Home - Day ???

I don't really know how to count this travel day. See, the "day" started on Friday (day 14 of the trip) and I didn't sleep until I got home on Saturday afternoon.

I decided to check our luggage on the return flight because I had purchased some jars of stuff that were larger than 3 ounces. (I think the 3 oz. rule is ridiculously stupid, but whatever.) Because of these jars (of date honey) my luggage was checked twice in Tel-Aviv and more in US (I could tell since they didn't close the suitcase all the way. It's such a hassle to check luggage on an international flight. We had to collect it in Newark (our layover spot) and re-screen it and then re-check it in. Ugh!

The flight from Tel-Aviv was looooong. It felt even longer with a sinus infection and no voice.






The food was OK for dinner and could hardly have been called "food" for breakfast. But we nibbled nonetheless. The picture shows breakfast. I ate the bagel with jam. The yellow mixture is supposed to be eggs, but they looked rather gray when you poke them. So I was afraid of touching it further. And not being a fan of grapefruit, I only ate the little bit of orange that was in the tray.


But I'm finally home. I love traveling, but nothing beats home. After a fitful nap my dad drove me to urgent care where we waited for about an hour to be seen by a doctor. This is when I found out I have a serious sinus infection and the loss of voice is a result of that. I don't think I've ever had one this severe (I never lost my voice before).

T 0 - Traveling Continued

Ok, now that I've taken a few pics of food and the recipe, I can get back to writing about our traveling.
When we got to Newark, we had a few hours for the layover and I grabbed something to eat. Not really sure what I ate, but it had rice and chicken.

I was really surprised by yet another security checkpoint when we got to our gate. See, the gate wasn't open, there was an actual movable wall in front and people weren't allowed into the departure gate area until a certain time. So when they opened the gate for people to go there and wait the flight, there was another checkpoint. Not only was my luggage checked at the home airport (I had a vase in there that looked funny so they had to check what it was), but everyone gets checked at this gate in Newark. They did the wand scan and a light pat-down, as well as opening the suitcases and checked that as well.

The airplane was enormous (Boeing 777). We were sitting near the wing area, so in the middle, and there were 9 seats across. It was 3 seats, isle, 3 seats, isle, 3 seats. The plane was comfortable enough, and they offered I think over 200 movies to choose from for entertainment. Each person had his/her own TV monitor and headphones, so each person could watch something different.
I watched (sorta, with only one earphone in 'cause the other one broke) Four Christmases but then decided to sleep.

Sitting in the middle, we worried who would sit next to us. The woman sitting next to us was very nice and quiet. She was thin so didn't lean into grandma's seat and spoke English well to wish us a good visit and thank us for being good company. Grandma also wishes that we'll have a person as nice on our way back.

We had 2 meals on the flight. A dinner and a breakfast. For dinner, there was an option of a beef lasagna or rice with chicken, then a dinner roll with butter and some cookies.
For breakfast, there was a cold cereal option and hot eggs. I think one of the egg things was a broccoli fritatta and then there was a mushroom (canned) omelet. They also had fruits (7 grapes and about 5 squares of melon, a croissant, a pad of butter and some jam.
I'm still here to write about it, so the food wasn't all that bad. But I can't call it "good" either.

Since we didn't check our luggage, I had to wait for the plane to essentially empty and then we went the wheelchair route, though no actual wheelchair was produced. But we were lead to the right area for passport checks and such and when we exited, we had family waiting for us.

When we were leaving the airport, what struck me was that there was signage in Russian! The radio and TV have plenty of Russian speaking options too.

T 0 - Traveling

So, after grabbing a few hours of sleep, I was close to being ready. But of course, I forgot stuff and realized it when we got to the airport. It wasn't anything serious, just inflatable neck pillows and a nail file. I went to a store at the airport and got 2 new neck pillows (I have 2 at home, waiting to be returned). These though turned out to be a better deal at 2 for $15.

We left Milwaukee for Newark on time (I think we pulled away from the gate on time, but then just sat there for a bit and waited). But we weren't too late for our connecting flight in Newark. I'm so glad I asked for a motorized golf-cart thing to take us from one terminal to the other. If I hadn't, we would have had to walk for probably an hour. Having 2 suitcases, a laptop, a camera backpack case, and another large bag as carry-ons, I was in no mood for that, nor would I have been able to drag all those bags.

* Oooh. Gotta run. My great aunt just told me that her daughter-in-law is making yummy things and I'm gonna go watch. So I'll continue this original post later.