The Travel Diaries -- Bratislava -- Feb 27, 2016

So, I've been feeling a bit cooped up in Vienna for the last while. Our trip home for Christmas was not as relaxing or as decompressing as I had hoped. I haven't found European living to be what I expected (posts on this to come!). During one of our recent conversations about how to alleviate these feelings, Chris and I decided we would take a speedy day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia. From Vienna, it is a short 1hour 6 min train journey, which costs as low as €10.10 (I still use the period between the cents and euros) per person each direction.

As this was rather spontaneous, we booked tickets for Saturday February 27, on the Wednesday before. But in reality, we could have purchased the tickets at the train station with no problem for seating. More than half the seats were empty both directions but it is also not tourist season yet.

Another option for getting to Bratislava from Vienna is to take a boat down the Donau River (Danube in English, for reasons I cannot fathom). Unfortunately, the riverboats do not run during the winter so we were not able to take this option. I think it is definitely going back to Bratislava in the Spring/Summer/Fall months by this option because it gives you an idea of the landscape. We will probably do that at some point in the next few years.

A quick internet search later, we discovered that the main attractions of Bratislava are: the quaint Old Town which is within the old medieval city walls, the Bratislava Castle, the Devin Castle ruins, and the Blue Church. Not speaking Slovakian and not really knowing much about the history of Slovakia, I searched for a free walking tour in English.

They actually have these in almost every major city in Europe. I used them a lot when I was traveling around Europe in Summer 2012. The concept is that the company hires tour guides who lead you on a walking tour of the city and tell you stories about the various monuments and locations around. It gives you a more complete understanding of the city and the tour guides are locals so they are familiar with the areas and topics on which they are describing. The idea is that they work for tips, so the tour itself is free and as a result the guides are motivated to give an engaging, informative, and fun tour. Usually each group is at least 30 strong so if each person tips a few Euro, the guide still makes a good sum at the end of the day.

Anyway, I found a free walking tour for Bratislava offered by Be Free Tours. We took the 11am tour and had Dominika as our tour guide. She was a really good tour guide and we walked around basically the whole of Bratislava. The tour leads you around the whole of Old Town and then brings you around to the new town areas. All the while, we learned about the history of Bratislava, Slovakia and its time(s) as Czechoslovakia. It was interesting to hear about Communism from someone who's country was Communist until very recently. In the end, we saw everything there was to see in Bratislava on the 2.5 hour walking tour. We did not actually visit the Bratislava Castle grounds but were given good directions on how to get there. We did, however, see the Blue Church, which is definitely definitely worth going to see. It is beautiful and whimsical in a way that the rest of Bratislava is not, especially the buildings from the Communist era. This is something that we might have missed out on if we hadn't gone on the walking tour. The church itself is a bit out of the way, and if you are going by yourself, I highly recommend seeking it out.

Jewish Memorial

The bell tower of the church.

This guy is called "The Watcher." Supposedly he is just waiting for the day's work to be done and watching people pass by. 

The original outer wall of Medieval Bratislava. See the holes where the chains for the drawbridge used to be?

SNP Square -- This is where many public protests have occurred throughout the history of Bratislava. Its also a popular meeting point for the locals. 

The Blue Church 

This is actually a secondary school directly across the street from the Blue Church, built in the same style.

Can you spot us? (Hint: back, leftish :) )

Entering back into the Old Town. The floating gate is where one of the Medieval walls used to be located.

This is now a museum, but it used to be their Old Town Hall. I liked the building because it had various types of architecture in one building. 

This is St. Michael's Gate, which is one of the inner gates of the medieval Bratislava town.

After the tour, we went through Old Town again, to shop for a trinket. Chris and I try and find a small trinket from each place we visit together so that we can have something to remember the place by. In the end we found this little fella. He reminds me of the medieval-ness of Old Town Bratislava and I just thought he was too cute not to take home.

This is Bertie, our little fella to remember our Bratislava adventure. How cute is he?!

We then went up to Bratislava Castle, which, if I'm honest, doesn't look like anything super special. The view was pretty nice, because you can see the Donau river and the "UFO Bridge" but on the other side of the river is just endless lengths of Communist block housing. This is an architectural style that I really do not appreciate. And I suppose that Bratislava Castle has a similar feel to it. Its so utilitarian and rather boring. It seems like it could just be a large, sterile hotel from the outside. On the front of the castle, however, was hints of what the style was originally. There is a stone arch and window that seems to recreate a peek into what it may have looked like years past. Evidently, the Castle was only reconstructed and finished in 2011, after it was burned to the ground by Italians cooking dinner. And the fact that it was finished in 2011 seems to be reflected in how the building now looks. In any case, the grounds around the castle were very nice and well maintained, and it definitely provided a nice view of the Old and New Towns of Bratislava.

After that we went to the Bratislavan brewery recommended on the tour, Bratislavský Meštiansky Pivovar, and had a house beer and the Slovakian soda, Kofola,  as well as sharing the traditional garlic soup in a bread bowl. We both liked the drinks pretty well, but the garlic soup was a bit too garlicky and rich. The whole bill came to €9 including tip. Eastern Europe is so much more affordable than the West. Its something we are aware of, but I just didn't realize how inexpensive everything actually is in Eastern Europe.

We then decided that since it was just before 5pm we would go for a jaunt around the city before heading to the Bratislavská Reštaurácia, another recommendation from the tour, for dinner. We decided, we'd try and find some of the green-space shown on the map, since the whole city seemed to be largely concrete and stone (much like Vienna). This is where we went wrong, I think. We basically started walking around and in the end started to feel really uncomfortable because the fact that we had seen no real locals in the city all day was massively amplified as dark was approaching. It honestly felt like a ghost town once you walked outside of where tourists normally tread.

For contrast, in Vienna or any U.S. city, at night there would still be locals going about their normal nightly or evening routines. Going to the shops, eating out, going to bars, etc. In Bratislava, we had noticed, during the day, that we saw many more tourists than locals (mostly working in places that service tourists) and at night, when most tourists were gone, the town was just empty. It was an extremely weird experience and it made us rather uncomfortable because it seemed like there might be a reason why nobody was out and about at night.

A little candy shop that had this window display on our evening walk around Bratislava.

In the end, a short hour walk later, we went to Bratislavská for dinner. We were told to try the Bryndzové halušky so slaninkou (potato dumpling with sheep cheese), which Chris tried. I had Naše domáce zemiakové gul'ky plnené údenym mäskom, podávané na sladkej dusenej kapuste so slaninkou (potato pierogi with meat and sauerkraut). We ordered Lokše (latkes) for dessert and they were super buttery and fatty. Overall, the meal definietly seem like traditional Slovakian food but we didn't really enjoy it all that much. Including tip, it only cost us €20 so we were happy for the experience of having traditional food.

After dinner, we felt we had seen all there was to see in Bratislava. We had sort of already discovered this while looking on the map at the brewery earlier and decided that we would take a slightly earlier train home. We arrived back in Vienna a little before 10pm a mere 13 hours after we had left around 9am that morning. All in all, Bratislava was definitely worth visiting but it doesn't take more than 12 hours to essentially see it all. Unless you plan to enjoy the bar and nightlife that is offered, night time in the city is weirdly ghostly.

The one thing that we missed on our trip was going to see Devin Castle ruins. This was a conscious decision after we noticed that all the dirt areas were rather muddy. We'll probably hit it up when we go by riverboat to Bratislava next time.

If you go to Bratislava, definitely go to the Blue Church and walk around Old Town. Climbing up to Bratislava Castle is also probably worth it for the views.

The Current Project -- The Elliston Scarf

When it comes to knitting, I'd say that I'm proficient but also enjoy having instant-gratification. As a result, I really like using Super Bulky yarn like this one (Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn). I especially like this specific type of yarn because it is so super soft, in addition to its chunky properties. Eventually, I plan to delve into using thinner yarn and more complicated patterns, but currently, because of the state of our life, I need the gratification of having easy and quick projects.

Currently working on The Elliston Scarf. I found the pattern on Ravelry. Here is the pattern page (Elliston Scarf); it is a paid pattern at $3.50 but I find that I am okay with paying for patterns because they represent people's creativity and I want to give them some credit for coming up with the pattern.

The yarn I am using for this specific project is the Portland Wine color. Each skein has 81yds and the pattern calls for 270 yards. I purchased 5 skeins because they were $2.97/ea on Amazon (and still are, at time of writing this post). I wanted to do a scarf in deep plum/purple because it is my favorite color. The color wasn't as deep purple as it looked like online, but it is a beautiful color and it is super saturated and super super soft! I'm about 3 skeins in, and I think I'll go through half of the 4th skein and make the fringing. It has taken me about three nights of 2-3 hours of knitting in front of the TV to get this far.

...

So its nearly a year later and I have yet to finish and publish this post. In any case, I did finish the scarf and it is warm and beautiful. One downside is that I used about 4.5 skeins and that made the scarf a bit long (see picture below) but I think that I can still wear it and the pattern itself is really unique.

With this post, I am hoping to get more regular into this blog. I have a few other posts that are in various stages of completeness and I will push those out even if they're not terribly timely anymore, because I'd like to have them as something to look back at this time period in our lives.

Anyway, below are some pictures that I took. Forgive the awkward angles, I will try to get better at photographing things.

This is a fair representation of the pattern and the fringing. Color is a bit more cool-toned than in reality. 

Here you can see the difference between the front and back of the pattern. 

This photo is more true to color. Its a bit more berry and less plum. 

And finally, a photo of me wearing the scarf. I made it a bit long, so I have to wrap it three times and then it falls to around my hips. 

 Anyway, like it mentioned earlier in the post, this project was actually finished a long time ago (nearly a year!) and unfortunately, I haven't had a ton of time for new crafty projects. I've recently started getting into handwriting and sketch notes, so maybe I'll show some of that on here soon!  

Meet Our New Addition! --> Earl

So, I have a ton of posts in the pipeline. Some written but waiting on others before I will post them. To help with my feelings of not stagnating too much, I will do a quick and easy post about our new addition!

For our first wedding anniversary, Chris got me a nice leafy indoor tree. We've named him Earl. He is a Schefflera Gold Capela and he is about my height (5'3" or 160cm) and he is so happy looking! 

Our cats are getting on with him great. A bit of over-interest at first by Tango but she's now realized he doesn't do much else but stand there and be happy and green. 

We're thinking that as the weather warms a bit we'll put him outside on the balcony since it doesn't get much direct sunlight but Schefflera plants need bright indirect light. We'll see how he fares out there and when it gets cold again, he'll come back inside to brighten the space. 

Isn't it amazing what a few green plants in your house can do to brighten up a difficult season? Do you have a favorite indoor tree or plant? 

Our Family Vacation -- Sint Maarten Island (The Travel Saga) Pt 2. Those Island Days

This post is months late but I still wanted to put up some pictures from when we were there, so we can have the memories.

This is the happier (not nightmare-ish) post in which I share some pictures and details of our trip.

It was a beautiful trip, the part that we really got to relax and enjoy. One of my favorite memories is snorkeling near the island. I found the calmness of the giant sea turtles very majestic and beautiful. They seem to float along and have very little care in the world, so relaxing to watch.

Below is a panorama view of the ocean and the villa where we were staying. It was super picturesque and idyllic.

We arrived Monday night, August 3, and on Thursday morning (the 4th), the whole family went on a hike to Peak Paradise, the highest peak on the island. The day was hot, sweltering, humid but also overcast (as you can tell from the pictures). The view was pretty nice

Here we are with Chris' dad, Joe (top). The lovely lady in pink is Nancy, Chris' stepmom (bottom). Joe and Nancy very generously brought the whole family together on this trip. We are so thankful for the opportunity to visit such a tropical locale. :) 

Me, Chris and Joe (Chris' dad)

Nancy and Joe. :)

The other units of the family that came are as follows: (top) Chris' brother Jeff and his wife, Mara; (middle) Chris' stepbrother Griffin and his partner Cassandra and their son Ryker; and (bottom) Chris' stepsister Betsy and her husband Pedro and their sons Vincent (back) and Jonathan (front). Such a good looking bunch!

Jeff, Chris, Joe and Mara

Griffin, Ryker, and Cassandra

Pedro, Vincent, Jonathan, and Betsy

That night, we went out to dinner with the family to celebrate Chris and my recent marriage. We went to a French restaurant. The food was really yummy and it was a fun night. I don't have many pictures of it but I really loved the dress that I wore that night. On a side-note, this is where I got several mosquito bites that got super inflamed as the trip wore on. Tropical mosquitos are no joke! I have always had stronger reactions to mosquito bites than many others but they bit me on the top of my left calf (near the back of the knee) and something about that location made it get super irritated. Always wear bug spray people! 

Chris, me, Joe, and Pedro at our fancy wedding dinner. 

On Wednesday, Aug 5, a group of us went to one of the public beaches on the Dutch side of the island, and we went jet-skiing. Chris and I were on one jet ski and it was pretty fun, but Chris and Jeff (Chris' brother) love to go faster on those things than I like. Anyway, the morning was spent doing that and walking around the downtown region. We went back to the villa for lunch.  

In the afternoon we visited the Butterfly Farm with Nancy, and Betsy (Chris' step-sister), Pedro and their two boys, Vincent and Jonathan. The farm was cool! Had so many different types of butterflies. We learned that each type of butterfly lays its eggs on a specific type of plant which its caterpillars feed on and grow until they form chrysalis and then emerge as butterflies. There were many types of butterflies and moths there and it was such a nice experience. Because butterflies require a humid environment, the farm was actually netted-in and they were bringing the humidity up by spraying all the plants with water regularly. As a result, we were all sweating buckets. If you end up going there, definitely bring water and snacks to replenish lost electrolytes and liquids. Otherwise, I highly recommend The Butterfly Farm. 

Here I am with a giant moth on my hat. I look terrified, but really I just wanted to stay still for pictures. :) 

They collect a lot of the pupae/chrysalis and pin them in a box to protect them. 

A closer look at some of the varieties of chrysalis that were at the Butterfly Farm. 

We even saw some mating butterflies. Apparently they will do this for almost a full day!

In this next series of pictures, can you spot the chrysalis? It is incredible how much they are able to camouflage themselves!

I couldn't see it from this distance either, until it was pointed out to me. 

If you are looking for it you can now see it; if not, look at the picture below!

Holy moly! It blends in so well, doesn't it? Nature is amazing, sometimes.

We had an amazing sunset that night. Since moving to Vienna from San Diego, I have really missed sunsets, especially those that go over the horizon of the ocean. This was such a treat.

On Thursday, Aug 6, a group of us: Chris, me, Jeff, Joe, Cassandra, and Griffin went on a snorkeling tour around the island. It was truly majestic but I don't have photographic proof because electronics and water are not friends. We went to three separate locations and on the second one, we saw a bunch of sea turtles. It was honestly one of the most beautiful experiences because they just seemingly float but you have to try really hard to keep up with them. And they were just nonchalant about humans so they often just surfaced in the water very close to you. It was an experience that I am so happy I had the opportunity to have. I have never done anything like that before. It makes me so happy, just thinking about it. I think we were pretty pooped when we got back to the villa afterward and mostly just napped or lounged around the pool area.

Friday, Aug 7, was our last full day there. We went to a private beach in the morning as a family, which was super peaceful and beautiful.

Chris, off exploring. 

In the afternoon, we went in search of some ice cream and a carousel to entertain the boys. This place was a bit like walking back in time, and a bit weird but it had ice cream and was air conditioned so we enjoyed it nonetheless. 

Ryker wasn't too sure about the carousel, but he had also not been napping well/at all the whole vacation, so he was a bit out of it. 

Chris having secret conversations with Vincent. 

On Saturday, Aug 8, we had the morning to sort of gather and pack. We took these pictures and they are a really nice group of pictures to finish the vacation off with. :) 

Chris and V: such a pair. They got really close on this trip. :)

Overall, it was such a nice vacation, despite all of the hassle and nightmare of us trying to get there. In fact, both of the families with kids had trouble getting back home too. Air travel is just so fickle when you want it to be easy and straight forward. I'm so glad that Nancy and Joe were able to coordinate such a cool once-in-a-lifetime vacation for all of us. Our next one is slotted for Banff in Summer 2017. If it happens, that will be so cool! Crazy that the boys will be two years older by that point. Hopefully, we'll be able to see them at least a few times between this vacation and then. 

Our Family Vacation -- Sint Maarten Island (The Travel Saga) Pt 1. Getting there...

Started this post ages ago, but am just getting around to finishing and posting it now (yes, its December, and this post was written in August...trying to get back into the blogging groove over our winter vacation)

This year, Chris' dad and stepmom very generously and kindly invited all of the kids and grandkids on an island vacation. This has been in the works for longer than we have known we would be moving to Vienna. Last November (2014), they confirmed the villa and we all started making plans to meet up on this island.

Chris' dad and stepmom each have two children, so the four units plus grandkids brought us to a group of 10 adults and 3 small humans under 5. We've been looking forward to this trip for a long time. BUT we've been especially looking forward to this trip since we moved to Vienna. Like I mentioned in my Months 1-3 blog post, its been a bit lonely here.

All of these factors made what happened on the day we were meant to fly out all the worse. Below is copied from my Notes on my computer where I wrote what happened the (early,early) morning of Saturday, Aug1.

~~~
2015 Aug 1 (Sa) — nightmare day at the airport

Today was the day we were supposed to fly out to St. Maarten for the Campbell Family Vacation 2015. We woke up at 3:45pm and got on the U3 by 4:12pm and on the 4:27pm S7 to the airport. 

We arrived at the airport with no major issues (super tired) and as we walked toward the airport, we found out on the Departures screen that our flight was CANCELLED! We had received NO alerts or anything, it was so unbelievable… 

We went straight to the Air France counter (which was really not an Air France counter but an affiliate desk…) We got there around 5:15am and stood in line and finally spoke with an agent, Michelle and tried for (no joke) at least 45 min trying to find ANY flight that would get us to St. Maarten today (nothing), tomorrow (nothing)… Finally, the best option we could do was a flight to London Heathrow on Sunday 2Aug, and an overnight in London, then flying out of London Gatwick to Antigua, and then a small plane from Antigua to Anguilla. Anguilla is 45 min ferry ride away, and it would have landed us in Antigua on Monday at 5:30pm and the last ferry from Anguilla to St Maarten was at 6pm…SOOO ultimately, not really doable without a night in Anguilla which was not an option… 

I should mention that during the time when Michelle was trying to help us find a flight, we caused quite the backup of passengers (who also had to rebook flights due to Austrian Airlines canceling the flight from Vienna to Paris that morning, without any alerts/warnings). It really pissed them off but we weren’t about to give up our spot to let them through (since we were still hopeful that we’d get on something, somewhere, somehow today). In the end the best option seemed like the one above. Michelle told us to come back in a couple hours and we could try again. At this point it was about 6:30am and so we went to Starbucks to get coffee and food. Then sat down to do some research on our own… 

We almost immediately found the same flight we were planning to take today on Monday and tried to book tickets. We first called Nancy and she gave us a credit card and we tried booking but it wouldn’t let us. (Which ultimately was a good thing because it was business class ticket for the Paris to St Maartens flight and $5600…). Finally around 7:45am we went back to the counter to try and find more flights. We asked about why we couldn’t get the Monday flight (since we could see it on flights.google.com) and Michelle told us its because we have economy tickets and she COULDN’T upgrade us (she didn’t have the power). We tried calling Air France but they didn’t open until 9am. Michelle called a separate number and talked for a while but then was given another number and that office didn’t open until 9am. So we sat back down for another half hour… 

During this time we found a slightly different option to the one we got from Michelle originally, which would still take us from Vienna to London on Sunday night 8pm, and fly out from London Gatwick to Antigua on Monday morning 1045am, then we take a propeller plane from Antigua through St. Kitts and finally to St. Maarten, landing at 7pm on Monday 3Aug. It was later than the other option but it would get us on the correct island. We figured if we could get that last flight it would be our best bet (if they couldn’t get Air France to upgrade us to business class for the Monday flight that matched our flight today). 

At 9am we went back to the counter and Michelle called the second office and after a lot of talking, they couldn’t do anything… THAT was the infuriating part, it was their fault and Air France wouldn’t upgrade us so that we could arrive 2 (TWO!???) whole days late to our destination… So we ended up taking the option with the small propeller plane that takes us finally to St. Maarten on Monday night at 7pm. 

Since we were staying over in London overnight due to the cancelation, we needed to get compensated for the hotel and they told us to go to Austrian Airlines for that. So we walked to the Austrian Airlines registration/booking area and get in line. At this point it is a little before 10am, and get in line. There were about 15 people ahead of us and three agents at the desks. We stood in that line for over an hour and a half, and finally got to the ticket agent at around 11:45am. We then explained our situation and that we wanted to know how to get our London hotel compensated. Frau Marianne Oth helped us with moving our London flight earlier (from 8pm to 5:15pm) and also made a note in the ticket file that we needed to get comped for our hotel in London. We need to go to the Austrian Airlines Transfer Office to get the voucher when we arrive. 

After dealing with all of that it was past noon and we had spent 7 hours at the airport only to go back home so that we could again go to the airport tomorrow… At the time, it felt like some sort of twisted victory because ultimately we were able to figure out a (long-winded, twisted) way for us to get to the family vacation, but now it feels a bit hallow and I wonder if it is worth it… I’m sure once I’m there it will feel worth it but right now, its all the hassle. 

We got back on the S7 and came back home. We got home a little after 1pm and we had lunch (that we bought at the airport Spar Gourmet) and took short naps on the couch.

Around 3pm we went to the Naekwon Asian market to see what they had to offer (U3 at Zieglergasse) and bought a cute Cuckoo rice cooker (yay!) and some other goodies. We got home and both slept on the couch until around 8pm. We went to Honobono for beef noodle soup and then for gelato at the Eis shop on Eslarngasse and now we’re back at home. 

Tomorrow, we have to leave for the airport at 2pm to catch our 5:15pm flight to London Heathrow (landing around 6:40pm), sort out our hotel voucher, hopefully near Gatwick airport. Figure out transportation between Heathrow and Gatwick (either for Sunday night or Monday morning) and then fly from Gatwick to Antigua Monday morning at 10:45am, landing around 2:10pm. Then there is a 3 hour layover in Antigua and we get on a propeller plane from Antigua to St. Maarten (with a stop in St. Kitts) at 5:40pm landing at 7pm on Monday night. 

Ultimately 3 full days of travel (and trying to travel) is so exhausting. I’m really hoping that it ends up feeling worth it in the end. Bottom line is that I needed to get out of Vienna this week and this delay is terrible. I need a break from the constant culture shock and the constant inadequacy and uncomfortableness that I feel perpetually. I’m so exhausted and this was supposed to be straight forward but it turned out to be the worst possible situation that can happen. We found a solution, and it is doable but it sucks and I’m stuck in Vienna for another day longer.

Silver linings aren’t enough right now, all the things that I actually like about Vienna are not enough right now, the feeling of being here is so hard to explain. I just constantly feel exhausted and drained and wishing that I  wasn’t here and feeling guilty but angry. Its been so hard being here. And honestly, I think very few people realize how hard. All my classmates (except Michael and Amba) moved from relatively close to here, and everyone else uses the same units. Its debilitating when you can’t even do simple small talk because you can’t easily comprehend what others are talking about without a conversion in your head which takes you out of the conversation. The culture shock has been enormous. I just don’t know right now… 

~~~ 

It is so extremely evident, even for myself reading this back, that I was so down-trodden and a bit depressed. What's worse is that it wasn't even the worst of it. The next day was just as challenging...

The travels on Aug2 (Sunday) to London were also filled with stress and struggles. We ended up going to the airport for our 5pm flight super early leaving around 1pm. Trying to check in our bags was a serious debacle. We got there before 2pm and the service agent wasn't able to get us checked in. He said something about our tickets "being valid" but that somebody had f*cked up (yes, he did drop F-bombs) while booking them and he couldn't access our tickets from his computer to check our bags in. 

After about 10 minutes of him typing, typing, typing, shaking his head, typing, he got up and took our tickets out of view (presumably to the same Customer Service desks that we were at the day before). He was gone for over 15 min, it was probably closer to 30 min. He finally came back, confirmed again that our tickets "were valid, no worries, no worries..." and said that someone was coming to help. While we waited for this "someone" he continued to tap away at his computer, shaking his head... (We had gotten so annoyed at people staring at computers, typing, and shaking their heads...SO FED UP)

Also, during all of this time, the shift change was happening, so we had another service agent who was supposed to take up the desk we were at but she had no idea what was going on, so the original one was staying (but acting very much like he wanted to leave). Finally, finally, the "techincal" person came to help. Original service agent explained some things to her in German and then quickly departed. Technical agent then goes to town typing, taping, typing, shaking head. 

Another 10 min or so of this and she hasn't said anything to us at all. Just keeps looking at the computer screen, typing and taping, occasional shake of the head. Then, out of the blue, she just rips up our tickets. *Fear strikes into both of us* Then we hear the printer printing and we're frantically screening the new tickets upside down, and our hearts sink because she's printed tickets for the later flight (that we worked so hard to get off of the day before). We quickly protest, and sort of forcefully tell her that wasn't what she was supposed to do. I start to bawl, up until this point, I'd just been stressed but not too emotional. I just couldn't hold it in anymore.

She then goes into super-quick tappity tap mode. Works for another 10-15 min and finally she gets us BACK on the flight she took us off of and also tags our bags. We spent over 1.5 hours at the bag drop counter... Becoming pretty typical of our trip so far. We finally went through security (no issues there) and still had over 1.5 hours before our flight, and I just sat at the terminal and cried. I kept wondering if I would feel like the trip would be worth all the hassle and stress and terribleness in the end. Chris kept assuring me that it would, but not very convincingly because he was obviously experiencing the same feelings. 

We get on our flight t London Heathrow. No real issues with that flight. Arrive in the mausoleum that is London Heathrow and immediately try to find the Austrian service counter to get our hotel compensated for the night. We arrived around 7pm, and we were in line for an hour before we got to see a ticket agent (in the meantime, the one we were in line for randomly finished with the clients in front of us in line and without so much as a LOOK at us, just picked up her wallet and walked off for her break/dinner, WITHOUT A LOOK...typical of this trip). Once we got to the front of the line, we were ultimately able to get a hotel near (actually, attached to) London Gatwick airport and also meals comped and also a taxi between the two airports. It took until after 9pm to get everything sorted and we took the 45 min taxi ride to the hotel. Checked in, dinner at the hotel's cafe, and went to bed. exhausted. 

The next morning we had the included breakfast and walked to the airport terminal. The lines were ridiculously long for bag drop but fortunately moved relatively fast. We made it onto our flight from Gatwick to Antigua with no issues. Arrived in Antigua and checked in for our propeller flights no issues. After 2-3 hour layover in Antigua, we flew to St. Kitts first (where there was a fire on the island, which was never mentioned to us), sat on the plane for 20 min while the unloaded/loaded passengers, then finally flew to St. Maartens, landing Monday Aug3 at 7pm. 

We worked our way through customs and finally walked into the airport lobby area and saw Joe and Nancy. So relieved! We were there! We did get a little chastised for not giving flight numbers... they had a bit of hullabaloo figuring out which airport to go to... Pedro saved the day. (Apparently St. Maartens has two airports, who knew?)

We were there, and I just kept having this nagging thought in the back of my head... "God, I hope its worth it..." We had been through so much (not just the last few days but the last few months). 

I'll share pictures from the actual adventures in my next post.