Stranded in Munich!

Thurs - Sat Dec 16 - 18
I guess with all the traveling for this job I was bound to go through a bad experience. Well, it came in spades this week. The plan was to fly back to Dudo from Tallinn Estonia via Frankfurt last Thursday the16th. Flight was leaving at 6pm from Tallinn but apparently it was snowing heavily in germany and affecting all the airports there. First they delayed our flight to Frankfurt until 7:30. OK, that gives me half an hour to catch my connecting flight. By then I emailed Laszlo to email me all the train times in case I have to catch a train from Frankfurt to Dudo. At 7 they announced that the delay wasnow to 10:30. OK, forget about the connection and forget about catching a train at a decent time since the earliest train would be at 4am.

Strange but at 10pm I hear an announcement that our plane was here and that we were boarding in 15 minutes. I guess the weather was looking a little better in Frankfurt so we had a window of opportunity! So we took off for Frankfurt and about half an hour before landing the captain announces that Frankfurt decided to close the runways because they couldn’t keep up with the heavy snow. Now we had to divert to Munich airport! I could feel the plane ascending again. I was frantically trying to remember where Munich was in relation to Frankfurt and if it’s possible to take a train to Dudo from there! When we landed in Munich the captain told us that we had to stay on the plane until they figure out what to do. Half an hour later we were told that due to all the stranded travelers before us there were no more hotel rooms for us so they were going to refuel and try to go back to Frankfurt in the hopes of being able to land this time. After another 15 minutes we were told to get off the plane and that the people at the airport will tell us what to do. Meanwhile the stupid steward made the usual announcement of “ thanks for flying with Lufthansa we hope you enjoy your stay in Munich” was she kidding?! I could hear people laugh at the gall of it. We get off the plane and there were so many people there. We were told that we could not get to our luggage and that we would get it when we rebook the next morning. By this time it was going on 2am. They had set up cots throughout the airport and told people to sleep and that the ticket office would open up again at 5am. There was this old guys who was getting very irate. He demanded to the airline reps to open up the ticket counter because he did not want to wait. I could see that people were tired and upset and in disbelief. I really didn’t want to sleep on the cots because there were too many people around there – they said there were a couple of thousand of people all over the airport. Meanwhile I was desperately looking for an outlet so I could recharge my ipad, ipod and blackberry. Throughout the whole ordeal I was communicating with Gary through Sametime. He was looking up flight times and weather for me. He also told me to keep calm, probably afraid with my impatient I would go postal! Actually I was feeling fine. It was mother nature that was causing the problem so why take it out on the airline staff who were already getting it from other passengers? The whole time I had my ipod playing my Vietnamese xmas music so I stayed relaxed and calm. Anyway I finally found a place with an outlet but it was away from any available cots. Since it was more important to charge up my electronic device I laid out my coat, used my daypack as a pillow, took off my boots and was ready to settle in. I emailed Gary a picture of my makeshift bed and he felt bad for me. I slept for half an hour and woke up feeling cold. I realized I was laying in direct line to the entrance into the airport and that people were starting to come in so I got blasts of cold air flowing through. I thought I would get to the lines 1 hr before it opens so I could beat all the other people. Well, it seems that everyone else had the same idea and there was already a very long line. At one point the rep told us that if were flying domestic to take a train because most airports in germany are closed. Earlier Gary told me that a train from Munich to Dudo would be 6 hours. Shit, I really didn’t want to do this. I got to the train line and waited past 5am but no one was there. Finally I gave up and decided to go to the ticket counter anyway. Since the economy line was so long I decided to get into the business class line. Smart move because the rep was able to book me on the 7:30am flight to Dudo. Bad news was my luggage was NOT coming with me. She said that there were thousands of passengers in the same boat and they would not be able to get to anyone’s luggage right now. I just finished telling Gary that the weather was not that bad in munich when it started snowing heavily and I could see the snow plow on the move. Crap.I was just waiting for them to say that our flight was cancelled. We did get on the plane and onto Dudo!

I did NOT want to go into the office that morning. I did not have any toiletries for extra clothes. Unfortunately I had to go in to pick up some important documents for my India visa. Worse of all we had a department xmas party that night. I did not feel like going out to buy clothes or toiletries since it was just for one day. I got creative and used my lipsticks as eyeshadow and blusher.I only had on jeans and a tshirt so needless to say I was not looking my best.

Everyone at the office was concerned and wanted to hear about my little adventure. At the xmas party that night the senior vp made me come into the middle of the room so he could tell everyone about my night at Munich airport. I was just happy to be going home the next day. Apparently Dudo is not used to snow so it shuts down with only a few inches. The runway is especially short so a small sign of bad weather is enough to take them out of commission.

Marietta wanted me to go out with the group afterwards, it’s tradition to go dancing after the xmas party. I told her no since I felt exhausted from no sleep the night before. She wouldn’t take no and would order expressos for me. In the end I stuck to my guns and said no. It was already midnight and I really wanted some sleep.

Saturday Dec 18
Well I guess my travel troubles wasn’t about to end. Got to the Dudo airport and checked in for my flight to London where I would catch my connecting flight to phoenix. Got through security and went into the british airway lounge. Just started eating breakfast when I hear my name paged. This cant be a good signed. The lady at the lounge desk couldn’t tell me what the page was for, only to go back out to the ticketing office. Yep, definitely not a good sign. Turns out my flight from London to phx was cancelled because of snow in London. What the hell? What is going on?! Thank goodness my flight was business class because I didn’t have to get into any of the long lines. There were lines everywhere as the airport had to deal with all the backlog. They rebooked my ticket to go from Dudo to phx via Atlanta. I agreed and hoped that there wasn’t a blizzard on the east coast. The rep booked me a room at the holiday inn near konigsallee so I spent the day shopping and walking around the xmas market. I also caved and bought toiletries and some cheap stuff like socks and makeup. I have been wearing the same socks for a few days and they were starting to stink. I couldn’t take wearing them one more day. One the bright side, since I didn’t have my luggage it was quick to pack!! One bright spot was that I found a vietnamese restaurant around the corner from the hotel and had a bowl of pho! It wasn’t nearly as good as my mom’s but it was more comfort food than anything else. I am SO ready for some warmth and sunshine.

Got on the flight to Atlanta ok, I had a 3 hour layover before the flight to Phx so I spent in the lounge calling Gary and my family to tell them I was ok. I was sitting next to a solder who was desperately trying to get to germany to be with his wife and daughter. He only had a 2 week leave and was frustrated that he could not get to them because of the snow in frankfurt. I felt bad for him and shared with him some news on how things were there. He said his wife was thinking of driving up from bavaria (south germany) to get him at the frankfurt airport in case the train was not running. I told him not to drive because the roads were bad and there were lots of stranded drivers. The trains were running fine so he should just do that. At one point his eyes were getting teary as he talked about just wanting to see his family. It made me grateful that I was going to see Gary in only a few hours.