The Flights

So, I flew out of LAX last Friday (June 20), and, though we arrived at the airport in plenty of time, I barely made my flight. Here's how it all went down ;) ...

We left at about 8:00 that morning, which was in plenty of time to make my flight that left at 1:55. Traffic was great the entire way there, so we stopped at In-N-Out for lunch (mmmm...) and got to airport at probably like 11:30. I bought my tickets online and the email I received with all of my flight information said that I was flying on LOT Polist Airlines, so we're driving through the airport, looking for the terminal (there are seven) that I need to go to; we made it to the last terminal (which was for United) where I then got out of the car to ask which terminal I needed to go to. I was told to go back to terminal 3 where all of the international airlines are, so we started the loop all over again. At terminal 2, we stopped again to make sure that the information the last person had told us was still correct, this was confirmed, and we continued on to terminal 3, found parking, and went inside. However, LOT was no where to be found. So, we asked at the information desk and they told me that LOT does not fly out of LAX (I know!!!) and that I would actually be flying United - which, if you remember, was terminal 7 where we first stopped to ask for directions. By this time, it's already like 12:00, so we're rushing. We go back out to the car, drive to the parking garage for terminal 7 and go inside, where there are TONS of people waiting in line to go through security. Being the experienced traveler that I am (as in, not at all), it was pretty overwhelming. I checked in on the computer monitor, checked my bag, got what I thought was my boarding pass, and got in line to go through security. I made it through the first checkpoint where I said goodbye to my family, and got in the next line. At the next checkpoint I was told that the ticket I had received when I checked in was not my boarding pass and that I needed to go back. I had to wait in line to get my boarding passes for a really long time because there was a lady asking stupid questions at the front. I finally got back to the line for security at 1:25, and now I'm really freaking out. I finally got to my gate at 1:53 (no lie) and luckily my flight was delayed (thank God!). Once I got there I was able to relax, and we didn't end up boarding the plane until like 2:15. However, the plane didn't take off until 3:05, so then I was worried about making my connecting flight. When I got to Chicago, it turned out that I had to get on a tram thingie (haha) to get to another terminal which meant that I had to go through security again. I literally walked onto the plane minutes before we took off. The flight from Chicago from Poland was good; I slept about half the time, so the flight didn't seem too long. It took about 2 minutes to go through customs in Poland, so then I had three hours to sit in the airport to wait for my next flight. I was soooo bored; seriously, there is only so much you can do in an airport when you don't speak the language ;) The flight from Poland to Budapest only took about an hour, and when I got there, they didn't even check my passport or anything. I was really amazed at how different security is from country to country. John and Lois (a U.S. missionary couple from Caminul Felix) picked me up at the airport with a group from Delaware who are here for a week, and we made the four hour bus ride to Caminul Felix. Hungary was beautiful (the pic is of Hungary); it was very green and lush and all of the houses were very European and cool. The sun actually does not go down here until 10:00 (crazy!), so I was able to see things for the first couple of hours. We finally got to CF at about 1 in the morning and, of course, went straight to bed! :)