Fa-La-La-La-La, La-La-La-Laaaa…
The retelling of this trip is going to be an ongoing project; there is so much to tell and so many pictures to show that I am really going to have to pace myself. Since my first somewhat stressful experience was the fact that the whole trip was almost cancelled before it even began, I thought I would begin there.
Saint John Fog
Any Saint Johners reading this blog will be extremely familiar with the picture shown above. Yes, it’s good old Saint John fog. And because that good old Saint John fog almost ended my trip before it started and wreaked havoc with my arrival home afterward, I thought it deserved a nice picture and story here on the blog.
It’s Monday morning, June 30th. I have been packing frantically, hoping beyond hope I haven’t forgotten anything crucial. I have a case of the nerves and I’m not sure why, I’ve travelled before, maybe I forgot to pack something for Kennedy, maybe I’m worried about being away from my family for a week, maybe I’m uneasy because I’m usually super organized and we didn’t get our final itinerary before leaving – I do not know where I am sleeping tonight…who knows? There could be any number of reasons for these nerves. I feel a little silly.
It’s an 11:30am flight, which is really nice. Usually to get to Toronto or Montreal from Saint John, you’re leaving at 6am. I arrived well-rested and with some time to spare, as Graeme had to be getting down to work in Pennfield. After checking in, getting rid of my checked bags and doing the obligatory bathroom break, I began reading Faye Schulman’s book, “A Partisan’s Memoir: Woman of the Holocaust.” Reading about her early life in Poland, the Jewish life that was there before the war, her friends, family, and the rituals they engaged in has somehow calmed me down. It has reminded me of one of the purposes for the trip, to learn about the way of life, such as that of Faye Schulman’s, and how it was taken from them to help me appreciate what they lost. I know the feel of this book will change when she will describe her next phase of life as a Partisan who helped fight against the Nazis, but the early chapters about life & family have had a soothing effect on me as I no longer feel the nerves I’d had as the morning began. I guess I chose the right book to bring along with me.
And then…
Just as the calm was setting in, I’d gone past security and settled into the glass wall-encased room to await my boarding call, the following announcement comes over the loud speaker: “For those of you traveling on flight 8947 to Toronto, your flight has been cancelled, please report back to the ticket counter.” So much for calm. My heart jumped right up into my throat, I thought to myself, “If I don’t get to Toronto, I’m not going on this trip – I won’t be able to fly to Warsaw on my own and find them!” I waited in the long line-up thinking about the fact that the trip was going to be over before it began. I knew it was foggy out, but didn’t realize it was that foggy! That was one of the longest line-ups I’d ever waited in.
It was decided that they would bus us to Moncton, for a later flight to Toronto. Instead of now arriving at 12:45pm and going to the orientation with the rest of the March of the Living group, I would be arriving at 5pm, with enough time to grab my bags and rush over to the Polish LOT airlines area to meet up with them and check in for the 6:30pm flight to Poland. It would be a stress and there would likely be some running involved, but at least I would make it! I called Graeme from a pay phone and had him call Michael, who was the director of the program, to tell him about the mix-up and Michael assured him they would have someone waiting at he baggage carousel when I flew in to meet me.
Arriving in Toronto, I met up with the group, who had already all had the opportunity to get to know each other over the course of the afternoon and discovered the next bit of travel news: our flight to Poland was delayed…FOR EIGHT HOURS!!! Yep, we were now not leaving until 2:30am so we had the evening in Toronto to do whatever we wished. Because Holly had never been to the CN Tower, we took a shuttle bus into town and did the tower, it was actually nice to have a breather before jumping directly from one plane to another. We all met up again at midnight and took off at 2:30am for the long, eight-hour flight to Poland. I didn’t manage to get much sleep on the flight as there was a large group of pre-teens sitting just next to me who decided they wanted to party all night, which was disappointing, but what can you do?
So, here we are, pretty darn tired, sitting on the floor of the Warsaw airport, waiting for the other group to arrive (some of the members of our group had to fly out of Newark, NJ – they were also delayed!). We arrived the next afternoon, Polish time. We were pooped after having been awake for about 24 hours but hey, WE MADE IT!!! (little did we know, it’d be 5:30am the NEXT MORNING before we made it to our first hotel stop, but that’ll have to be the next post)
Lisa & Holly, sitting on the floor of the Warsaw airport
