Long Trip

I've had some long trips since moving overseas three years ago, however, this one seemed to justify posting a blog on. In twelve days I needed to cover 17,938 miles across nine time zones in six countries.

So it begins early on a bright Sunday morning weaving my way through Dubai traffic on Sheikh Zyed road passing the rapidly forming metro system and the nearly complete Burj Tower, the worlds tallest building.

The airport is packed as expected with all of the expats trying to make their way home for their summer holidays before the worst of the heat and humidity sets in. Dubai International Airport is beyond its carrying capacity and everyone is anxious for the new airport to be built which will be larger than Chicago O'Hare and London Heathrow combined.

I try to take advantage of the opportuntiy to stretch my legs before the 17 hour flight to Houston gets underway. With a last check of the flight monitors, its time to head to the gate and get settled in. Emirates flies the new Boeing 777-200 Long Range aircraft on this route as its the only commercial jet liner capable covering the 8,176 mile flight without stopping. These aircraft are able to connect virtually any two points on the globe on a single non-stop run.

As luck would have it, the flight is packed and I've been up-graded to first class. The Emirates first class is ridiculous. A total of eight suites comprise first class. Each suite includes a fully flat bed, a mini bar, a 21 inch television screen, and best of all can be sealed off giving the occupant complete privacy. The pictures only do it partial justice.

I know....I look like a gluttonous pig...but I knew all to well that I had Egypt Air awaiting me for one of the final legs of my journey so I knew I had better enjoy this while I could.

So with wheels up at 9 AM in Dubai we were off across two continents and one ocean landing in Houston at 4:30 PM local time (1:30 AM in Dubai).

After a quick overnight stop in Houston / Galveston and a lunch with a customer its back to the airport to make my way up to Kansas City for meetings there. I had never been to Kansas City before, and wasn't quite sure what to expect but it turned out to be a great visit. I would say it has to be one of the cleanest major cities I've been to. Definately a good place to live and the great thing is you are a maximum of four hours from anywhere in the US. I even got to experience a classic heartland summer thunderstorm. After two days of meetings and a dinner at one of the oldest restaurants in the city where apparently you used to be able to pick the chicken you wanted to eat for dinner from those wandering around the backyard, it was time to make a move to the airport. Things went down hill from here....

It turns out that there isn't alot to do at the Kansas City International Airport. After seven hours there I felt I had a good handle on what the airport had to offer. One of the more unpleasant side effects of the classic heartland thunderstorm is the havoc it causes with airplanes. I had intended to fly to New York and make a relatively tight connection for the night flight to Oslo, Norway to meet with my project team there the following morning, however, arriving five hours late into New York there was no plane there and none leaving anytime soon.

So with that, I had to cancel my project team meeting for the following day, find a place to sleep and figure out how to get across the Atlantic in time to meet Vivian in Santorini for the weekend. After working the phones I had both a place to sleep for a few hours and a flight out the next day to Greece with British Airways via London.

Luck was on our side and Vivian and I landed in Athens within five mintues of one another to catch our connecting flight out to the island of Santorini for the weekend (seperate blog).

After parting ways with Vivian at the Athens airport, it was onto Beirut, Lebanon via Cairo, Egypt. I should have known that any contact with Egypt inevtiably meant problems. While the flights managed to adhere to schedule, my sole bag failed to make the connection leaving me alone staring blankly at an empty baggage carousel in Beirut. After struggling through my limited Arabic to convey that I had lost my bag it was off to the hotel to clean up as best I could for a dinner with the local agent.

Beirut is a city that looks like it has had its fair share of rough times. After being bombed heavily by the Israelis in the summer of 2006, the city is just now starting to come back together. Driving around the area the signs of war are clearly evident with numerous buildings half destroyed and vehicles on the road with bullet holes in them. While I was visiting, the country was full of excitement in anticipation of the release of hundreds of prisoners by the Israelis. We concluded our numerous meetings with customers and various authorties and ventured out across the city to our agent's residence listening to the sounds of automatic gunfire from Hamas as they celebrated the homecoming of the prisoners.

So, after twelve days on the road it was time to finally come home, luckily with my bag which apparently made it into Beirut the evening before my departure to Dubai.