Home Again

Finally, we are back in Stockholm.  I think I have officially had my longest trip ever.  David got back in line at 4am to try to get us rebooked for the trip from Frankfurt to Stockholm.  At 5:50, he had us flying through security to try to make it to the gate because we were flying standby on the 7:15 flight.   We were all starving but wanted on a plane more than we wanted food.  At the gate we ran into Daniel, David’s coworker that we flew out with on Friday.  They were also standby passengers.  When we checked the list, Ellie was 23rd, Dava 24^th and David was 25^th.   David and I joked that if they made it to 23 we were going to send Ellie and have a very pleasant 9:15 flight. 

Everything was in complete chaos at the gate.  The staff told us that they really had no clue how many people were booked for the flight and if they were in the airport or not.  After the initial boarding, they started paging booked passengers.  Many must not have made it back from their hotels.  The airline was putting passengers in hotels as far as two hours away.  Amazingly, all three of us made that first flight.   We had to be bussed out to our plane since there were planes parked all over the place. David was across the aisle and Ellie and I were one seat apart.  The person we were sitting beside gladly switched with Ellie so we could sit together.  

While we were still waiting for clearance to take off, Ellie wanted to color.  I got her set up but she got frustrated that I wouldn’t color with her.  Having a (quiet) drama moment she flopped back in her seat.  It must have felt really good to lay back because she stuck her thumb in her mouth and two sucks later she was fast asleep.   She woke up after we had landed and her first question was, “Are we ever going to take off?”  Sadly our luggage did not make the plane.  The airport staff said that 6000 pieces of Stockholm luggage were currently in Germany. 

Heading home we took the Flybus.  It picks up right at the airport and has a stop two blocks from our house.  It was so much easier that dragging luggage through T-Centralan and cheaper too.  It was so great to get home and just crash.  What a trip!