Missing Flights


Peace Corps / Tuesday, August 14th, 2012

You don’t know this, but I should have a bunch of photos of Berlin to post here for your eye-candy enjoyment. I don’t because I’m a dummy. There would have been photos of the Wall and beer and pretzels and possibly me riding a bicycle. Oh the joy to ride something with two wheels again and then share it with the world would have been a wonderful thing to do.

Want to know why I don’t have photos to share? I didn’t lose/forget/break my camera. I don’t have any photos because I never made it to Berlin. I panicked.

That’s right, I panicked. When I buy tickets for uncommon times of the day, I like to have a list of possible trains ready so it’s easy for me to ask for them. At the train station, they pull up all the options on the screen and it’s all very text-based and Ukrainian. I see all the words and numbers and times and days and I panic. I find the first day/time close to what I need and I take it, without thinking. I took the wrong one and ended up missing my flight to Berlin.

Take a gander here: Ukrainian Train Timetable

I ended up buying a ticket on the train number 41. I had a 6:40am flight and it takes about 40 minutes to get to the airport by bus at that time of day. Couple that with the fact that they close check-in 40 minutes before takeoff, and you start to see why I missed my flight. We arrived 20 minutes before takeoff. While I’m still convinced we could have made our flight if the Lufthansa customer service rep had been at her desk, she could have called the gate and expedited our security check, I guess I’ll never know because she showed up ten minutes after the flight was scheduled to take off.

Can you guess which flight I should have taken? Hint, it’s one higher on the list and it begins with a 6 and ends with a 5. It leaves seven minutes earlier and gets in 45 minutes earlier. It would have been perfect.

I guess I’ll know that for the next time I need to get a train from Konotop to Kiev to catch a 6:40am flight to Berlin. Next time will be better.

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