Flights!

January 6th, 2010
So, the fastest, cheapest way to get to Prague was to book a ticket from Seattle, which meant that I had to book a separate ticket from Juneau. This meant that I booked a flight that didn't have guaranteed transfer of my baggage from Alaska Airlines to Lot (operated by United) in Seattle, we were supposed to arrive 5 minutes shy of the 70 minute minimum. Luckily the Alaska flight getting in to Seattle arrived early, allowing time for my baggage to transfer.

Then, I flew from Seattle to Chicago on United Airlines, which was actually pretty nice. The back of the seats still have phones (picture inset). United only serves complementary drinks, and not pretzels or little snacks, like Alaskan Airlines.

The international terminal in Chicago was pretty barren. I had to go through security way too many times. Reasons were: 1) there was no food in the terminal, 2) our flight to Warsaw was delayed three hours because of bad weather someplace in Europe that delayed the arrival of our plane, and 3) because I had to rebook my connecting flight to Prague since the couldn't rebook me at the gate. However, in Chicago I met Sophia, a girl from Austria who spent a semester in Hawaii, we shared general introductions and complaints about traveling.

The flight from Chicago to Warsaw was one of the worst flights I've ever been on. The gate and flight attendants hardly spoke English, and were rude and awkward when they had to speak english, even though English is an international language, and I think they're required to speak in both Polish and English, with English immediately following Polish. I didn't expect the food to be good, but.... they had minute rice (I'll forever think of Ashwin, and his excellent Indian dishes served with minute rice) that was still crunchy.

I thought the Warsaw airport was very clean and bright. The next available flight to Prague was in the morning, so they gave me a hotel voucher to stay at the Warsaw airport hotel. I met in the airport boy from Overland Park, Kansas, where my grandparents live, who is now a professional soccer player, and a boy from Sweden who spent a semester at Gustavus, St. Olaf's rival in Minnesota. There were probably 2o of us from the Chicago flight that had to stay in a hotel in Warsaw. In the Warsaw airport, we were shuffled around in hallways with glass walls, so you could see other passengers being shuffled around, but you couldn't talk to them. The airline could have let us find our way to the hotel, but we had to wait an hour outside of the passport checkpoint, at least half an hour at the baggage claim, then at least half an hour in the below freezing temperatures outside for the shuttle. Sophie, these two boys and I stayed up late at the Warsaw airport hotel talking about the differences between Americans and Europeans and between eastern and western europe, especially for young adults. It was nice to be able to take a shower and lay down for a while before my last flight to Prague.


January 7th, 2010
I thought of George and his family when I stood in Poland, outside the airport hotel in the morning, waiting for the shuttle, and how I was very lucky to stand in their homeland. Just knowing that I was in Poland was amazing.


The Eurolot flight from Warsaw to Prague was wonderful. I guess in European flights food is always complementary, baggage is free and the flight attendants are friendly. They had fresh bread as part of their sandwich, they asked if I wanted something to drink, I said what I wanted, they gave it to me, then immediately asked if I wanted something else. I also notices in the Prague airport and flight that the women were wearing really nice boots.

Compared to the the Warsaw airport, the Prague airport was not as sterile. All the signs were in Czech and in English, making it much easier to navigate. Robert, the team manager, and Lenka, the goalie I know from Juneau, met me at the baggage terminal. It was a relief to see them.