Vienna, Austria

Monday, August 04, 2008

Current mood: accomplished
So on the 31st of July I left San Antonio very early in the morning and headed to Atlanta. I was supposed to go to Pensacola, FL and back and then over to Guadalajara, Mexico. I signed in at 12:15. Well weather has been bad in Atlanta lately... We get to Pensacola and got delayed 2 hours. We finally left Pensacola and crossed our fingers that our Mexico trip would be cancelled. In Atlanta we showed the flight was still on... but that it was leaving at 9:00 pm so it was delayed 2 hours. We sit in the lounge and just watch the screens and cross our fingers... no such luck. We get up to the gate for a now 10pm departure and we eventually start boarding at 10:30. We are now at a 10 hour duty day plus 4 hours of flight... so that's 14 hours of duty... we are still ok to fly... we become illegal to fly at 16 hours... They stopped boarding midway and the tower said that the airport in Guadalajara was closed until 4am... so that put the flight going out at 2:45. So then we were definitely illegal. After having to get all the people off board... some people were soo nice about it... cause obviously its not our fault... one lady was just a rude mean woman and screamed in my face about what she was supposed to do about her 80 year old parents... heck if I know! So I called scheduling to figure out what I’m supposed to do. The lady was so rude. She said that if I left the airport without putting myself on availability then I wouldn't get paid for any of my trip. I yelled at her at told her that I didn't plan on leaving to anywhere because I cannot afford to get a hotel on what they pay me and I do not live in Atlanta. I told her I didn’t think it was fair to put myself on availability. She didn’t care. So I go to sleep in the lounge... again. I was mad because I was supposed to get a hotel and now I'm sleeping on a couch. I just really wanted a shower and good sleep since my day started at 5am.

I woke up stiff and mad and irritated. They made an announcement that they were understaffed so that anyone that picked up a trip in open time would get an additional 4 hours of pay. So I figured I’d go take a look and see if there was anything worth picking up before they called me out and placed me on the worst trip. That's when I saw Vienna! I've always wanted to go to Austria... always. So I called scheduling and fought for it... AND I GOT IT! So I had a few hours to kill before I flew out... its a 10 hour flight so I knew I needed food and sleep.

I get to briefing and everyone was much older than me... as expected. The flight leader had more work done on her face than my car has under its hood in a lifetime. Apparently she's been flying to Lima... which is the joke that flight attendants go there to get "work" done. I am always the new girl so I try to be nice and quiet and just listen in briefing. One flight attendant said she was gonna try and work in business class with the F.L. (flight leader) on the way back but wasn't familiar with everything so she might need help. The F.L. said so nicely that she was in good hands because she had taught International Business for 10 years in the training hub. I just tried to make friendly conversation and mentioned how nice that was. She turned her head so sharply at me that I thought her facelift might distort even more. :)
She said, "I did teach for 10 years but I DO NOT teach anymore because EVERYONE should already know their job." Yikes! She already didn't like me for some reason. On the plane she asks me if I know what I'm doing. I told her I'd only done that Business Elite to Europe once but that I’d figure it out. The federal air marshals knew the one flight attendant that I was working with and they said that they had fIown with the F.L. before and that she was a lesbian and the lady working in the back was her "partner". AHA! No wonder she was a miserable soul... I only have inappropriate jokes after this...so I'll stop. Even being that I have friends who are lesbians but they seem to not be as miserable in life as this 60 something year old lesbian.

The flight went well... I just tried to be extra nice to the F.L. and her "partner". We got to Vienna at about 10am and went back to the hotel. I showered and laid down for a nap. I agreed to meet one of the flight attendants in the lobby at 3 to do the city tour on the bus... I overslept in my comfy bed and got a wake up call at 3:30. We did the tour... Here are some of the pics of the bus tour... I don't remember all the names of the places or events... but a lot of this has to do with Mozart.... I do remember that. :)

After the BUS tour we had drinks in the hotel lobby with the partners and some of the other flight attendants... the girl I had done the bus tour with kept talking about going to this city hall where there was restaurant stands and big screens. So I agreed to go with her... little did I know what I was getting into. She acted like she knew where we were going... I swear.
I figured I was in trouble when she asked directions in the subway to some German guy and yelled at me to come over... She said that this guy wanted to sell us his subway tickets which were good until midnight... He only wanted 2 euros for each ticket. I looked at her and told her that it sounded like a scam. Straight faced she looked at the guy and asked him, "is this a scam?" he said no. I swear she looked at me and said, "see? He's not scamming us." So I spent the 2 euros to shut her up. Luckily in Vienna no one ever checks your tickets on subway, buses or trams.

3 hours of circles later and her talking loudly in English to Austrians and asking them where the City Hall was... we made it to what they thought was the city hall.. Stadt Halle.... this is not where we wanted to go... we ended up in the Ghetto... which is still waaay nicer than any ghetto in the US. At this point I am so hungry and so tired. I kid you not 3 hours after torture... she decides at this point to pull out a MAP! A freaking MAP! I said... "you have a MAP!?!", she said... "Well, I'm not very good at reading maps."

I told her to take the U6 back to the U3 and then get on the U2 and we'd be there... She said she wasn't getting back on the subway so she would follow the English speaking Arab at the corner grocery store's advice and take the 49 tram to the N station and walk 2 blocks. I was so angry. The only thing I could do to vent was text my boyfriend in the U.S. to vent it out. Some nice girl that spoke English again helped us to get from the 49 tram to the U2 subway and we finally made it to this place which was the Rathaus... the film festival was going on... that's what she had been talking about this entire time!!! And yes it was worth all the waiting. There was booths from restaurants of any food you could possible want served on real plates with real cups. That would never be in the U.S. we'd break out our paper plates and dixie cups :)

I had so much fun in Vienna... I saw so much... and apparently we won't be flying there after October so I got a real once in a lifetime opportunity for that trip until I transfer back to New York. Anyways... here is the view of the sunrise form my hotel.

I woke up at 7:30 am Vienna time which is 1:30 am Atlanta time... pick up was at 9:55 but I wanted a chance to walk around the hotel a bit more.

The flight was going ok until I swear I spotted a big bottle of alcohol sitting on someone's tray table. I asked the other girl to take a look and see if I saw what I thought I saw... she comes back with a huge half empty bottle of wine that someone had bought from duty free and had been chugging in the first hour of the flight. Obviously we took it away from them and finished drinking it for them... haha just kidding... we threw it out. So then this lady that was sitting next to them came in the back and told us that they were telling her to shut the F up and using profanity loudly. The more manly of the "partners" went over to them and told them that they weren't allowed any more alcohol and if we as much as heard a peep out of them then we'd have authorities waiting for them at the end of the flight or worse. After that they were all about yes ma'am and no ma'am. :)

I got back to Atlanta at 4:30 pm and ran to make the 5:20 flight to San Antonio and barely made it on... I was soo tired. Anyways. I'm "home" happy and safe. :) Until the next adventure. :)

Mexico City

Current mood: distressed

07.09.08
ATL-MEX/MEX-ATL

I show up to briefing always nervous and a little excited to see who my crew is and who i will be hanging out with or avoiding for the next 2 or 3 days. :) By the numbers on the schedule it looked like everyone was pretty young and fresh on this crew... it was indeed true! The flight leader came in all frazzled bedazzled cause it was his first time to be flight leader and it happened to be on an international flight. Poor boy.

All the people are on the flight and all the bins are closed and we are about to close the doors... so we think. This lady comes running up from the back of the plane hysterical... from what i understood from her babble... she said that she had left her little pink bag with her bracelets and cash at McDonalds in the main atrium... the other side of security.... We are at the E concourse... on the plane... she has to go back through D, C, B, A, T, and Baggage claim! I asked her how much money was in there and she said $2,000. I was like... um.. WHAT?! I forgot that the Mexicans come over with tons of cash to buy stuff... ridiculous... I woulda strapped anything over $100 to my boobs... cause I will definitely not be leaving those anywhere! :) So we tell her to get her passport and boarding pass and run like crazy and if she misses this flight she can get on the next one... At this point she has completely lost sanity and has disrupted the entire plane. Then she cannot find her boarding pass or her passport... What the heck?!
Finally she gets everything together and runs...

Luckily for her we were waiting for 4 more passengers with connecting flights and she made it back in time... She found the bag. She found her bracelets. No cash was to be found. Duh. I felt sick to my stomach for her. She asked if there was anything we could do for her... like lost and found... I was like... umm... cash is untraceable... there is no proof it is yours... and no proof that it doesnt belong to that person that has it... unfortunately she made a really dumb mistake... of course i was way more sympathetic to her... but there really was nothing we could do for her. The other flight attendant just gave her a big hug and told her how sorry we were for her.

The rest of the flight was a breeze...

We get to Mexico... every time I go to mexico I can never go out and do anything. But this time we had an 18 hour layover and I was feeling good.. so we (me and my 2 other crew members) went out and explored the city. We had so much fun. We bought trinkets and I translated and bartered for them. It really pisses me off that their prices raise when they see Americans coming... I like to call them out on it. I get that they are making a living but so are we... I dont have any pesos, dollars or euros to spare! We ate a great dinner for 5 bucks and found a great bakery that was soo good and soo cheap very close to our hotel. We saw a parade of a military school and the police were out thick with their machine guns and bullet proof vests... about 5 policia per block. Really crazy. We asked what the parade was for... half the people had no idea... the rest guessed it was for a war memorial but couldnt name the war... excellent... way to go guys. :)

After dinner we went back to the hotel.. most hotels we stay at have a crew lounge where flight attendants can check their emails and hang out... friggin AirFrance was in there partying like rockstars... I felt like an old lady cause i was just irritated by their cigarette smoke in a non-smoking lounge and their stupid french accents and stupid 10 bottles of wine and large amounts of cases of beer and cheap disco music playing. The one guy comes up and says something in French... I just stare at him... do I LOOK like I know what the crap he was saying? um no. So he figures out that I do not speak french... and proceeds to ask me in broken spanish how long i was gonna be on the computer... I had barely been there for 5 minutes but I had enough of the French. I'm so not racist... just tired and irritable. I went to my favorite place at my hotel... my bathtub... I love the bathtub in Mexico...
Sleep... 4 hours later... wake up... yuck.

I woke up extra irritable and just prayed that I would have patience for people today... I barely made it. I made it back without killing anyone or physically injuring them...
My mom always said that if we are having a bad day to sit down, breathe, eat a snickers and drink a pepsi and your day gets better... I talked to Rick and luckily he finds my grumpiness humorous... and I finally found a way to make change and get me a mr. pibb. I crashed for an hr nap on the dreaded couch before our next 2 flights...

when I woke up my day really did get better because my flights were cancelled and I still got paid for them... So now I will sleep at the lounge tonight and have the dr appt tomorrow morning for my spider bite... which is not really getting better... the swelling and fever are gone but the actual bite is considerably larger than before... and we realized that there are actually 2 bites... one big one and one little one which are both bigger... I hope they can give me a shot or something tomorrow... cause its gross. I head back to Mexico city again tomorrow... now I know where to go... but I heard something about Aztec ruins and I would like to go see that for sure!
...until next time!