I didn’t have any plans to travel this year. Last year I went to the UK but that trip was originally planned for 2020. Specifically the end of March 2020. As you recall, no organized trips took place outside the country at the end of March 2020. It was postponed twice and I finally was able to go on it last year. So, it was a no-brainer that I would not travel outside the US this year. But plans change and not only did I leave the country, I traveled all the way around the world without even knowing I was going to do it.

At the beginning of May, I had no plans for a big trip. In fact, I had declined a fabulous trip to Alaska to save money and focus on other things this year. But then, a friend of mine who was planning a return to her homeland in Mongolia for five months, offered to let me stay with her if I visited. All I would have to pay is the airfare and daily expenses. Once over there I would have accommodations and a travel guide. How could I pass this opportunity up?

I am not an experienced traveler. My first time outside the US was only 6 years ago. Since then, this would only be my fourth international trip. It would also be the farthest I have ever gone and the first time I traveled by myself. By the time I would go she would already be in Mongolia.

As someone who is accustomed out of necessity to look for the cheaper deals, the first flights I looked at were relatively cheap. They were also 40+ hour trips with long layovers in foreign countries. While I am fiscally retentive the nearly-two-whole-day journey did not sound appealing.

I found more expensive flights with fewer layovers. The seemingly audible screams from my pocket book quickly vetoed any of those options. Even though for a quick moment I tried to justify the expense.

In the end, I settled a bit for an option in the middle. A little more pricey than the 40 hour flights, a few more layovers than the expensive options.

What I learned while in Mongolia is that currently there is no direct US to Mongolia flight. So anywhere I flew from in the US would not have taken me directly to my destination. I did not know that at the time I booked though.

My flight to Ulaanblaatar went like this. First, I drove to Salt Lake City on Friday night. From Salt Lake, I boarded a plane that went to Seattle Saturday morning. On this flight, I got a window seat (I love window seats). I also sat next to 5 fishing buddies from the Ogden area going on a week long fishing trip in the Seattle area. Even though it was a morning flight they had started their celebration in the airport bar. They were friendly but they were already buzzed. Out of all my 6 flights, this was the only one I talked to someone. Part of that was because on the next four flights my seat mates and I did not speak the same language.

In Seattle I had a five-hour layover. I wished the Seattle layover was a little shorter and the Germany layover was a little longer. But as it turned out, my Germany flight was delayed so my Seattle layover was a little longer and my Germany layover was actually a little shorter. Which means I was stressed for about half a day.

The flight from Seattle was delayed about an hour. Not only that but when I had checked my bags in SLC, they told me that I would have to pick up my bags in Germany and recheck them since that flight was technically the next day. I had studied the Frankfurt Germany Airport website and I knew that I would have to leave terminal one and find terminal two for my connecting flight. I thought I was going to have just over two hours to do all this. I ended up having less than two.

Once we took off in Seattle though there was nothing I could do about the situation except worry. The airline I was on was Condor and I couldn’t even figure out how to turn on my monitor. I couldn’t find the English mode so I would turn it on and hit a few things. Everything was in a different language so I turned it off. This flight was my long one and it would be over 9 hours. So, maybe I could just sleep for most of it anyway.

After I had booked my trip I told everyone that from Seattle I would fly over the Pacific Ocean, over Mongolia, and into Germany. That’s what I assumed. It wasn’t until I was on the flight and I saw someone in front of me watching the flight navigator on their monitor that I realized we were flying over Canada. We weren’t flying over the Pacific to get there, we were flying over the Atlantic Ocean. That’s when it dawned on me that I was going to travel around the world on my trip.

I slept as long as I could but it wasn’t long enough. My sleep patterns were still following my normal circadian rhythm. Plus, I was nervous about my connecting flight. And my mood was just generally elevated because of my adventure. I woke up and the plane was dark with the exception of a few monitors from people watching their personal entertainment.

On this flight I was in the middle section but the aisle seat. I turned on my monitor once again and figured out how to get the English mode on. Once I turned it on though, it lit up my little area. The person sitting next to me also woke up. No words were said but I understood the international language of a dirty glare. I could feel it without having to turn my head to the side. The person next to her also woke up.

We arrived in Frankfurt Sunday afternoon. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. Once we exited the plane we had to board a shuttle bus to get to the terminal. From there, I had to figure out how to get to the passport check. I entered the wrong line and got yelled at by the German customs officer. Getting yelled at is never a favorite of mine but getting yelled at by a German officer leveled that anxiety up. He asked where I was going. I told him Mongolia. He looked at my ticket and saw that I actually needed to be in the next terminal in a very short amount of time and scoffed, “Good luck,” but not in a hopeful way. More like a “that ain’t going to happen” kind of way.

From there, I picked up my bag and actually had to go outside the airport and find another shuttle. After a little trial and error and asking a few people for help, I found the shuttle and boarded. This was about a five minute drive to the other terminal. I entered and finally found the Mongolian Airline counter to recheck in my bag. The lady at this counter was actually one of the friendliest encounters I had in this airport.

From there I ran up the stairs to another passport check. This line wasn’t moving at all. I kept looking at my watch. My flight was going to start boarding in 30 minutes. Then 20 minutes. Then 10 minutes. They finally opened another line and a few of us rushed over. Nope. Not for me. I had to go back to the previous line. By this time the line had grown so I just went over and stood toward the front hoping no one would call me out for cutting. Thankfully, no one did. I managed to get through the check about the same time my flight was supposed to start boarding.

I still had to get to the gate though. And I was going to have to use the restroom because I still hadn’t done that since I landed.

After using the restroom I was nearly running to find my next gate. Someone working security asked if I was from Italy since I was wearing my jacket I got from Italy. No, I’m from America. He was the second friendliest employee at the airport. I kept heading to my gate. The Frankfurt airport has their security check outside the gates. So a cluster of gates will go through one security area. It helps minimize the lines a bit but that also meant I still had to go through one last security check before I actually got to my gate. Thankfully, that was the shortest line and I made it to my gate. That flight must have had a slight delay because it was still full of people. I sat down relieved I wasn’t going to be stuck in Germany. A few minutes later, we boarded the flight.

From Germany I flew about another 8 hours to Mongolia where my friend picked me up. More about those two weeks will be in next week’s post.

But skipping two weeks ahead, I left Mongolia Thursday morning. From Mongolia I went to Seoul Korea and arrived in the afternoon. Out of the 6 airports I went through on my trip, the Seoul airport was my favorite. The workers were friendly. The gate was nice with enough charging ports. The restrooms were clean.

I left Korea at 4:00pm Thursday. The plane was a little fancier than I was used to and again I had trouble figuring things out. This time I couldn’t see where to plug my headphones in. The airline handed out not ear buds but actual earphones with disposable covers. But there was no earphone jack near the monitor. I waited to see where my seat mates would plug theirs into. This flight, unfortunately, I was on the side but the middle seat. The two guys sitting on either side of me used their own personal devices and did not use the headphones. So,I tried seeing what the people in front of me were doing. I could tell they had their headphones on but couldn’t tell where they plugged them into.

So, I slept. Until both my seat mates got up to use the restroom luckily at the same time. I figured out the ear jack was on the arm rest. But not the arm rest that controlled my seat position, on the other arm rest. I was able to watch some entertainment for most of the flight. That Korean flight also had a fancier flight navigator. You could turn it on and see the view outside. Either the front view or the view underneath. Which was nice since I didn’t get to sit by the window I could still see outside. But we caught up with the night so most of the time the view was dark.

I arrived in San Francisco at 11:00am Thursday. Which means that 8 hour flight was only -5 hours. I liked telling people that. I would be going back in time on that flight, how bad could it be?

The San Francisco airport is tied with the Frankfurt airport for my least favorite. Again, I studied the website to figure out what I needed to do. According to the website I needed to pick up my luggage and then in the next room turn it back in to finish my trip. The next room? If you are flying United then yeah, sort of. If you are flying Delta though you have to walk that luggage about halfway home. I kept asking if I was going in the right direction and kept getting told “keep going.”

Again, I left one terminal and had to get to another one. But this time I walked. And this time I spoke the language. Also, if I missed my connecting flight here I wasn’t quite as worried. Sure, it would be annoying and frustrating but I was confident I could figure out a plan B.

I finally found the Delta counter and rechecked my bags. I only had one suitcase but since my friend is moving from Mongolia to the US I brought a suitcase for her. Her suitcase was about half my size.

There were two security lines, one was quite long and one was relatively small. I wasn’t sure which one I needed to be in but assumed it was the long one because that’s just how it always works. But as I was standing in it I realized I was actually supposed to be in the shorter one. I think. I tried it hoping I was right because if I had to get back in that longer line I probably was going to miss my flight.

I was right. When I got to the desk, the agent looked at my Mongolian Air ticket though and asked if I was headed to the right gate. My ticket didn’t say but the lady at the counter had told me. I held my breath when I told her which gate section I needed. “Oh, okay,” she said and let me go through.

I didn’t see the section at first and worried a few times if I was going the right way. But I was. I found my gate and boarded my last 2 hour flight to SLC. I finally got another window seat and for the first time the seat next to me was empty.

I also like to tell people that my flight back to SLC started at 8:00am in Mongolia and ended at 5:00pm in SLC. All in the same day. Let me just tell you, that was a very long Thursday. In order to make it to the airport in Mongolia on time, we had to leave my friend’s place at 5:00am. Which means my day started at 4:00am when I woke up. Four o’clock Thursday Mongolia time was actually 2:00pm Wednesday local time. In other words, my Thursday started at Wednesday at 2:00pm and went until Thursday at 5:00pm.

I should mention, if you would like to visit Mongolia, starting next year there will be a direct to US flight which will cut down on the number of flights needed to travel there.

My trip to Mongolia was about 29 hours involving 4 airports (2 in foreign countries) and 3 flights. My trip back to SLC was 22 hours involving 4 airports (2 in foreign countries) and 3 flights. Out of the total 8 airport adventures I had only four of them I was completely on my own. The other four I had someone drop me off or pick me up but navigating the actual airport I was on my own.

When I got home and realized what I had done – traveled all the way around the world and navigated several different airports – on my own I felt pretty bold. First thing I did was say a prayer because I had sent up many prayers of help on those two journeys and they were answered and I made it. The second thing I did was realize I really need to travel more. There is something exhilarating about completing a trip and realizing “look at what I just did!” I can do this again.

In fact, when I got home I felt bold and confident. The best way to describe my level of confidence is by this Nina Simone song. Of course, that all dissipated by day 2 back at work. But I had a good run for a few days.