Cities of Light Prague to Paris or the Travel Day from Hell

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We departed the luxury of the club room and headed to gate D-1 and our one hour flight to Chicago. The weather was perfect for the short flight. We had a small jet so we were able to sit next to each other quite comfortably. The plane was generally full to capacity but it was early and folks were not in a travel craze just yet.

We arrived at Chicago O'Hare airport at about 2:30 PM. Due to the time change and the short duration of the flight, we left Detroit and arrived in Chicago at the same time. Isn't time wonderful?

We checked our departure gate and discovered we were to depart from Terminal 5 gate M-29 We were at Terminal 1 gate F-3, essentially on the complete opposite side of the massive O'Hare airport!. We had 35 minutes to board the Austria flight to Vienna. We needed to cross the entire airport in a hurry.

We knew what we had to do, we just didn't know how to do it. We looked around and saw there were no signs directing you to Terminal 5 so we jst started walking. We finally came across a sign but it was confusing as it had directions to Terminal 5 going in both directions. We took the right path, which of course turned out to be the wrong direction. We asked a pilot how to get to Terminal 5 and he pointed out a window and said you have to take the train outside to Terminal 5.

Panic set in because if we went outside, we left the sterile area and would have to go back through TSA at Terminal 5. There was no option, we followed more misleading signs to the train. The train came without delay and whisked us away to Terminal 5.

Terminal 5 was a made house. People, bags, TSA, Cops everyone going in every direction. Cathy spotted a TSA sign and we headed over to find the line to be very short. So we jumped in, got through TSA no issue and found us on the sterile side of the airport with less than 5 minutes to board.

We knew we had to go to Gate M-29 but we were only at M-10. So a quick left turn, two moving sidewalks and several regular sidewalks later we arrived at M-29. They were already boarding so we got in line for Zone 4.

When Zone 4 was called we stepped up and presented our credentials and were promptly denied boarding.It seems we needed to get a stamp frm the desk before we could pass through and on to the plane.

So back into line, we get to the agent and she says your passport is npt valid.What! it was checked several times already and no one had a problem. She explaind that I failed to properly sign the passport and that made it invalid. I asked if I could sign it now and she said yes. So with a borrowed pen I quickly scribbled my John Hancock and back we went to the gate line. This time no problem.

We followed the walk way first right then left, then down steps, then up steps and right and left turns again we caught a glimps of the plane. This was a huge plane a Boeing 777-200. It was fairly new and every seat was booked. We stood in as people inevitably tried to jam bag after bag into the limited ovdrhead space. You are allowed one carry on beside your purse of briefcase, but these folks had sevceral bags beyond that. They also had big bags, so big that it took more than one person to jam it into the ovdrhead and two people to close the door.

We finally get to our seat in row 32.I had the dreaded CENTER seat and Cathy the window. A young man came later to fill the row. It took some 25 minutes to get everyone setteled in but soon the engins revved up and we were off.

Now anyone who is traveling east for a long distance is in fora tough time if you donot plan in advance. the flight left Chicago at 5 PM local time and would arrive in Vienna at 8 AM Monday morning. Adding in the 7 hour time zone changes and your body needs to prepare. Forget about the free movies, don't drink caffine, and do not eat chocolate. You have to sleep as soon as you can to allow your body to acclimate to the new time zone. If you don't get some sleep, you will spend 8 exhausting hours in a cramped plane awake and arrive the next morning completely out of sync with the local time. Jet lag can be vdery difficult to ovdrcome. To help me sleep I take 10 mg of melatonin. It works for me, not for everyione, Cathy included, but it puts me to sleep and I arrive more or less on the local time and do not suffer from exhaustion, Take it from a well seasond traveler it is your best option.

The flight was smooth, as comfortable as can be expected. There were the usual crying children, the loud talking adults, and the aisle walkers jst doing laps in the plane to keep occupied. We arrived in Vienna a few minutes early.

Our next flight was to Prague, but oddly enough we had to once again go outside the sterile zone and back through passport control and TSA. This was nuts. We were screened before each of our three flights. Fortunately TSA in Vienna is vry efficient and we made it quite easily to our puddle jumper flight to Prague.

We spent a full 23 minmutes in the air, finally getting to Prague so our real vacation could begin, or so we thought. We departed the plane and headed to baggage claim. No passpot control or declarations were required; strange we thought, but not our job.

We reached the reclaim carousel and waited a few minutes for our bags. My bag came our rather quickly but Cathy's was nowhere to be seen. We spotted a lonely, rather battered up, blue bag that resembeled her bag. It was held together with packing tape. Cathy just bought this bag a few weeks ago especially for this trip. It was brand new and here it looked like a bomb went off inside.

We claimed the bag and took it to Customer Serivce who inspected the bag and pronounced it damaged. They askd us to fill out some paperwork, gave us a web address and assured us that Austrian air would send a brand new bag to our hotel within 24 to 48 hours. I was skeptical to say the least but what coud we do? The bag was totally destroyed and our limo drivder was waiting outside.

We took the battle worn bag to the limo and headed to the Iron Gate Hotel in Old Town Prague, right int he middle of everything. Perfect right? Well....

We get to the hotel and I walk up to the front desk and give them my name. They search the reservations and announce there is no reservation in my name! What! I dip into my bag and pull out my prepaid confirmation and say, "Au contraire, my dear, here is my reservation confirmation." She checks again and tells me the only Farina on the registry is a Mr. Christopher Joseph Farina ESQ! I was aghast. How could our son Chris's name appear on my reservation? After explaining Christopher was our son and he was not heading to Prague anytime soon, we fixed the reservation and we got our room. Or did we?

We got our reservation but we were told our room would not be ready till 3 PM and it was just noon. So we decided to leave our bags at check-in, grabbed some simple gear, and headed off to see Prague. Enough with the issues! Time to enjoy a little; after all this, we deserved some fun!

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Photos

Iron Gate Hotel
Centrally located in Old Town Prague

Iron Gate Hotel
View from our Balcony