2026 has been a rough year. Work has been stressing me out because business is just not great for reasons that are mostly out of my control. I’m not gonna to get into why that is, but to say I need a vacation is the understatement of the century.
I turned 50 last year, and since I had become a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021, I have thought about going to see it. It just so happens that it is always around my birthday, and last year, the Grand Finals were actually ON my birthday. Since Switzerland won and they chose a pretty small city to have it in, it just wasn’t financially feasible to do it, and I ended up having a fabulous birthday in New Orleans with a bunch of friends from across the country. That is a story for another time.
One of my Chicago friends, Jerrad, who is actually the one who first turned me on to Eurovision, was moving to Berlin for work, and he was coordinating a trip this year since he was already going to be on the continent. Another reason last year didn’t work out, is that a work conference I need to be at was that week, too, but this year, they were having it in June, which made me taking some time a possibility.
I started planning the trip in December/January, and my struggle was figuring out how I was going to get to Vienna. American Airlines, my airline of choice, doesn’t have a ton of direct flights to Europe, at least from Chicago (I looked at flying out of other cities, too). I could take British Airways, but then I would have to fly into London, which wasn’t terrible, but it’s pretty far from where I need to be. I went through several flight configurations, and I finally settled on just flying round trip to London and figuring out the rest. Planning is catnip for me, and I loved the idea of having London as bookends, Vienna in the middle for a chunk, and then deciding where else I wanted to go. With the flight settled, I took the next few months to figure out the rest of the logistics. Spoilers, it’s a lot, and it’s complicated, which is something I said I wasn’t going to do after my 2024 trip, but well, here we are.
Anyway, the last two weeks have been particularly frustrating, more because I had so much to do so that I could feel comfortable being out for two weeks. I have been busy, and I worked pretty much up to until 11am today, before I left to go to the airport. Since I am a transit nerd, as evidenced by every iteration of train imaginable on this trip, I decided to forgo an Uber to the airport (saving myself $60+), and I decided to figure out a train transit way to get there.
The frustrating thing about where I live in Chicago is that for me to get to O’Hare via the venerable L, I have to walk about 20 minutes, take the Red all the way downtown, pick up the Blue, and basically come all the way back up to O’Hare. Other than a bus, there are no cross town options for me. The Metra commuter rail nearer to me was a possibility, and I decided to give it a shot, since I was in no particular hurry. It’s not going to work for most of my flights, because everything has to be running on time to make it work without waiting a lot. It barely worked today, and if it had been any hotter, I would have probably just called an Uber.
I got to the airport around 1:45. I am generally an early morning flyer, which makes it a lot easier, but for some reason, the bigger TSA Pre check was closing down, and they shunted us all into a smaller one, which had a line. There was an American Airlines Priority Lane with no waiting, and since I can use that, I decided to do it. Then I quickly understood that Priority does not mean TSA Precheck, even though they were sharing a station. Instant Panic. I haven’t had to pack for normie security in years. I had to dig out my iPad, and then I had to go through the stand like “Charlies Angels” X-ray Machine. It was annoying. Thankfully, my bags made it through without needing further searches, and I was on my way to the lounge.
Last year, I decided I was traveling enough that doing the lounge thing made sense. I never considered myself a lounge person. I would get to the airport with an hour or so to spare, board, and be done. I didn’t see a point in getting there early enough to make it worth it. After more than a year, I do enjoy the little perks of it, and frankly, just having a pretty nice restroom is the best part.
Because I fly so much for work and pour a lot of conference expenses onto an American branded card, I have gotten to the highest status level the last two years. It definitely has it its benefits, but I am such a slut for points now it is not even funny. Being Executive Platinum means you are also OneWorld Alliance Emerald, which means for international flights, I would not only get access to the lounge (even if I didn’t have a membership), but I would be put in the Flagship First Class Lounge even though I was flying in economy (though I took a last minute cheap upgrade to Premium Economy). Where the regular Admiral’s Club is more like a hotel lounge, the Flagship is an upgrade in every way from better food to a serve yourself bar. Yes, I got to the airport three hours early so I could sit and eat and drink. There are worse ways to start a vacation.
As I am typing this, we have just passed Gander (where are my Come From Away hive?), and we are moving out onto the open ocean. Dinner service has been completed and the lights are out in the cabin. Ostensibly, I should be trying to sleep because it is 3:10 AM London time, and we land at 7:30am, but I am not sure sleep is going to happen much at all. We shall see…
This wraps up the first official post of this trip. I will not be posting every single day, but the plan is to do it when I am in transit between cities. Since I am spending five days in Vienna, I will likely need to take some time to do some posts or the one I write on my way to Budapest will be 20,000 words. Oh, who am I kidding? 40,000.
I will end each post with some pics. There are not a lot from today.
