I left Dalton on Tuesday afternoon at 3 and won't be there again until November 19. I can only be away this much due to the kindness of my Pet Nanny, Naida Wilkins. She goes down to the house (down because she lives 4 miles uphill from me) each day to take care of my indoor and outdoor cats She also take me to the airport and picks me up. I don't tell her often enough how important she is to me as friend, neighbor, and Pet Nanny. Shout out to Naida.
As we drove into the city, it began raining, and then raining some more. At times we crawled, for some probably atmospheric reason, the inside of her windshield fogged and all the way she had to wipe it. Just before the airport, it lessened.
Weather was not the only initial hitch. My flight was announced as delayed for half an hour. No problem because I had a two and a half layover at JFK. Then it was an hour. Then an hour and a half. we finally left at 8 or so and got to JFK around 9:30. I got over to my connecting KLM flight which had already started boarding. It was a totally uneventful flight, uncomfortable but uneventful. The seat seemed too small and there was no leg room at all. My knees were against the back of the seat in front of me. I don't remember ever feeling that cramped on a long flight.
I grabbed a cappuccino at Schiphol airport and settled in to wait for the three hour layover to pass. I was starting to droop. The flight to Kiev from Amsterdam was uneventful on Ukraine International airlines. The seat was a bit bigger and there was a lot of legroom. I was on the aisle of a three seat across row. The window seat was taken but the center seat was empty. My seatmate was a man who owns a restaurant in Minneapolis going to Ukraine to spend time with a woman he met online. apparently that's quite an "industry."
In Ukraine, we don't generally have airports with moveable walkways that connect to the plane as we're used to in the States. Instead a stairway is brought to the plane for passengers to embark and disembark. Then a bus transports passengers to the arrival hall and passport control. On my Wednesday flight, the plane was parked about 30 feet from the entrance to the hall but we still had to use the bus which circled the parked planes before winding around to the entrance.
Passport control was very simple and I was welcomed with a smile. My baggage came quickly and I walked out through the Nothing to Declare line. I looked for Jenia and Kate (my Ukrainian family) but they were not there. I walked out of the airport and they were coming across the parking lot with big grins and big hugs for me. They had worked hard to find a good apartment for me, cheaper than the one on my last trip and in a good neighborhood. They are excited about their wedding coming up on September 28. We got to the apartment, by which time I had been awake for 30 hours. It's a great apartment on the 9th floor of a 9 story building (yes, there is an elevator). It's very clean with a well-supplied kitchen. There is also wireless internet. The bed is king size and comfortable and it wasn't long until I was in it. Of course, I did a few emails first. So I am back in my city and it seems that I can breathe easier here and feel healthier here.
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