Part 1/2: Prologue

Part 1: New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Washington National on US Airways

Part 2: Washington Dulles (IAD) to Frankfurt (FRA) on United

Part 3: FRA – Vienna (VIE) – Skopje (SKP) on Austrian

Part 4: Arrival in Skopje, and Day 1 in Skopje

Part 5: Day 2 in Skopje

Part 6: A bit more Skopje

Part 7: Daytrip to Pristina, Kosovo

Part 8: SKP – Zagreb (ZAG) – VIE on Croatian Airlines

Part 9: VIE – Erbil, Iraq (EBL) on Austrian

Part 10: Erbil, Iraq

Part 11: EBL – VIE on Austrian

Part 12: Hilton Vienna Stadtpark

Part 13: VIE – Zurich (ZRH) – JFK on Swiss

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Part 1/2:

All right, kids – it’s time for my favorite part of the post-trip letdown, lassitude, and rigor-mortis: trip report writing time! That’s right, folks – this one’s going to be epic. It was, dear readers, and extremely memorable trip, full of lessons, developments, and some maturation as a traveler, and I really can’t wait to share it all.

As a background, when booking this trip with United Mileage Plus miles, I wanted something that would allow me to clear my head for a week, or so, after an incredibly intense summer term. It went through various incarnations – at first, I thought I would head for a relaxing trip to Brussels and Paris, then it morphed into an attempt to make tracks for the north in Svalbard, Norway. I wanted to make sure I kept the craziest segment of all – a quick trip to Northern Iraq in the mix, after reading a few blogs and reports about the place. After some weeks, when I realized that none of those ideas were seemingly, “speaking” to me, in the proverbial sense (not the need to see a psychiatrist sense, be assured), I felt an inclination and a twinge to make some changes. I, of course, wanted to keep the Iraq segment, but the other parts needed to improve.

One night, therefore, I called United on a whim, and asked them to route me to a city that I had always had a certain sexy-travel appeal to me: Skopje, Macedonia. When I went with a friend to Eastern Europe three years ago, we made it as far south as Bulgaria, but with constrictions of time, couldn’t make it to Skopje. The city, as a detriment to quick travel, is surrounded by mountains, making train travel an extensive and winding affair. Now seemed like a wonderful opportunity. And, with great serendipity, United offered me a routing that allowed me to keep my Iraq segments intact. After some tinkering over the following weeks, the final route became as follows:

-LGA – DCA, in US Airways first class (I had always wanted to try the Shuttle, and would get a chance to spend a day with some old friends in DC);

-IAD – FRA, in United (sort-of-new) first class. Yeah, it’s not exactly “new” any more, but I hadn’t yet experienced in United’s new first class seat;

-FRA – VIE – SKP in Austrian Euro business class;

-SKP – ZAG – VIE in Croatian Airlines economy and business class;

-VIE – EBL in Austrian Airlines “Premium Configuration” business class;

-EBL – VIE in Austrian Airlines “Premium Configuration” business class;

-VIE – ZRH in Swiss Euro business class;

-ZRH – JFK in Swiss first class; and

Overall, I wanted to craft a trip that blended the right amount of craziness, utter insanity, and untried airline products to satisfy my desire for spicing up excursions. I wanted a trip of uniqueness, one that would test my travel skills, and force me to better myself as a traveler. I wanted to do some head clearning, some relaxation, and think about myself and the upcoming school year of organic chemistry and biology, MCAT taking, and med school applications. What unfolded was perhaps the most profound and harrowing travel experience of my life.

Hope everyone will enjoy the trip reports. I’ll roll out the first part tomorrow, and, I hope (sometimes school does get in the way) one each day thereafter. As I said, they will be Homeric in length, and splashed with pictures. As always, please make sure to let me know of any questions, comments, or criticims.