Back in NY

Contrary to the going over, coming back from Tirana to NY is a long haul!

Although Austrian Airline is consistently good in punctuality, service, and food (absolutely delicious, with hot small rolls and desserts unbelievably tempting!), the overall time needed to complete the return trip, door to door, is loooong!

I left my apartment in Tirana at 3AM, and in less than 1 1/2 hour I was in Vienna. Here the layover for the overseas connection is, unfortunately, 5 hours, which can be leisurely spent in a very confortable and efficient environment, but who wants to spend one entire morning in an airport?

Arrival in NY was even 10 minutes earlier than expected, but - guess what - we had to sit on the plane on a runway for over 10 minutes because the arrival gate wasn't ready! Another 40 minutes was lost waiting for my luggage, which I thought would never come. The unloading, actually, is pretty quick, but the volume of checked baggage of a full booked 767 plane must be seen to be believed!

Probably due to the anxiety of wanting to get home quickly, after 9 hours cooped up in the air crossing the Atlantic, I found that the last 2 hours of the trip, on US ground, were the worst. Dumped in 90 degree temperature, even with some air conditioning, the drastic change was a bit much to take, and the traffic to Manhattan was hell! That surprised me since this is a holiday (Memorial Day) weekend and I thought that most people were off somewhere, picniking, as per tradition, but the highways were clogged up for miles! I finally entered my apartment in NY at 5pm (= 11pm Tirana) local time!!

I understand that beginning with next month there will be direct flights by an Albanian Airline from Tirana to NY, and, I guess, we have to see how that will work out! Meantime, back to the chores here at home, which include sorting out one huge carton of accumulated snail mail.......