The Best of Luck

We finally arrived in Tel Aviv after a long day or so of traveling. My day of traveling was a quite the adventure. There were several travel groups and mine was a small group of 5. Our itenerary was Salt Lake to Denver to D.C. to Austria and finally to Tel Aviv. Two of my fears are losing my bags in a foreign country and missing a flight and both of these almost happened. Our Denver flight was quick and snappy. It was only about and hour and everything went smoothly, making it on time to the next flight. When we were about to land at the Dulles airport they told us the airport was too congested and we had to fly around for almost an hour, making us land a little over 20 mintues from our next flight's departure time. We hauled it once we landed, knowing we still had to take a tram over to Concourse B. Of course, when we arrived to the tram it said it wasn't going to depart for another 8 or 9 minutes. This made us all a little scared. Thank goodness it was only 5 of us or otherwise it would have been quite hectic. After the tram dropped us off we ran all the way down from A1 to B37. Fortunately they held the flight for us since a few other groups were on the same flight headed to Vienna, Austria. Then, of course, our flight got delayed for 2 hours because of thunder storm... Better safe than sorry, I guess. It was crazy and we were all sweaty from running through the airport but luckily we made it. So one of my number one travel fears almost happened.
When we arrived in Vienna they stamped our passports and we headed to baggage claim. All 5 of us in the Denver travel group waited and waited for our bags to come but they didn't show up. Long story short, my other fear of losing my bags in a foreign country was a success. We filed for missing luggage and made it through customs. It was a crazy day or more of traveling but we made if safely to Jerusalem. It was an awesome feeling driving over the hills of Judea and into the Old City and finally getting to see the Jerusalem Center, our home for the next 4 months. I can't wait for the amazing experience that has begun.

At the Vienna, Austria airport. 

View from apartment window- Dome of the Rock.