Worse Things Could Happen

While it seemed like hell yesterday, worse things could happen than being stuck in Munich. The fog at the Belgrade airport was so bad that after the 7 hour flight to Germany, the 3 hour layover and the actual full flight to Belgrade, Air Traffic Control refused to let our plane land and sent us to BUDAPEST. Or as my friend Milligan calls it (she lived there for five years) BUDAPESHT. So we sat on the runway for an hour before the decision was made to send us BACK TO MUNICH. Which we did. Upon arrival, 200 angry Europeans stormed the Luftansa Customer Service desk to grab the only option we were offered: sit in the airport for 6 more hours, take a flight to CROATIA, then take a three hour bus trip to Belgrade. Which would have meant that we would have been traveling for nearly THIRTY HOURS without sleep, I might add (I lost the Ambien that Jen gave me, don't ask). For a few minutes, we were left huddling in a corner while I bitched and moaned and refused to stand on the line and refused to wait six hours and then take a BUS in Croatia. Then my inner New Yorker kicked in and I got us to a little known Luftansa help area (don't ask) and told them, with all due respect, I couldn't make make this prescribed trip with all of the other stronger, more capable Europeans. Being near tears probably helped (but no, I didn't cry). So the only nice Luftansa person we met actually gave us a hotel room in Munich, dinner and breakfast vouchers, a taxi voucher and a smile. She also booked us on the morning flight to Croatia, where the nice Publikum people are coming to pick us up in a car, for a three hour guided sojourn to Belgrade. The Belgrade airport is still officially closed, though the weather is fine in the city. Go figure. Dinner was lovely--there is nothing, *nothing* like German potato salad in GERMANY and the coffiee is the best I have ever tasted. EVER. So after the longest journey I have ever taken goes into its third day, I do have to sheepishly say that, indeed, worse things can happen.