Leaving on a Jet Plane
Let’s be honest: the worst part about traveling is actually traveling. No one actually likes traveling, we like visiting. The first person to invent a way to visit far off places without having to strap yourself into a flying tin can with your legs pressed against your chest and passive aggressive elbow fights (not to mention being felt up by equally unhappy TSA agents) will have a religion dedicated to them.
My journey from Denver to Budapest really was no exception to the “traveling sucks” rule I won’t bore the 3 of you that actually read this with the details (hi mom!) but here are some of the high(low)lights: [Note while rereading: def gunna bore you with the details]
Each of my flights were delayed for various reasons (American Airlines can always be counted on to make you regret choosing them) resulting increasingly tighter windows in which to make my connections. This came to a inflection point in London as they make all international passengers go through security again, even if you are not staying in London. Apparently my mess of cables and power banks looked suspiciously like a bomb (and honestly, with chargers for computer/cell/kindle/shaver/watch, power converter, and two power banks, I can’t super blame them) - which then had to be extra inspected at a pace that would have made the sloths from Zootopia look like they were being carelessly fast. As I exited the security area I checked the Flight Status screens - Flight 886 to Budapest read: “Gate D23 - Closing”. I booked it towards the signs for “Gates D1-D40 ->” down the longest hallway that I’ve seen in my life into a terminal area, however I noticed a sign that indicated that Gates D21-34 where down a side hallway. Of course. Making a jump cut that would have made Reggie Bush blush, I turned tail down the hallway, thinking I would need to make it far for D23. D21 on the right, D22 on the left, D24 on the left, D25 on the right… wait WHAT?! I back tracked and finally found YET ANOTHER hallway with a sign that pointed for Gates D23A-D23D. I finally reached the gate after heading down this hallway, through a set of doors and down an escalator to be one of the last 5 people to have their tickets scanned. BUT I made it.
One of my personal goals with this trip is to explore a bit more of my creative/expressive side via this website and pictures/videos I want to take. One of my ideas that I was pretty excited about was to attach my GoPro to the airplane window for my journey out and then run a time-lapse of North America disappearing, the UK appearing as we landed, and then a cool view of continental Europe on the way to Europe. A little cliche, but cool, right? Well the flight from Denver to DFW I was assigned a middle seat, so no go there. I knew I had a window from DFW to London, and London to Budapest however, so no biggie. Turns out by the time we got to cruising altitude from DFW to London it was pitch black out. At least I would get London to Budapest, and that was the coolest bit anyways. Well that didn’t happen for two reasons. First of all, I’m fairly sure all of Europe was engulfed in fog on Monday because I looked out that window the entire ride and maybe saw land once. (I know at least the UK was because the picture that should be accompanying this post I thought was a picture of us depending through the clouds at like 20,000 feet or so. Turns out we were descending into the fog and this picture is at like 1,500 feet. Major props to the pilot because I'm not sure how you see the runway in those conditions) BUT it wouldn’t have mattered anyways because I was assigned an exit row seat (yay more leg room!) but that meant they wouldn’t allow me to mount my camera onto the window during the trip - which, fair, but boooo.
Also, they ran out of whiskey on the overnight flight after I had one. THERE WAS FREE BOOZE ON THE FLIGHT AND YOU RAN OUT AFTER I HAD ONE?! Honestly this was the worst part right here.
Long story short, I’m here! I’m exhausted, getting maybe an hour of sleep on my DFW->LHR leg of my trip, but I was too exited to go explore a bit of Budapest to give into the pain. Look for my next post with some updates and initial thoughts on Budapest as well as more (and better) pictures!
