Arrival in Durres

The rain was coming down quite steadily when our driver from Memorial Road picked up our family, Helen and Quinton (Darin's parents), and one of our OC student campaigners to take us to the OKC Will Rogers Airport. The other 3 student campaigners met us at the United Airlines desk. The OKC airport was pretty busy but we managed to get through security and checked in without much delay. The flight to Chicago was on a small United Airlines jet -- 2 seats aisle and one single seat per row. Helen had the privilege of sitting next to Hallie on the flight. Hallie puked on her tray/table. Jill helped out in the clean-up. Quin traveled well and we arrived in Chicago on time.

Our layover in Chicago was two hours and we needed every bit of it. After departing our jet we had to walk and then tram over to the international concourse. Here we had to wait in a LONG line to go through a security check. (It seems that most airports are set up in such a way that passengers don't have to go through security again when they go from one concourse to another...oh well.) We arrived at our gate about 20 minutes before boarding the Boing 767 for Vienna.

The flight to Vienna went better than expected. Quin fussed a few times but all in all everyone traveled well and Hallie didn't even puke. The kids liked the in-flight movies -- Charlotte's Web and Ice Age 2. Amelia's kids meal didn't show up so she had to battle through an adult meal. Quin slept about 3 hours on the flight, Hallie and Amelia 2, Darin 30 minutes, and the rest of the Martins didn't sleep.

Upon arrival in Vienna we had to go through another security check but this one went much faster than the crowded Chicago variety. We bought 2 bottled waters for the low price of $10.00! Obviously, frugal Darin didn't go buy the water. As far as I could tell we were about the only English speakers at our gate.

The flight to Tirana was on a Boeing 737. Hallie spewed again! Other than that the flight went well. Darin managed to sleep a bit on this flight.

When we arrived in Durres we took stairs off the plain and waited in the "foreigners" line for immigration. This process went pretty quickly. We then had to pay our $15.00 entry fee to Albania. Dad got charged $20 initially but then managed to get his $5.00 back. The baggage claim service at Mother Theresa International Airport is SLOW. We waited a long time to pick up 3 of our 10 checked items. That's right...7 of our checked bags didn't arrive. One of the OC student's bags didn't arrive as well. I received a call today from Alfred Zike (our helper in Durres) that 5 of the missing items have arrived. We'll soon see which bags are here.

After waiting in line and finally getting to report our missing bags, we left the Tirana airport. Alfred Zike as well as Jonida's parents and sister met us at the airport (Jonida is Darin's sister-in-law). Alfred had hired a 15 passenger van to take the group to our apartments in Durres...about a 30-minute drive.

Our apartments are all in one building. They are really quite nice with back up water tanks, hot water, and small kitchens. We did a little shopping, all ate pizza together at a nearby restaurant, walked to the beach, bought fans, and eventually made it back to our apartments on Saturday evening. All the Martin's were asleep by 9:00 p.m and up at 3:00 a.m.! We took an early morning walking tour of our area, ate breakfast, and then went back for naps!

Our aparment building is on a busy street one block from the Adriatic Sea. We have shops, restaurants, etc. all close by. The church building is about a quarter-mile away as well.
More later...Darin