On to Vienna

I slept in Terminal 6 at LAX, lying on three seats in a row. I didn't sleep very much or for very long. I thought of that phrase from The Da Vinci Code, "So dark the con of man," and how I would change it to fit the situation: "So hard the cot of LAX." There weren't many people there in the terminal, but I kept my hand on my stuff when I was sleeping, and often tried to sleep with my eyes half-open.

My flight left at 7. The in-flight movie was Firewall, which I thought was an exciting Harrison Ford vehicle, except for the part about the dog. Why didn't the bank robbers kill the dog if they were willing to kill one of their own fellow thieves?

My flight from New York to Poland was also delayed by an hour. The LOT Polish Airlines people said that it was because of the cleaning crew. I got to chat with some people in a missionary group. They were planning to tour Europe, starting in Russia, with a chorale called Savior. They had an orchestra, a choir, and a dance troupe with them. Later, when I got on the plane, I heard someone hammering downstairs in the plane. Was that the "cleaning crew"? Or were they putting one of the wheels back on? I didn't much like the service on that flight. When they flight attendants came around with drinks, I asked for a 7-Up. On the United flight out of L.A. I got a can of Sprite and a little plastic glass full of ice, but on this plane, they gave me a little plastic cup of warm 7-Up with no ice. I asked for ice. The stewardess put one little ice cube in my glass. I suppose the ice is for first class on Polish Airlines.

In Warsaw I transferred to an Austrian flight to Vienna. It was a small plane, so after we landed in Vienna, the captain said that we could get our luggage just outside the plane. Many people did. I waited there with a guy from Chicago who was on his was to the Czech Republic. The two of us were trying to figure out if we were supposed to get our luggage by the plane, since we had both transferred from other flights. We explained the situation to a lady from Austrian Airlines who was carrying a hand radio. "You are not allowed to get your luggage here!" she said. "Get on the bus!" Man, they're strict in Austria.