I arrived at the terminal for my flight to Chicago, C53. I didn't have any trouble finding it, and I had about 45 minutes until I needed to board the plane. So I decided to call my friend, Elista, to talk to her before my flight took off. I had been talking to her for only about five minutes when I had to put our conversation on hold- the airport employee was making an announcement that the terminal for the Chicago flight had been moved to C55, so I needed to grab my carry-on bags and move to that terminal. Sooner than I realized, I was ending my phone convo and boarding the plane! I had a window seat right by the right wing, so I could see what was going on as we were taking off and landing. I loved seeing the cities of Pittsburgh and Chicago from the air- the cars and buildings look so small! I read one of my magazines, but I kept looking out my window every so often to see if anything was changing. The landing was a little bumpy and we had some turbulence during the flight, but I knew that I had overcome my fear of flying!
I was warned by one of my mom's friends that the Chicago airport is big, but I didn't realize how BIG she really meant. My flight from Pittsburgh put me at terminal C33 and I had to go all the way to terminal M15! This consisted of asking several airport employees how to get to the international terminal. I had to take the tram just like I did in the Pittsburgh airport, but this tram took me outside. I walked probably over 1 mile just to get to the terminal. Then, I had to show my passport and boarding pass again. Going through security again was no big deal- this is something I will need to get used to now that I will be traveling all the time across Europe. Because it was an international flight, I had to check-in again with my passport and boarding pass once I reached terminal M15. Now I had about an hour of waiting ahead of me until I boarded the big SAS Airbus plane that would take me to Copenhagen!
On my first international flight ever, I had an aisle seat. They had a small pillow and a blanket on my seat. I watched the movie He's Just Not That Into You as I ate my first airplane meal- it was chicken with some tomato and mushroom sauce, potatoes, salad, steamed zucchini, and cheesecake. Then, I tried to get some sleep because it was almost 12:30 AM when the movie was over. I had a hard time falling asleep because the woman in front of me decided to keep her reading light on- I need to invest in a sleeping mask for my next flight! I probably only slept about 2 or 3 hours before they woke us up for breakfast, which was half a ham and cheese sandwich, orange juice, yogurt, and coffee. Our landing in Copenhagen was much smoother than my first landing- we were on the ground and I didn't even realize it! In total, the flight was about 14 hours!
I easily went through customs and my passport now has a stamp from Copenhagen! It took me a while to retrieve my bags at the airport and then I forgot to get a luggage cart, so I had to go back to grab one of those. My Danish friend, Maria, had been waiting a little over 40 minutes for me, but I finally exited the airport and found her waiting for me! If there's one thing I learned from my first two airplane rides, it's being flexible and asking for directions! I know that being flexible is needed for any travel situation, but in flying and traveling internationally, it's most important!
More about my experiences in Copenhagen to come in my next post...Ciao!
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