Day One: Seattle -> Toronto

Thursday, September 13

Sleep: c. 5 hours
Day length: c. 18 hours

We got to bed a little after midnight at Judy’s. She’d kindly offered to take us to the airport. We were up at 5, off about 5:30, and to the airport by 6. Unfortunately, our 7:20 plane was delayed for 3+ hours due to a mechanical issue that required them flying in a part from elsewhere. Those of us with connecting flights were told to wait in this long line. Dan actually called the airline from a payphone (neither of us brought our cell phones on this trip) while I waited in line. Found out from the women behind us in line that they’d be automatically rerouted for Vienna but needed to get a ticket here. Dan came back with our reroute. The women then got us into a shorter line, which was very fortunate as the flight was boarding when we got there (we had to get our seat assignment at the gate, and when I rushed up to the woman behind the counter to ask for them, she rather snippily said they’d been paging us for some time!)

Our original flight was to be on United from Seattle to Washington, D.C.. Our reroute was Air Canada, Seattle to Toronto, which nixed a plan I had to finish a letter and mail it between flights. Just as well given the lack of sleep (for days before the trip my sleep cycle shortened as my stress level increased). On the plane, I journalled, watched part of a bad movie called “Away from Her,” and ate a $5 breakfast sandwich (no free food on this flight!). Dan slept.

Once we landed in Toronto, we needed to get our next seat assignments and boarding passes, which sadly meant leaving the secure area of the airport. There seemed to be some odd issue about associating our luggage with our tickets, but we were assured all was well. It was here I first saw the Austrian Air stewardesses who were dressed in solid red, including hose and shoes. With over an hour before the flight, we headed for the gate, stopping for the bathroom, water bottle filling, and a quick meal at Coyote Jack’s. Then we boarded our Austrian Air flight to Vienna.

We’d gotten the aisle seats on the middle section of the 2-4-2 Airbus plane, so we had four seats to ourselves. The plane had perhaps the coolest feature ever, a nose-mounted camera that allowed you to watch the plane take off! Very cool. Once in the air, the camera was pointed downwards so that you could see what was below, at least until you got into the clouds. They turned it off for the video portion of the flight, which included Shrek the Third, Ocean’s 13, and Spiderman 3. Dinner was billed as Thai Curry Chicken, but its resemblance to any of those was questionable. I watched Shrek the Third while I ate (I missed the beginning, though, having been more focused on the approaching food and drink carts). I also got a bottle of Absolut to put in my Coke (they had no rum in their free alcohol selection). Dan got 2 bottles of whiskey and some water. After the movie, I went to sleep for the night (Dan was already dozing).

It was about 3AM in Austria, 6PM back home.