Two Flights To Go

Well I have an hour to kill here in Munich.  There were announcements on the plane that passengers on flights going to the US might experience delays as the security process was time consuming.  I am not sure what they are talking about as I flew through what few checkpoints there were.  Perhaps since I am a US citizen or on a connecting flight (or both) that warning did not apply.  Either way, I sit here in gate H08 with my fellow Chicago bound passengers killing time.

I arrived at the Bucharest airport about 90 minutes before my flight (which was the recommendation of my co-workers here).  I did not have a boarding pass so I had to get in the long line to check my luggage.  I was behind 20 or so Japanese (I think) men who were all travelling together as a group.  It seemed that only a few of them spoke English so the process of getting their luggage checked (and there was a lot of luggage) took a while.  Then it was on to the Romanian version of TSA.  I was still behind the gaggle of Japanese travelers and trying to explain that belts must be taken off and that laptops had to be out of their bags was (to say the least) interesting to watch.  Once they were through, I flew through and then needed to decide what to spend my extra Romanian currency on.  I wanted to bring some home of course but not all of it.  I settled on (after applying the exchange rate in my head) a $3+ bottle of water and a $2+ candy bar.  Use it or lose it I guess (well not “lose it” since I would still have it but since Romanian currency is not much good in the US it might as well be true).

After in the air, the flight attendants (who were impressively multi-lingual) served us some sort of sandwich (ham, I think, I didn’t ask as I was hungry and was not going to be picky) and then drinks.  In all domestic flights I have been on, you could pay for beer or wine (or something stronger) but there was a fee.  On the way over her and on this flight there appeared to be no charge.  I did not matter as I just wanted coffee (plus, how could I choose the right wine if I didn’t know what I was eating?).

This upcoming flight to Chicago is a doozy clocking in at 10 minutes shy of 10 hours.  Then I have 2 hours in Chicago and then a 1 hour flight to Indianapolis.  I have to check my baggage and go through customs in Chicago so I am glad to have the 2 hours just in case.

Well it appears that boarding is getting ready to be announced so I had better finish this up.

Jon