Friday, June 8, 2012

Frankfurt to Kyiv

When Todd drove me to the Frankfurt airport after a fun week in Germany, I started feeling just a tiny bit nervous about heading off to Ukraine, the real destination of my trip.  I was flying Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Kyiv and had been told that there would be someone at airport at 1:00 Friday morning to pick me up and take me to the summer camp where I'd be spending the next six weeks teaching kids English.  I checked my suitcase, made it through security, boarded the plane . . . and waited for takeoff . . .

 . . .After waiting for quite some time, some German announcements were made, and it became apparent that we were not taking off.  I later found out that a recent law or city ordinance or something had been passed that gave the Frankfurt airport a takeoff curfew at 11:00 p.m. so that local residents could sleep.  Well, there were a lot of airline workers and disgruntled travellers who did not get much sleep that night.   "Lufthansa will take care of you," the flight attendant assured a disgruntled traveler.  And they did.  We were given taxi and hotel vouchers, and promises of making it to Kyiv the next day. 

I have to admit that Grandma Kathy's words, "Don't follow any young man anywhere!"  were ringing in my ears as I drove for about half an hour alone in a taxi before finally arriving at the hotel.  The receptionist was nice, and got to know me well as I asked him to call about my luggage, requested a morning wake-up call, asked about scheduling a taxi ride to the airport, and wondered how I could make a call to the U.S.  The next morning, Mom called the front desk just about the same time I was going to leave in the taxi "Miss Vinters!"  that receptionist had certainly figured out who I was! 

My new itenerary included a stop at some German airport I'd never heard of before. My first flight was somewhat delayed. I remember closing my eyes to rest a bit, and thinking that had been sitting there on the runway for quite some time, and we really needed to get going if I was going make my connection. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see that we were in the air! I had slept through takeoff without even realizing it! We landed about the same time my next flight was supposed to be boarding, but it was a fairly small airport, everyone was very kind and helpful, and the plane waited for us straggling Kyiv-bound travelers. Finally, we did make it to Kyiv. A kind couple, Tania and Igor, were waiting in the airport with an "ILP" sign to take me to the summer camp in Boyarka.

tired, unhappy Kyiv-bound Lufthansa customers at the Frankfurt airport
my hotel room in Germany . . . perhaps the only time in my life that I'll have a hotel room all to myself! 

my connecting flight

coming into Kyiv!

2 comments:

  1. That wasn't bad advice from Grandma. Have you seen Taken? (Grandma and Tonya, you probably shouldn't watch it.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Reading this post reminds me of my experience in Frankfurt. For me it was a connecting flight to Moscow. When we got to Frankfurt, the kind lady at the desk in broken English just kept saying the reason for our delayed flight was they couldn't find the plane! I kept saying "how can you lose a plane!" Turned out the plane had been sent to Greece and they had to wait for it to get back so they would have that larger plane to get us all to Moscow. It was only a 6 hour wait! And the airline paid for our lunch.

    ReplyDelete