I realize that it has been almost 2 weeks
since I shared my flashback to my Poland trip! Check out my #TunaBoat blog to
find out what is current, but for those who love travel and history, this
experience flashback is for you!
July 8 - Landed
We arrived in Chicago - I
slept some on the plane, my friend read. We asked the lady behind the desk if
they can change our flight and she told us we would have to go to customer
service, so we waited in line for a while, so my friend went to get our bags as
I waited in line to no avail, I might add. Apparently they could only help
people with flight issues scheduled that day ((might I add this may have been
an issue that arose for our return flight home and I was trying to fix in
advance)). So we met back up in baggage claim and walked into our absolutely
gorgeous hotel! We ordered room service before we learned that other people
from our trip also checked in (otherwise we probably would have met up with
them!) I ordered a delicious steak with roasted potatoes and brocolini and a
raspberry coulis chocolate fudge cake. My friend ordered a margherrita pizza
and a cheesecake. We laughed and talked lots before turning into bed. I am
lucky that I fall asleep easily. My friend is used to a softer bed and had a
lot of trouble sleeping... my snoring/humming didn't seem to bother her too
much, although she said at one point she tested to see, if she moved around
more my humming calmed down and gets quieter. (I do this weird thing when I
sleep that sounds like the baby Pegasus from Disney's Hercules).
July 9th - 8am
- my friend has already been awake for a while. I woke up and we both got ready
and are going to go down stairs and meet up with some people from the trip for
breakfast... so exciting!
6pm - Well, we didn't meet anyone for breakfast. They
started around 10:00am when we were finishing. We went back to the room and
were going to wait, but decided to head to terminal 5 (our meet up gate for the
group). We were early. VERY. There wasn't a lot of seating but we found a place
after about an hour we went to a few seats nearby after over hearing people
next to us talking about the trip. We met a couple from Billings, and a lady
from Washington state. After waiting a few more hours, the Terra Heute group arrived
by bus. We were given our lanyards and quickly lined up in the queue to get
ready to have our luggage checked. It was easy experience through security. I
was really impressed! Once through I wanted to wait for this girl Megan and her
mom. International area had little to offer. There were about six different
places to eat, one was a burger place that looked AMAZING, but the line was
fairly long. There was another place that looked like they offered some sort of
gourmet pizza (I don't know - in the photo there was a fried egg on top and I
was thinking it was fun to try - but we didn't.) We found a small shop where
they served coffee, so we decided to stop. My friend got a tea and a peanut
butter and jelly. I got myself a small iced latte and a ham and Swiss. We walked
to a small exchange place and I gave the $36.00 for 120-140 zloty. The lady was
super nice enough to even waive the exchange fee! When we finished walking
around a bit we made our way to the gate where we would depart. After about 20
minutes, the flight to Shanghai left and we were able to sit right next to the
Holocaust survivor leading the trip, Eva Mozes Kor. There we met a couple more
people, including Addy. Addy made it on a trip before. Another woman has been
on the trip 3 times! She went on the January 70th commemorative trip. When
she brought it up Eva said she was very brave to do so. They said it was also
super cold. It sounded awful. They said there were so many dignitary and
political persons there security was really high. The worse part was that there
were heated tents where all the important people gave their speeches, while the
survivors sat out in the cold! Then afterwards they wanted Eva to do a speech
but that there was some young person that said he was going to talk first. Eva
was tired and cold and basically told them off, took the mic off and told her
son that they were done and leaving. When she returned to Terra Heute she wrote
a letter saying they won't be doing another commemoration. She said it should
be for the survivors but now it is a big hoopla. She will just do her own
tours. We sat and talked for a long while. We also got our return flight home
changed where we don't leave until 7 am and have an hour and a half layover in
Denver. Our flight began to board the back first (so smart!). We sat in row 18.
There was a kid from Alaska next to me. The trip was his dad's idea but things
happened and his dad was unable to come, so his dad said it was either him by
himself or no one. So he is here. I am sure his dad is really excited for him.
We just ate our first meal... and I already feel the drowsiness kicking in....
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