Oh the flight back was a doozy. My first leg from Milan to Frankfurt didn’t go too well. We took off late, and then once we got near Frankfurt, we had to stay in a holding pattern because excessive winds in Frankfurt limited the approaches of incoming planes. Eventually we landed, with negative time to spare. You know when you watch movies and people are running in the airports? Yep, that was me. And once I got to the gate, it was absolute madness. I’d never seen as many airport employees working at an actual gate than for this flight. I also had someone in front of me show up with a red X next to their name when they swiped his name through. Not exactly do-not-fly, but not exactly all green like me either. Wonder what his deal was?

Anyhoo, it was a long ass flight, and they didn’t waste time feeding us lunch. It was the usual choice of pasta or chicken and I went with pasta this time. It was lasagna! Look at it. Doesn’t it look like a square of gross? Other than the noodles being overcooked to mush, it was quite fine. The broccoli was awesome. My body was craving some green vegetables something fierce! The pesto pasta salad was also nice. My favorite part was the apple cake dessert!

The return flight was much longer than the one there, so we got a much heartier second treat (first time we got a little teeny danish). It was a warmed up foccaccia sandwich with turkey and cheese. It was really good! And I was finishing up some of the Tuc crackers I’d gotten at the train station. They’re like ritz, but better and butterier!

One interesting service note I observed. When they gave me my drink on the plane, they asked me if I wanted ice. Which of course I did. When they served the german woman next to me, they automatically did not give her ice. And you know, the cans of soda you get on the plane are not cold. What is it about americans who love their sodas cold and europeans who like it room temperature?

I’m in Italy! Yeah, it wasn’t something I planned, but just something that popped up for work. So here I am. So strange. My original flight on saturday night was cancelled. And that really f’d up everything. Like seriously. My plans weren’t exactly flexible, I mean, I had to at work on Monday morning, but my new flight wasn’t going to get into Milan until Monday morning. With tons of effort, stuff got rearranged. I probably lost a few years of life. But it goes on.

My flight to europe was long, and I contemplated sleeping most of the way, but it was hard because it was so early. But they fed us some dinner before I didn’t even attempt any shut eye. Sorry, but I didn’t see the point of trying to go to sleep at 7PM. It just wasn’t going to work. I picked the chicken dish, and it was some sort of odd bbq chicken with rice pilaf and mexican corn. It came with an iceberg and carrot salad, whole grain roll with shedds spread, and carrot cake. Really, I’m not like most people. I kind of dig airplane food! Right before we landed, we got a little heated up fruit danish.

I landed in Frankfurt very early in the morning, before the sun was up, and had barely any time before my flight to Milan. I had a nice power breakfast of fanta and mixed tropical fruit. How come fanta in europe tastes so much better? It actually tastes more like juice, instead of just orange sugar water.

Frankfurt airport is nice. And it’s kind of shiny and glittery, literally, because there’s a freakin swarovski crystal store in it. Seriously, what’s the point? I find the little smoking pods very amusing and demeaning. At frankfurt, it’s sponsored by Camel.

I don’t know if they have this at every Lufthansa gate, but at mine, there was a secret little coffee corner and tea station. It wasn’t exactly advertised, but it wasn’t a secret either. It’s like if you find it, then good for you, and if you don’t, then too bad. And it was totally free!

While on my super short flight, they gave us drinks and a little half sandwich. I wasn’t hungry so I didn’t eat it. But after I eventually got to the hotel, after a long delay due to a bad accident, I was really hungry. And I wanted to eat it. But knowing how long it had been in my purse, and knowing it was cheese, I passed. It said discover the flavour, but I was afraid it’d make me discover the toilet.

Somehow, I got in the emergency exit row and had no seat in front of me. I had beyond tons of leg room. I felt bad because as a stubby legged girl, I didn’t need it. And I could see all the tall germans around me who would have probably enjoyed it. Well, I’ve made it to europe. And at this rate, I call that an accomplishment!

While I avoid casual chain restaurants like the plague, sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do. When stuck at an airport, your choices are limited. It’s typically a case of “least of all evils”. At DTW, I was given the illustrious choices of tgi friday’s, ruby tuesday, mcdonald’s, champps (where they allow smoking!?!??), cheeburger cheeburger, and a few other sandwich type shops, most of which were starting to close by the time I showed up. While I like cheeburger, cheeburger, the one at the airport was like a stripped down version, and it scared me off a bit. And the sandwich shops, those are always the pre-made ones, where the sandwiches have been sitting there for who knows how long! So really, what was I supposed to do? At that point, it was just a toss up between tgi and ruby, and for whatever reason, tgi mcscratchy’s won out.

I started out with a house salad and a virgin strawberry daiquiri. The salad wasn’t half bad. I haven’t been to a tgi friday’s for at least ten years, and I didn’t remember anything from it. The salad is nothing special, but I did like their vinaigrette dressing. This little fruit slushy was pretty darn tasty and refreshing too.

This is an airport restaurant, so it’s a stripped down version of a regular tgi’s with a limited menu. I got the dragonfire chicken, which is a grilled chicken breast glazed with a kung pao sauce and topped with pineapple pico de gallo,served over stir–fried brown rice, along side mandarin oranges and broccoli. Really, this was pretty good! The chicken was quite good, although the sauce was a bit too much on the gingery side for my liking. I didn’t bite into any ginger hunks, thank goodness, but the ginger flavor was a bit too strong. The sauce and the pico added just enough spice. The rice was pretty good, even though it was on the overcooked and mushy side. The mandarin oranges were from a can, so they couldn’t really go wrong there, and the broccoli was great! They were steamed just right, and not mushy at all. They still had some firmness. All in all, this sure beat a big mac!