The flight from DFW was delayed by nearly an hour on the Tarmac because they were having difficulty entering the plane's weight into the computer so it could be cleared for takeoff (Zack was saying "if these idiots would give me a calculator, I'll do it for them in less than 5 minutes!") I guess sitting on the brand new Boeing 777, complementary Galaxy Nexus tablet in hand, was better than a crowded departure gate with a Hispanic shoe-shiner doing her Hail Mary's in the middle of the DFW International Terminal. But still, it was annoying. I passed the time by scrolling through the hundreds of free games, movies, TV shows, music, and other features on the tablet, and talking with the 2 girls next to me, Maddie & Leandra. Maddie just graduated from university of New Mexico, so this is her graduation trip with her best friend. They're doing London -> Munich -> Florence -> Barcelona -> Madrid and returning to the states on June 7th. Talk about a busy itinerary!
The delay put our flight about an hour and a half behind schedule, so there was a greeter right off the plane in Heathrow telling Vienna-connectors to run to the next flight. I wanted to stay and listen to her awesome accent, but more than that, I wanted to make my flight. I had to go pretty far, and the trip included another security checkpoint where I was THOROUGHLY padded down by a TSA agent. I finally got to terminal 3 and looked for gate 24. 21...22...23...25...wait, what?
24 had its own hallway beyond gate 25, because it was actually a bus stop that took us out to the Tarmac, where we climbed the stairs up into our crappy little Airbus for a rickety flight.
It was broad daylight, but having been effectively awake for 2 days, it was VERY difficult to keep my eyes open. Everyone was ordering hot tea (which was in a kettle - I was officially in Europe!), so I followed suit. Meh.
I was surprised at how rural the area was around the airport. I knew it wasn't IN the city, but it seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere from up above.
FINALLY in Vienna, as I exited the plane 2 girls who had been sitting behind me asked if I was from UT. Meredith & Allison are in the other UT Vienna study abroad trip, so I'll probably run into them at the study abroad office at some point.
Zack & Corin (who wasn't ignoring us anymore) both had to file reports for missing luggage, and both were found in London, to come on the next plane. We walked out of the baggage claim and saw Billy amongst the other chauffeurs with signs and went with him to take the snellbahn (though the airport solicits A LOT for their super-fancy, twice-as-expensive City Airport Transit train. The bus left as we got down here to the station, and as we wait for the next train, I am writing this post. Bully is describing how the weather has been the past few days apparently it's been hailing ("sounding like skeletons making love on a tin roof," he says).
Train's coming, so I'm about to lose my wifi. More later.
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