Oktoberfest: Day 1

Oktoberfest: Day 1

9/21/2024

Denver - Chicago - Somewhere over the Atlantic

Beers Drank: 2 plus a mimosa for me and two White Russians for Jake

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The alarm went off at 1:30am and we only pressed snooze once. What, only once?! Oktoberfest was calling. Leinie was already tucked in with Uncle Adam and we had been up till close to 11 last night with last minute travel preparations. Despite a literal few hours of sleep, we were still on the road to DIA around 2:15am, which was 15 minutes ahead of schedule. 

Pick your jaws up off the floor.

We made it to the park-n-ride with plenty of time to wait and listen to Jake’s soapbox on train tickets and the lack of people purchasing them. Spoiler, we paid for tickets. We may toe the line at times, but at heart we are rule followers. Unchecked tickets in hand, we departed the train at the airport and proceeded to check in. 

Check in was rough. When I say rough, I mean rough. I sat through a 2+ hour holiday check-in at LAX and that was less stressful than this. There was only a handful of people and several employees at the counter. Can you go directly to the counter, nope. First you have to use the kiosk, but it didn’t work and told us to talk to an employee. Okay. So we then get an employee who uses the kiosk no differently than we had but apparently has special fingerprints(?). With luggage stickers in hand we now go to the counter but there are only three and no actual discernible lines. Just a cluster of people, so we pick what seems to be the most line-like cluster and wait, and wait, and then the counter employee walks away. What?! So we pick a new cluster-line-group. Some more waiting and some under-handed comments from a traveler to our right about how we were standing, or waiting or something that we apparently weren’t doing correctly. Finally after an eternity, but likely closer to 45 minutes, we had our luggage checked, passports evaluated and boarding passes in hand.

Up next was security. Pauper security since Turkish Airlines didn’t apply our TSA precheck to our boarding passes. I had to take my shoes off like common folk. 

At least it moved, which is really impressive for DIA. If you’ve experienced security at DIA, you know what I’m talking about.

We made it with roughly an hour to wait prior to boarding so we found a quiet chair to relax and utilize some hit die. Jake social scrolled and I started book one of the trip (Tender is the Flesh). 

The flight to Chicago wasn’t bad. Jake had a window seat and I had the middle. Jake was amped up and continued to drink coffee. I snoozed for a bit, but mostly read and had book one finished prior to landing. Once off the plane we looked at the departures board for our next gate. Hmm, different terminal, guess we need to walk a bit. 

Well, turns out that the international terminal requires you to exit the domestic terminal, take a shuttle to the other side of the airport and re-enter security. At O’Hare, one of the largest airports in the US of A. So we power-walked ran to the shuttle as we had just under an hour to make the next plane. Thankfully, with my list-making super power, I was able to pack all our clothes into our carry-on suitcase and pack that into our checked suitcase for the trip out to Europe. That left just basic necessities and travel entertainment in rather light backpacks for the both of us. I couldn’t imagine trying to hustle around with a suitcase in tow. We were sweating by the time we boarded the shuttle and worried about how long security would take at the new terminal. Thankfully, despite peasant security again, we were through relatively quickly and the plane had only started boarding when we arrived at the gate. 

With such a large plane, and so many people needing to board we had time for a morning, pre-flight cocktail. Morning libations completed, we waited in line and surprisingly I received a phone call from the gate desk asking us to present our passports. So up we go to the boarding gate, hand over our passports for inspection and receive super fancy, official looking boarding passes. We got back in the now very short boarding line and the excitement was building. We were officially on our way to Europe!

Europe or Bust!

At our seats (Jake again had the window and I was stuck in the middle) we found TA’s customary and complimentary care packages. It included a pillow, blanket, eyemask, earplugs, slippers, socks, toothbrush & paste. We immediately put on the slippers and turned to the tv screens we had. Mine turned out to be broken, for a 10+ hour flight, ugh! Sleeping, reading or cellphone Netlfix for me. Book number two, you’re up (7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle). 

Two hours into the flight around what would be 10am Denver time, they served “dinner”. Jake chose the pasta option and I went with the salmon. Now I am not all that familiar with plane meals since we usually take budget options, but this food was very good. They also served unlimited, complimentary beverages, including beer. We each enjoyed two. 

After dinner, the cabin lights dimmed and everyone settled down for “bed”.

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