Home is Wherever I'm With You

Getting home was a bit of a fiasco. I couldn't sleep the last night. I was fidgety and excited and nervous and I knew I'd be getting up at 2:45 in the morning to leave. I think I fell asleep for an hour and a half, was awake for another few hours, and then fell asleep for another hour before my alarm went off. Josh and I took a taxi from our hotel to the airport at 3:30 thinking we would be there at 4. Our first flight was supposed to be at 6:30. We were supposed to go through Frankfurt and Charlotte before making it to Kansas City. Yeah, right.

We got to the airport at 10 minutes till 4, and (Surprise!) the Florence airport doesn't open until 4:30. We sat outside with our bags, only to find once we stepped inside that our first flight had been cancelled. This was due to operational problems, which we found out later from a Lufthansa attendant, was because they did not have enough crew members available.

We waited in a line to find out our fate, and it didn't take too long since we were near the front, having arrived at the airport entirely too early. The lady we talked to typed in a bunch of stuff in the computer and then hand-wrote us a new itinerary, this time going through Amsterdam and Minneapolis instead, and leaving at 6:50. She gave us the Post-It note-sized hand-written paper and directed us to yet another line, where we waited entirely too long to get our tickets.

I believe we were 4th or 5th in that line, and by the time we made it to the front (over 2 hours later), it was after 7. So much for the flight to Amsterdam. . . We were given a new itinerary, this time printed from the computer, and told to go to another line. We were directed (with a vague gesture which didn't really indicate where we were supposed to go next, so we had to ask several other people for help) to a very nice man who helped us print our boarding passes from a machine. (Our new flights would go through Paris and Atlanta, but the first one wouldn't leave until 1.) The nice man told us which line to wait in to check our bags. (This was after we had waited in the wrong one for quite a while.)

An hour later in the correct line for checking our bags, we were told it was too early to check in. It was 9. We had to wait until 11.

There are a total of 10 seats in the Florence airport unless you are past security. Luckily, we got two of them. We sat for a while, trying to rearrange luggage so we wouldn't have to pay millions of dollars for extra weight. (My carry-on ended up being extremely heavy, and we had to check one extra bag, but weren't charged for the other ones being a bit overweight.)

At 10:15, we got in line. We checked our bags around 11:15, got through security in about ten seconds, and waited to board our first flight. The first flight went smoothly, and we easily made it to the next. The second flight (the 9 hour one) was amazing. We were upgraded to business class, so we had huge seats and I could stretch my feet all the way out and not even touch the wall in front of me. (I was in the first row of business class.) We had unlimited free drinks and snacks and some really huge (and quite good!) meals. I watched one and a half movies, and I tried to sleep. I couldn't.

We landed in Atlanta, went through customs (super easy) and security and had plenty of (but not too much) time till our last flight.

On the way from Atlanta to Kansas City, I actually slept for a while. Less than two hours, but it was something. When Josh and I got off the plane in Kansas City at 11:30pm (which felt to us like 6:30am), we were welcomed by Mom, Dad, Vince, and two aunts.

Many hugs and smiles later, we got our bags (Everything made it safely, with the exception of one beer stein from the Hofbrahaus which was shattered all over one bag.) and we drove to our hotel in downtown KC. The hotel was really nice, and we had two rooms- one for the girls, one for the boys. I gave everyone souvenirs and we talked about the adventures I had had with Josh. Mom made sure we had plenty of great snacks.

We stayed up until we were all falling asleep and then we slept till morning. We had a nice hotel breakfast and then packed up and left around noon. We made it home in the afternoon where I was welcomed by two happy dogs and a fat cat who is currently sitting on my lap. :)

I think I am about half-way adjusted to the time difference. I went to bed at 7:30 and woke up at 3:30 this morning.

Today, Mom and I are going to get pedicures.

It's good to be home.

I will blog about the adventures with Josh next time. Until then, watch this video. On the flights home I listed to the original version of the song several times, but this one is adorable.