Security Threat

So here I am on a plane from Frankfurt to Rome. The past 15 or so hours have been quite interesting and very eventful! Remember when I said I would have lot of stories to tell? Yeah….

            Yesterday, Amy and I checked in at the airport in Atlanta and went through security, which took a little longer than I would have liked (my low level of patience will be definitely tested on this trip), but thankfully, no troubles! We had about an hour or so to spare before boarding started, so like any southern girls, we had to get Chickfila for dinner as our last meal in America. So we made our way over to Chickfila (on concourse/terminal A for those of you that know the Atlanta airport) and went back down to the tram to get over to terminal E (the last one), where our gate was. 

            To the tram pulls up to concourse D and airport staff gets on and instructs everyone to get off because “Concourse E was closed.” That’s it, no further information or instruction except to go to terminal C and wait upstairs.  At this point, Amy and I look at each other with the same thought, “What? Our flight boards in 40 min.” Again, no information as to why the concourse was closed, or whether or not our flight was cancelled, delayed, or moved to another gate. So next on my list: call Dad to see if he heard anything. He calls back 10 min later saying suspicious activity due to an unknown bag with wires sticking out has caused a security threat. Fantastic! Next, I begin to get in touch with another girl on our trip and flight so see where she was. Turns out she was at the gate! Eventually, everything was cleared and we were able to get to the gate about the time the plane was supposed to board. Fortunately, everything on that terminal was delayed about an hour so we still had time.

(What Amy and I saw of the fiasco from the window. Our plane was right next to it.)

            Fortunately? I may have choosen the wrong word there. So our place was delayed an hour. Our layover in Frankfurt was an hour. We were not going to make the connecting flight. Somehow though, we managed after shorter flight than expected and the airline waiting on us in Germany.  The excitement in Germany though was that as we approached the counter to board the connecting flight, we realized that the 10 of us trying to get to Cortona with UGA were no longer on that flight. The travel agent that booked us was keeping track of the fiasco in Atlanta, thought we wouldn’t make the connection, and rebooked our flight from Frankfurt to Rome to a later one. After some chaotic exchange in German between the 2 airline staff at the counter, we were able to get back on that (this) original flight. Now, lets hope our luggage gets there with us.