Today's Travels - Day One on a Trip Across Europe: Grounded.

The Survivor Tree at Ground Zero – a highlight for me. I might have cried a bit…

As with many stories, ours starts out swimmingly. Made it to the Pittsburgh airport with plenty of time to spare. Breezed through security and to the gate with time enough to browse every magazine stand and hit every Starbucks on the way. Like pros.
Delayed. Wait, what? We had another plane to catch at JFK at 8:45 PM and we should have had 3.5 hours to spare. Ok. No biggie. Minor setback. We will still make it with time to spare.
Just kidding. The small, hour delay turned into a five hour delay.
FIVE.
What do you do when stuck in an airport for five hours? Hijack one of those handy airport golf carts!

We didn't even leave Pittsburgh until after 8:30PM. During this time I'm pretty sure I developed an ulcer. You see, in my vacation-planning virginity I had accidentally booked our Iceland Air flights through Justfly.com instead of the airline itself.
They suck.
Word to the wise-ALWAYS book fights directly through the airline. Because I had booked through a third party there was nothing I or Iceland Air could do about missing our flight….and Justfly wouldn't do anything. The worst.
It wasn't until we finally made it onto our flight headed to JFK that the stewardess (God bless her!) asked me if we had travel insurance. I felt the relief wash over me in glorious rhapsody as tears filled my eyes. YES! I did have travel insurance! Dang. How could I have forgotten that? I looked up our policy and, thank God, we were covered. A big deal considering IF they had tickets for the flight the next day they were $1,000 each. Ouch.
We arrived at JFK, got our luggage and made our way to the Delta help desk where we were informed they did not have any control over our delay and it was tough crap (not an exact quote) about missing our international flight. Awesome.
On to the Iceland Air desk where an angel clothed in white complete with halo and luminescent Jesus rays from heaven appeared. She rolled her eyes and bitterly turned her computer BACK on. She had already shut down for the night and didn't seem too happy about rebooting.
She took one look at our tickets and said “You know these are use it or lose it tickets, right?” To which I mustered the biggest puppy dog eyes and sadly nodded my head yes. Hot dang, it worked! She muttered, “Let me see what I can do.” And, don't ya know, she booked us on the last four seats for the flight the next evening!
Problem: she informed us that if someone from Iceland Air central caught what she did they would remove us from the flight and we would have to purchase new tickets. “Be sure you are here at 5PM when we open tomorrow so we can check you in ASAP. Then no one can change what we did. You know, I really shouldn't have done that for you guys.” And you thought I was joking about the angel part. This woman should have gotten some sort of award! I wanted to kiss her. I didn't, but I did hug her and cry a little.
Well, the ulcer might have shrunk a little, but the night wasn't over! On to finding somewhere to sleep! We were in NYC- how hard can it be?
Enter: Beyoncé.
In town for a concert. Of course. So literally every room in every hotel within reasonable distance from the airport was booked. Every. Frieking. Room. It's almost midnight, we haven't eaten since like 2PM and we can't get a room! Even the nice guy I paid $10 to at the help desk at the airport couldn't find us a room. Seriously.
After about 20 minutes he found us a $230 room in Manhattan. Whatever. I didn't care where the room was or how much it cost anymore; book it!
It was only after the room was paid for and the taxi hailed that it sunk in that everything I ever wanted to see in NYC was in Manhattan. The Statue of Liberty. Ground Zero. Empire State Building- all in Manhattan! I was a little too hangry to jump out of my shoes or anything, but I knew I would be totally stoked in the morning.

Then we almost died. Like 125 times.
Cab drivers must be at least a tad masochistic. That's it- masochistic adrenaline junkies. The 40 minute ride to the hotel a little after midnight is a frightening acid trip of a memory.
Hayden slept through most of it. I don't even have the mental capacity to understand how- unless she passed out from fright.
Barring emotional states, we arrived at our hotel in one piece and promptly asked the much too awake man behind the desk where we can get a pizza.
1AM. Best pizza on the planet in our faces. I don't think I've ever eaten so much pizza. We made complete piggies of ourselves-all but Hayden, who was still passed out from fright.

Recognize this post? I did post it before, but under a different heading. I am re-posting it because it is the beginning of a 30 day journey across six countries. Be on the lookout for Day Two!