pretty common. Finally the plane lands! We sit on the tram that takes you to the main terminal for almost 20 minutes. Not sure what that was about. By the time we get there, our luggage is off the belt, but we don't know that, so we stand there for like 20 minutes. Then we see the same flight number on another belt and N goes to ask. Our luggage is sitting off the belt in baggage claim already. They cleared it off the belt. Really?
Then it's almost 20 minutes in the customs line. By this time, S has left work and is on his way home. He'll beat me home, so he decides to pick me up from the airport. I'd prefer that over a taxi cab ride ANY day. I had some apples in my pocket from Bosnia, but I disposed of the before getting off the plane. However, the FDA dog tagged me and sniffed my pockets. I had to have the FDA person look in my pockets and have my stuff x-rayed again. *shrugs*
FINALLY! I was home. S was on his way to pick me up, and I had the next two days off to recoup. YAY!
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