Disorientation. This word seems to express our feelings over the last few days. So for those who are interested in our disorientation, here goes:
As we left Kyiv on Sunday afternoon, everything seemed to go well. Not too horribly sad, pyechalno (I have had this odd experience lately where some English words don't seem to express what I want to say...I have been trying to keep my Russian alive with Lena. It's often helpful to say things in Russian under your breath. It's sort of cool. At least as long as there are no other Russian speakers around.)
The pechal-ness began when the Lufthansa ticket agent couldn't give us boarding passes for our flight to the US from Frankfurt because she couldn't see it in her computer. She said it often happens. Then, the flight was delayed by an hour. By the time we arrived in Frankfurt, it was impossible to catch the US flight but we were directed to the gate anyway. We stood in another security line for a long time and it seemed everyone there was also late for their flights. Finally, someone came and asked for people going to Washington. We were already to the front anyway. By the time we got to the gate, we were told we should have been there 45 minutes ago, boarding is closed, and our seats had been given away. Nice. Go stand in line somewhere else to rebook your tickets. Finally, we are told there are no other flights, all are full, etc. You are stuck in Frankfurt. But they won't give Lena a day visa to go to the hotel so we were stuck in the airport. They gave us food vouchers which enabled us to enjoy supper and breakfast at the only place we could afford, McDonalds. We had 20 euros for supper and we bought 19,79 euros worth (vouchers don't allow change to be given). That's about 130 hryvnya for a meal at McDonalds. Compared to 20 hryvnya in Kyiv. It was quite a shock. The very small $3 tube of toothpaste we bought was also a shock.
We saved our cups, straws, and napkins from McDonalds to help make it through the night. We strapped our luggage to these miserable airport chairs. Eventually, I bought a book because the only thing we had to read were textbooks. The night passed. We saw the cleaning crews and all the other oddities of night life in the airport. But Frankfurt is just a horrible airport, really. I've seen a lot of airports and this one is to be avoided.
More later.
As we left Kyiv on Sunday afternoon, everything seemed to go well. Not too horribly sad, pyechalno (I have had this odd experience lately where some English words don't seem to express what I want to say...I have been trying to keep my Russian alive with Lena. It's often helpful to say things in Russian under your breath. It's sort of cool. At least as long as there are no other Russian speakers around.)
The pechal-ness began when the Lufthansa ticket agent couldn't give us boarding passes for our flight to the US from Frankfurt because she couldn't see it in her computer. She said it often happens. Then, the flight was delayed by an hour. By the time we arrived in Frankfurt, it was impossible to catch the US flight but we were directed to the gate anyway. We stood in another security line for a long time and it seemed everyone there was also late for their flights. Finally, someone came and asked for people going to Washington. We were already to the front anyway. By the time we got to the gate, we were told we should have been there 45 minutes ago, boarding is closed, and our seats had been given away. Nice. Go stand in line somewhere else to rebook your tickets. Finally, we are told there are no other flights, all are full, etc. You are stuck in Frankfurt. But they won't give Lena a day visa to go to the hotel so we were stuck in the airport. They gave us food vouchers which enabled us to enjoy supper and breakfast at the only place we could afford, McDonalds. We had 20 euros for supper and we bought 19,79 euros worth (vouchers don't allow change to be given). That's about 130 hryvnya for a meal at McDonalds. Compared to 20 hryvnya in Kyiv. It was quite a shock. The very small $3 tube of toothpaste we bought was also a shock.
We saved our cups, straws, and napkins from McDonalds to help make it through the night. We strapped our luggage to these miserable airport chairs. Eventually, I bought a book because the only thing we had to read were textbooks. The night passed. We saw the cleaning crews and all the other oddities of night life in the airport. But Frankfurt is just a horrible airport, really. I've seen a lot of airports and this one is to be avoided.
More later.
posted by Kyivmission at 7:38 AM
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