Serving overseas in the Foreign Service, I have so many wonderful memories. Some better than others. This is one of my favorites.
In 2012 I was serving in Lahore, Pakistan with the State Department. I was planning my next R&R to Italy...flights, hotels in 3 different cities, tours, all that good stuff. I worked with the travel section of the Consulate for my flight arrangements. I had contacted the US Embassy in Rome and got some recommendations for hotels in Venice, Florence and Rome. I made those reservations. About 2 weeks before I was due to leave on this R&R, we found out about a plan to kidnap all 24 Americans serving at the Consluate. We all lived was in homes in neighborhoods and even though we had armed guards 24/7, as a precaution, we were all flown to Dubai until it was clear to return.
As everyone knows, it's quite expensive in Dubai and a taxi ride to dinner was just about all of a daily per diem. After being there a week we were told it would be another week. At this point, I had had enough of Dubai and the high dollar living so I contacted a friend at the Embassy in Muscat, Oman where I had previously served. She said I could come and stay with her until the day I was to leave on R&R. She had been my replacement in the Regional Security Office so I spend a couple of days helping there. I notified the travel section in Lahore about my flight changes and that she should rebook me from Muscat to Dubai and then my connecting flight to Venice. She did and emailed me the new reservations from her travel software. When it arrived, it was so tiny, you could hardly read it. I was able to enlarge the boarding pass to where it was very legible.
The flight out of Muscat was at midnight. A friend took me to dinner and then to the airport. When I landed it Dubai, I was dead tired. At the last minute there was a gate change and all us travelers made it to the new gate with little time to spare. The pilot came on to give his usual mumble-mumble in barely understandable English, followed by the usual prayer in Arabic. I got settled in my seat, plugged in my phone, got my little travel blanket out and promptly fell asleep.
I woke up to more announcements about landing soon. I looked out the window and saw mountains. I thought...mountains in Venice?? Oh well. I gathered my stuff and was so ready to hear the gorgeous Italian language but what I heard was people talking like Arnold Schwarzenegger!!! I walked up to a counter and said, in my most apologetic way "I've been traveling all night. Can you tell me where I am?" She looked at me and said "Vellll, you are in Vienna!" I know she wanted to add "stupid American." Oh crap. Vienna is in Austria, not Italy!! I was texting my boss on my Blackberry when I saw a ticket counter for ViennaAir. I got the last seat to Venice and sat down to wait the 2 hours until it left. I started laughing at just how stupid a story this was and almost spilled the cup of coffee I bought.
I finally made it to Venice. Why did I end up in Vienna, you ask? Well, the poor girl in the travel section back in Lahore mistakenly booked me to Vienna. The pilot was so impossible to understand and I was so tired, I guess I missed him saying we were headed to Vienna. And the airport code on the boarding pass was VIE and I guess my brain figured that was Venice. Who knew it was the code for Vienna and that I would land in the wrong city, let alone the wrong country.
Ahhh....international travel at its most interesting!
