18 May 2016 - The epically long journey

Hi All,

I'm just checking in at the Park Hotel in Belgrade. So far it is really nice, the room is small but cozy. The hot shower works wonderfully and I am refreshened after our 14+ hour journey from San Diego, CA for me, and Enterprise, AL for Bishop Jerry. My day really started at 0230 when I awoke and got ready and left the house at around 0307. We arrived at KSAN around 0403 and I was checked in and past security and at the gate by 0430. So I ended up getting a White Mocha from Peet's Coffee to start off my day.

My first flight Delta 978 departed around 0615 for Salt Lake City. It was a hardly full flight, which was very nice, because I had an empty middle seat between my seat mate and I. It was a pretty uneventful flight and we got into Salt Lake around 0900. I was off the airplane by 0925, and had just enough time to use the restroom and then head over to the gate for my flight to Detroit, which boarded at around 0950. We departed around 1005 for Detroit and this time it was a completely full flight! Every seat on the airplane was pretty much taken.

This was a bit of a longer trek compared to the San Diego to Salt Lake flight, but I passed the time by surfing the internet on Delta's wi-fi and listening to music and eating snacks and drinking complementary soft drinks. Eventually, we arrived at Detroit at around 1525. I got off the plane and set off to look for Bishop Jerry. I found him at Gate A28 and it was a pleasure to meet up with him. We were soon talking the rest of the time before our flight to Paris away. Eventually, We boarded the flight to Paris at 1730, which would be my first flight on a Airbus A330. We were seated in the Comfort Plus row which was really comfortable and we had a very lovely meal of a vegetarian pasta, with a salad, and a small dessert for our dinner. I then got some shut eye and Bishop Jerry watched a movie. I slept about a couple of hours on this leg, and between the other legs, another couple of hours. This was a very pleasant flight!

We got into Charles DeGaulle Airport at around 0725 the morning of Wednesday May 18. Except, CDG airport is a very large and sprawled out airport, which meant it took time for us to taxi to our gate. Then we had to get out and find out where our flight to Belgrade was at. We found it was in Terminal 1D, which necessitated we go through a transfer security, which was quick and efficient, then take a shuttle bus that seemed to take us all the way around the airport until we got to Terminal 1D. Once inside, we found very nice and clean facilities, a wonderful little coffee shop where we had coffee whilst waiting for the check in agents, so we could get our boarding passes for our Air Serbia Flight 311 to Belgrade.

We passed the time away drinking our coffees and chatting, but soon we saw the ticket agents walk up and we went over and after waiting in a line, we got our boarding passes. This was a strange boarding, as we did not hear them call the boarding, but just saw passengers being allowed to board, so we quickly got in line and joined the boarding que. We were seated in seats 4C, and 4 D, which were aisle seats just across from each other. The AirSerbia crew was very polite, attractive and all very nice.

It took a while to get ready, but once we did, I was excited about the trip onto Belgrade. Once in the air, we had a meal which for us consisted of, fresh fruit, Serbian cheese, beef ham and smoked chicken filet, served with fusilli pasta salad, which was epically delicious. Then we had a unique Serbian treat of a Sesame bar, which had a rich chocolatey taste to it!

It was a 2.5 hour flight to Belgrade and both Bishop Jerry and I were extremely pleased to be on the ground at our final destination. We then got off the plane and headed to passport control which had a bit of a line when we got there, but then it grew. Luckily, for both Bishop Jerry and myself, it was pretty quick and painless. We then headed to the baggage claim and claimed our luggage, which was relatively quick to appear. The next stop was the customs stop, which went smoothly and then we were out of the area and in the meeting area. Igor met us there and helped us take the luggage to the car. We then started our drive towards the Park Hotel. The airport is about 20 km from downtown Belgrade, so we got a beautiful view of the Serbian countryside and cool views of the city coming in.

We got to the hotel and are checked in. I just took a shower and got everything all settled in, power wise. The wi-fi works, but is slow, so it may be tricky to post photos. But this has been such an epic trip so far. I look forward to posting more about it. I think we have a couple of hours to ourselves, then we are not sure what the plan is. Just turned on Bob, so you should be able to see our location now.

Over and out,

The Posh Kandaroog