Try Breadcrumbs Next Time

After an emotional parting with Yvonne's friends Stefan and Julia (that's Yvonne with Stefan, at Schönbrunn) at the Vienna Airport, 4 AM on July 16, we made our way through security, where my Blackberry crawled out of my bag and was left behind. (After frantic phone calls from LA yesterday, it was found---big exhale---and will be sent back by courier.) We flew to Frankfurt with three hours to kill before the flight to L.A. Brilliant, we’ll take the Sky Train from our departure area (A) to the adjacent section (B) where I can turn in my V.A.T. receipts and win back some of our hard-spent Euros. We were so sleep deprived that I thought nothing of leaving Yvonne, with our carry-on luggage, in the corridor where there were chairs for her to rest in. Sailing through passport control, I went in search of the Global Refund counter, officially stamped receipts in hand. The line for the one person manning the counter was too long and bogged down to chance a missed flight, so I gave up after 10 minutes. But finding my way to that little corridor where Yvonne was patiently waiting proved to be a far greater challenge than originally assumed.

After an hour of retracing my steps, I began to feel like Alice in the rabbit hole. Every single official I asked to help me was of no use, they all gave conflicting directions. Finally in a panic I begged the three people at one of the information desks to send someone to accompany me to find Yvonne. So a very nice man with a cheerful disposition (a rare find) joined me on additional retrograde journeys. We descended deeper into the rabbit hole...I went through security and passport controls multiple times in a fruitless search along corridors of all shapes and sizes. Yvonne’s passport and ticket were in my possession, so she couldn’t go anywhere, but I knew she must also be worried at this point. Our Austrian phones were both dead...oh yes, and the Blackberry was still in Vienna. We repeatedly paged her but she couldn’t hear us in the corridor. One of the ‘helpful’ information ladies, a Brit, asked me what Yvonne’s age was. (She’s 16.) “Well, she’s old enough to hear the announcements and respond!” (As it turned out the announcements couldn’t be heard in the corridors.) After repeatedly and persistently describing exactly where I left Yvonne, we found the spot, two hours after beginning my search. By then our flight had departed. We were rebooked on a later flight, but our luggage has been shuttling between San Francisco and Seattle, due to the re-routing of the two humans (originally routed through Seattle, but had to fly through SF). Breadcrumbs are always good to have along in the emergency kit, as those fairy-tale inventors knew all along.

Now that we’re home among the palm trees and oleander, with fresh tomatoes and basil right outside and the pool beckoning, I will attempt a different sort of blog---one that continues in the larger cultural vein, but with more focus on my projects and how they are developing. First, however, a few loose ends to wrap up from the four glorious months in Vienna, to be posted later today.