Greetings from Kiev, Ukraine...again. After nearly 36 hours of travel, layovers, and general transportation to the other side of the pond, we are safely in our first lodging in Kiev. We will only be here overnight and the goal for the evening and night is sleep! And shower! 36 hours of travel, being on a plane for 3 different legs, in 4 airports, and across 2 separate continents will give you a greater appreciation for a comfortable bed and hot shower.
For this leg of the journey, we unfortuneately had to add one leg to our airline plans. On our first voyage, we traveled directly from Charlotte to Europe, travelling exclusively on Lufthansa, a German based airline. This time, we had to go from RDU to Philly, then onto Europe. But I am happy to report, things went really well and we met some really good people along the way.
All along I was apprehensive about adding another leg to our travels. With us having to meet such time sensitive deadlines...like a court hearing about the daughter we have been trying to adopt for the past 9 months...my anxiety level was already starting to creap up. And adding it on an American owned airline made the Xanax alot easier to take! We had to change gates for our departure flight from home before we even started. No big deal for us, but the worry throttle was in full swing and we hadn't even left Raleigh.
No worries, we left on time, just from different gate. We arrive in Philly and figure out how to pass the time waiting for our next leg. Thankfully back on Lufthansa.
Enter first great encounter here.
Meet a young woman that works for Lufthansa that offers a nice little perk to LA and I to wait out our time for the flight in the private Star Alliance/Envoy Club. I never thought you could find a clean bathroom in an airport. WRONG! Cleaneast bathrooms in the world!
Enter second great encounter here.
Meet a young man that works for Lufthansa that offers a nice little perk to LA and I as well. We got to sit in business class together on our way from Philly to Frankfurt. Spoiled for sure, but extremely grateful for this random act of kindness.
Enter third great encounter here.
We arrive at the Kiev airport to meet our coordinator and driver. During our debriefing, we find out we are able to see Nastya 3 extra days while we are here this trip that we didn't plan for!!!!
Enter fourth great encounter here.
Arrive at our lodging for the night. Get checked in. Shortly after arriving in our room, I am enjoying a nice glass of iced tea with a sprig of mint in it. For those of you that have travelled to this part of the world, you know that ice is not a staple of the kitchen here. Hot tea is a staple though. But after seeing us tired and weary from the travel upon arrival, someone went out of their way to make us some iced tea and brought it to us to have a little piece of home 10,000 miles from home.
Why do I take up your precious time with all of this? One simple reason. Despite all the bad things in the world and bad people in the world, there are still good people out there that make things better for others, just because they can.
These 4 things are quite simple acts if you think about it. None earth-shattering or life altering. But small things that really made the anxiety of our travels for this unplanned trip go away. Once again, simple things. So, not a big deal you think? Despite the toil that having to wait an extra month and incur some rather hefty additional expenses to make this extra trip, situations these 4 people aren't privy to; we realized that there are good people out there doing good things for others.
I admit that I have had a rather chided outlook on the intentions of some people and can often be rather pessimistic in my expectations from others. But after today, it was made completely clear to me that there are good people in the world. You may not be able to upgrade someone on a flight or upgrade someone into "CLUB" access, but you sure can offer your own generous act for someone else, just for the sake of making that person's day better. These complete strangers today did that for us and made this anxious time for us a little easier to swallow.
No comments:
Post a Comment