Half Way Home!

We're currently sitting at the airport in Seoul, Korea, and will be here for the next several hours. It's 11:38 a.m. on Saturday the 24th here, but 9:30 pm Friday the 23rd at home. We'll fly out tonight at 6:30 local time, stop in Chicago, then arrive home in Minneapolis at 9:45 tonight!!! Our What will be nearly 24 hours of travel time will be less than 3 hours on the clock. LOL By the time I get home, I will have been flying or sitting in airports for 48 hours.

So, what would you like to hear about today? Would you like to hear how, when we got to the airport in Sofia, the boards were listing all kinds of flights cancelled? All of them in the Germany and London areas. We're SO GLAD we chose to go East instead!

Maybe you would like to hear about how we sat on the runway in Sofia for 45 minutes?

How about Moscow? I pray I *never* have to fly through Moscow again! Ok, so we get off the plane and have to catch a connecting flight, but we have a couple hours so we're all good. We're told to go to the "transfer station" right as we get get off the jetway. We stand in line as passports and tickets are checked because we need new boarding passes. After standing in line for 20 minutes we're next up when Kullen announces he has to go to the bathroom, and it's obvious NOW would be when he needs to go. Shelley disappears with him and I hand my documents over. "Please wait over there for the next agent." indicating a place along the wall. Just as Shelley comes back, we're told to go see the woman in the white blouse, but as we moved to her counter another zillion people came from a flight that has just arrived.

Have I mentioned that the people of Korea have NO CONCEPT of what "get in line" means? I've seen this problem played out several times today! After another 15 minutes in line we finally got new boarding passes, but they have not gate listed. She told us to go through "this door", and ask at the NEXT "transfer station."

We ventured through this maze of panels and doors to find ourselves at a security checkpoint. Are you serious? We just got off a plane, and have been nowhere but that counter they told us to stand at twice (which was almost part of the jetway.) and here. The woman told me to put my shoes in the blue tub, and then said something else in her strong Russian accent.

Me: "Can you say that again?"

Agent: "yes"

me: "Yes what? I can you say it again. I don't know what you said."

Agent: Yes, fine.

me: Nothing is fine if I don't know what you're saying.

Agent: Yes. That is fine.

By the time we got through that checkpoint, I was ready to pull what little hair I have left right out of my head!

Next came lunch. Or maybe it was dinner? I don't know, my internal clock is so messed up. So ordered 2 hamburgers.

We asked if they come with fries, and the waitress asked, "Fries? You want fries?"

Shelley: Yes, 2 hamburgers, 3 orders of fries. (pointing to each of us.)

We waited patiently for our food ...brb

Sorry, I had to take a quick intermission to address the Jehovah's Witness who just offered me a free subscription to "The Watchtower". HA! I'm a little bit chocked that this just happened in the airport of Seoul, Korea! I know I shouldn't be, but it caught me off guard!

Anyway, we waited for our food, but only the two burgers came, with fries on the plate. We were almost done eating and asked where Kullen's fries were. She came back with three HUGE orders of fries. LOL All we could do was laugh. That was, until the bill came! $60 US Dollars for this meal! And, I didn't even EAT the burger because it had mystery chunks in it! I will NEVER plan to stay in Russia for ANYTHING!

The next flight was on Korea Air. WOW!!! Let me tell you, this is the best airline I have ever flown with! First of all, the plane was immaculate and appeared to be brand new. It was a Boeing 777, and I think they are the newest airbus. The seats were leather. The first class seats had some kind of sleeper platform thingy, and there in the regular seats there was far more leg room than any other airline, and there were touch screen TV's. The food was a bit too ethnic for me, but that's just me. The flight crew was amazing, and really bent over backward for everyone.

Here's the best part of this airline. When we arrived here in Seoul, we had to go through customs and all that stuff so we can check in with brand new tickets under a different airline. We wandered around, visited restrooms and all that jazz, and had been here about 90 minutes when we found a place to park ourselves for our long wait. Kullen LOVES my Itouch, (I've put LOTS of apps on it for him over the last 2 weeks, though is favorite thing to do is listen to Christmas music on it! LOL) so we decided to let him mess with that while we blog. That's when I realized I'd left my Itouch on the plane!!!! It had gotten stuck in the pocket in front of my seat, and I had forgotten to clean that out when we got off the plane. NO!!!!

I looked at the clock. Oh man, they turn flights around so fast. I ran to an information desk to ask where I could find a lost and found. I explained the problem, gave her the flight information (including my seat number) and she got on the phone. Several phone calls later she said the plane was still here, and they were going to look for it. Come back in a few minutes.

When I went back she said an agent was on her way down with my Itouch! Apparently the plane had been moved to the hangar, and a cleaning person checked the pocket and found it right where I said it would be, and they ran it all the way across the airport, and to me at the information desk. See what I mean about this airline? They're great!

Ok, we're going to attempt to check in for our next flight so we can get rid of all these bags! Next post should be from Chicago!!!!!