Day 20 - May 25, 2014 - Zagreb to SF

Our flight out of Zagreb was not until 2:30, so we were able to walk the city gardens in the morning and enjoy our last hours in Croatia. We left for the airport on schedule. Zagreb's airport is said to be one of the most depressing airports according to Trip Advisor. I'd say that was pretty close to being true. Once through the security gate, there is a small waiting area by the gates, a very overpriced bar, and refrigerators with water and soda. However, they have a note on them that says, "Not in service and do not ask the bartenders to help you." 

Checking in for our flight was odd. The counter clerk was able to check our bags through to SFO, but not us. She just advised us to get our boarding passes to SF at a United counter in Frankfurt and then gave us the standard Croatian shrug when we asked, "Isn't that weird that our bags can go through but we can't?" Going through security was not fun. The Croatian security woman gave me a very thorough body check. She fully got to second base and spent way too much time there and was rounding to 3rd (hands going down inside my pants along my waist), Matt was watching and wanted to know what all that was about. I replied, "I feel dirty. She should buy me dinner and drinks after that." As we boarded the plane, everyone was given new boarding passes. When asked "why," I was told because a different plane was sent. They shuffled everyone, even though the plane turned out to be just another airbus of the exact same size & seating capacity. Matt was seated about 10 rows in front of me.

When we landed in Frankfurt, we had a 90 minute layover. I was looking forward to having some lunch at the little Bratwurst and pretzel stand, but after getting our boarding passes and going through a security check which with some of the most lame questions, we had to immediately get into our group boarding line. They loaded us onto the plane a full hour before take-off. So much for lunch.

The flight was 11 hours from Frankfurt to SF. We would be landing at 7:30pm, so we had to stay awake for the entire flight home so that we had a better chance of going to sleep that night. It was a LONG 11 hours.

We came home to find chocolates and treats from Switzerland from Mom, Mark and Erika and a very nice welcome home note. It had been a good trip and an excellent wedding!