Europe 2006

After the months of planning, we are finally in Milan, but not before mega-hours of travel and really delightful layover in Frankfurt (is my sarcasm apparent?). We left Calgary on August 2 in the evening, driven to the airport in two cars by my wonderful in-laws; there were no line-ups for our flight, we were able to get our boarding passes quickly and easily, and check right in. We were thanking our lucky stars and shaking our heads at the ease of it (oh, but the joys to come; nothing comes free!)

The 9.5 hour flight from Calgary to Frankfurt was fairly painless, other than the children in the seats behind us kicking us constantly, even in their sleep; unfortunately, that was still preferable to watching Antonio Bandaras in "Take the Lead", which was the inflight movie. The second movie shown was the original Batman movie from 1989... interesting choice (??). A pleasant surprise was discovering that despite the big ticket news item that our airline was cutting back and charging for pillows, blankets, and all consumables on the flight, we in fact had to pay for nothing, including a hot dinner, cold breakfast, soft drinks, snacks, earphones, etc.

The fun began when we arrived in Frankfurt, which in my opinion is actually completely contained within a mega-uber-mondo sprawling airport. Because our connecting flight was cancelled, we had a LOVELY 7 hour layover at what was for us on Calgary time, the middle of the night. We were psychotically exhausted, to say the least. It was far too early to find out our departure gate, so we found a fairly empty lounge with connecting chairs and tried to grab a bit of sleep, only to be woken by an announcement that was meant specifically for us and the few others in lounge... to paraphrase, it said, "GET OUT AND MAKE ROOM FOR THE DECENT FOLK WHO ARE ACTUALLY DEPARTING FROM HERE, YOU BUMS". Lounge after lounge we went to, only to be ejected like the freeloaders we were. We were airport hobos, pulling up a piece of ground where we could find it, begging the forgiveness of mainstream society as we sprawled across two chairs, our feet hanging onto a table, using arms or my rock-hard purse as a pillow. Cool and refreshed fashion plates with perfectly coiffed hair would sit noisily beside us, waking us up, and contorting their bodies in painful looking ways in order to avoid making eye contact with us, the great unwashed. Thank goodness they could pass the time by talking loudly into their cell phones.

Seven hours passed this way. It would be safe to say that at the exact moment our four heads hit the back of our airplane chairs for the flight from Frankfurt to Milan, we fell asleep instantly, and pretty much slept for the entire hour. Amazing what a good solid hour of deep sleep can do.

Once in Milan, we found our hotel, the Hotel Stazione, which is literally a 3 minute walk from the Stazione Centrale (but a little bit invisible unless you know what you are looking for), and actually had the energy to check into our delightful air-conditioned room (all red and black... very dramatic!) then head over to the nearest restaurant: Mc... McD... oh, I can't say it. We usually don't go there, as I don't approve of that company's business practices, but it was close, and we were tired... you know. After eating the McLard we went back to the hotel and crashed. Bliss.