Just sit right back
and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip...

FINALLY! BACK HOME! 12 weeks later. Like a salmon swimming upstream, this trip was long and arduous but it is over at last.

On Monday, I was restless all day. My flight didn't leave until 8 p.m. Luckily, repacking my bags so they weren't over the 25 kg. limit took a good amount of time. I wasn't so successful as one of them was 27 kg. but both the Lufthansa rep and I conveniently ignored that fact.

After initially telling me that she couldn't find my reservation, I nearly leapt over the desk and grabbed her by her sassy little yellow Lufthansa kerchief but cooler heads prevailed and I simply asked her to check with her supervisor. I'm sure others around me noticed the half laughing, half crying excited demeanor of a crazy person who's about to lose it.

One hour prior to flying I took the altitude sickness medicine that doubles as a eyeball pressure reducer. Using the breathing techniques I downloaded from an iTunes meditation Podcast and committed to memory during my face down horizontal prison, I managed to remain calm during takeoff and ascension to 35,000 feet. I tried not to think about what could go wrong.

I endured the 7 1/2 hour flight in economy next to Chatty Cathy and her husband heading to Munich for Oktoberfest and behind the ubiquitous slam-the-seat-all-the-way-back-and-crush-your-knees-for-the-entire-ride passenger. I had over an hour to make my connection when we landed in Munich, but we suddenly stopped in the middle of the runway. "Um, won't there be another plane come in behind us?" I thought. After a few minutes, the pilot came on and informed us that:

"One of our hydrolic systems has just failed so we will have to wait until someone comes to tow us to the terminal."

Let's ignore the fact that the layover clock was running and just go back to the first part of that - our hydraulic system has failed????? I'm not so familiar with airplane mechanical technology, but that sounds a bit serious. Right, just be glad it didn't happen while we were in the air and count this as another bullet dodged.

The rest of the trip went like this:

Flavorless airport food - 10 Euros
Airport Parking Fee - 6 YTL from the friend who picked me up
Heavy traffic impeding our trip all the way home (of course) - 10 grey hairs

Arriving back and seeing the kids again - priceless