I've started this post about four times. It's so difficult to start writing about such an awesome adventure. But before we can get to the "good stuff" we have to start somewhere...
We left home on a Saturday in mid-May. It was the weekend of the Ninth Avenue Food Fair so our neighborhood was busy. We usually visit the fair since it's in our backyard, so we grabbed a quick lunch there before finishing our packing and heading out to Newark Airport. We were so happy to finally be on vacation. It had been a tough few weeks (months, really) at work, and we hadn't taken a vacation day in about eight months, so we were SO READY to get out of town.
We were running late. It was my fault since I got stuck doing last minute things for work (shocking). We jumped on the subway to Penn Station to catch a NJ Transit train to Newark Airport, which is the quickest way to get there from where we are. It's not worth taking a cab or car service to the airport in weekend afternoon traffic and taking the risk that you won't make your flight because you're stuck in the tunnel. Although we usually aim to get to the airport 3 hours in advance for international flights (since we can't check in online), if we made all of the connections, we were looking at only 2 hours before our flight. We hoped it would all go smoothly.
Once we were on the train, we settled in for the short ride. We were relieved that we made the train and now just hoped the lines at the airport wouldn't be too long.
No luck. Even though the trip to the airport had gone relatively well (made the train we hoped to make at Penn Station, didn't have to wait too long for an AirTrain, etc), the line to check in was long. My history with Continental at Terminal C was mostly negative (short version: flight 7 years ago cancelled due to weather, I was rebooked with a confirmed seat assignment, they had no record of it because they bumped me involuntarily, refused to look at any of my confirmations or paperwork and I never made it on my trip to see A for the weekend during our LDR summer) and I was anxious that we wouldn't make our flight.
This time, Continental came through. One of their reps was at the end of the line asking everyone for their destinations. As soon as we said "Geneva" she directed us to the mostly empty line to the side. We were in the middle of a group of latecomers, and we all looked relieved to get through check-in quickly.
Security lines were decent but going through security itself was a bit chaotic and disorganized. We both almost lost our passports in the middle of the whole mess. The panic that sets in when you realize you are about to go to your gate for an international flight with no passport is really not welcome when traveling is stressful enough. In my case, some combination of my passport, boarding pass and passport case was setting off the alarm so the TSA people took it from me and put it through the scanner separately. Not only separate from our bags but in the middle of other people's stuff much later on the conveyor belt. After I finished packing up, I realized I didn't have it and started frantically searching for it. It would have been really easy for someone to steal it - either before it went through the scanner or afterwards when it was in the middle of other people's stuff. They searched A's bag when he was putting his stuff away, so he didn't have time to put his passport away and it ended up on the floor. What a mess. Now having gone through Athens airport security, we know there is a better and quicker way to search everyone. Why can't we do that?
After going through the security debacle, we wanted to relax. We saw this sign at Starbucks and made a pit stop on the way to the gate.
The passionfruit iced tea lemonade looked good, so we relaxed at (the wifi-less) Starbucks for a little bit before heading off to our gate. It was a nice break and we were so excited, relieved and happy to finally be past security and one step closer to Europe!
Next: we have a snack from Smashburger in case the airplane food sucks.
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