Airport Adventures
I have had a rather interesting past couple of days. My original itinerary had me leaving Richmond Tuesday afternoon for New York with an hour long layover until my flight to Amsterdam where friends were going to pick me up Wednesday morning. The large storm making its way across the US decided that it did not like that plan. The New York flight was delayed by an hour, which, of course, meant I would have missed my connection. I spoke to an airline employee who had obviously had a very long day and who was also having a great deal of computer trouble. After three different computers and two or three calls to IT, he had to go help another plane board. I then got on another phone, and the man said that he could book me on a flight leaving in 30 minutes that would get me to Amsterdam through Boston. (Yay!) However, when I went to get my ticket, we found out that the guy had misread. The flight left in 30 minutes...and 24 hours. There were no other flights with open seats that could get me to an international airport until then. I emailed my friends to let them know the change (8am Thurs rather than 7am Wed), and they were a bit concerned because they had taken off Wednesday but had work Thursday.
My awesome roommate has family that lives in Richmond who picked me up and let me stay at their place for the night. Because they had to get to work, I arrived at the airport 6 hours before my flight (I have electronic devices to entertain me). Then, when I went to check in, the little machine informed me that the airline had decided to reassign me. I was leaving in 45 minutes to Detroit (yay?) where I would have a 3 hour layover before a flight that would land me in Amsterdam at 6am. I once again emailed my poor friends in the Netherlands (actually, friends of a friend...so I was feeling really bad), to inform them of yet another change. Fortunately, the earlier time meant there was no conflict with their work.
So...after all that, I have finally arrived, and miraculously so have my bags. The family fed me a lovely breakfast and left for work, so I get to spend time catching up on emails and updating my blog (because I'm sure you've been on pins and needles). Once they get home, they are taking me to the home of the family I'm staying with in the Hague. I start work Monday. I'm feeling very blessed, and now I have a story :)
As I have been travelling for about 3 days now, no pictures will be accompanying this post...