The Big Blue took off from O'Hare International Airport 10:00pm with a connecting flight from Lisbon, Portugal to Rome, Italy. Read about our day of travel from Jordan Hildebrand.
Big Blue Go International
by Jordan Hildebrand
As everyone wrapped up their Memorial Day weekend we began our trip by making our way to O’Hare international airport on Timi's Tours bus! Making good time through anticipated holiday traffic, we arrived to airport 6:00 pm. A few members of our Big Blue clan from up north met us there. We were all able to check our bags, passports and vaccination status shortly after. This is were we had our first little bump in the road with some hefty overweight bags. *cough cough* ... Jaz and States... After some strategic repacking, we made our way to security.
Once everyone made it through, Elyce being the only person who needed an extra pat down, we found our gate to take us to Portugal. But man were we starvin'! Unfortunately, the only option for a greasy burger was Burger King and that line was all the way back to Decatur! Mir, Soph and their group held out for that Whopper, while the rest of us settled for refrigerated lunch meat sandwiches. Some found their sandwiches fresher than others... While waiting to board the plane, we made some TikTok's honoring our lost teammate, Bailey Coffman, who picked up an illness while traveling with the softball team to compete in the NCAA championship weekend and could no longer make the trip with us.
Once aboard the plane, we prepared for the 8 HOUR LONG flight. Thankfully, we were supplied with miniature pillows and red blankets. Oh and can’t forget the abundance of movies with a headset!! While we thought that was the best of the flight, we also got two meals. One nice hot dinner and a cold cut breakfast. We landed smoothly and caught a tram to get into the Lisbon, Portugal airport. Once inside we turned to our left to see a swarm of people!!! We stepped into what was the incredibly long line of the passport check point.
We got through customs, with some help from Coach Olivia Lett, we did not miss our connecting flight. Our flight ended up being delayed 45 minutes, so many of us fueled up with some caffeine at Starbucks and fast food in the food court. We then made our way to the gate to sit and wait for what would be our last flight of the day. We boarded our two and a half hour flight to Rome.
We got off the plane and were able to quickly claim our baggage. Once all bags were present and accounted for we were greeted by our tour guide, Naomi, who took us to our charter bus that would be taking us to Carpegna Palace Domus Mariae Hotel of Rome. After 25 more minutes of travel, we made it safely to the hotel where we are given our room keys, metra passes, and our first Italian meal! We made our way to our rooms to enjoy our meals and relax after a long and exhausting day of travel. We know that all the travel will all be worth it! Stay tuned for more of our trip!! - Jordan Hildebrand '21
Credits:
Created with an image by kbarzycki - "The ancient Colosseum in Rome at sunset"