The Journey to Tashkent, Expect the Unexpected

Tashkent, Uzbekistan. I would challenge any American to go to a globe and tell me where this desert oasis in Asia resides. Trust me I had to look four or five times myself.

Tashkent is the home to the 2014 World Wrestling Championships. I was more excited for this tournament than any other this year, as are most international wrestling gurus. I left five days ago on my journey to Tashkent and to put it simply it has been a whirlwind.

I left Colorado Springs last Friday with a pretty simple itinerary, two connecting flights through Chicago and Frankfurt, Germany before touching down in Tashkent. Myself and four colleagues, Gary Abbott, Craig Sesker, Mike Clayton and Jaimie McNabb would find out that sometimes life just doesn’t go according to plan. A familiar theme this trip mind you.

Our flight out of The Springs left a few minutes late, no biggie. That is until we found ourselves hovering above a lightning storm sweeping the Chicago area, running out of fuel. Our pilots planned to divert us to Milwaukee, the closest airport to Chicago. The runway in Milwaukee was filled so off we flew to Green Bay to touchdown a refuel.

After about an hour on the runway in Green Bay we took off for Chicago, touching down in the Windy City around five hours after taking off from Colorado.

I will say I was not pleased about being in the plane that long, but it was pretty cool to get to view two legendary stadiums in Wrigley Field and Lambeau Field. Have to take some positives out of a negative sometimes.

Upon arrival at O’Hare we discovered we missed our original flight to Germany and would have to book another at a later time. We accomplished this but it was no small feat. Big credit goes to Haley Scherr and Jaimie for pulling it off.

After long lines, and a bunch of back and forth, we were able get our tickets from the German airline Lufthansa. Mike would leave an hour earlier than the rest of us because of limited space on the plane. He was set for Munich and would connect with us in Frankfurt.

We sat down to a nice meal at Chili’s for a beer and a burger before our eight-hour flight across the Atlantic. Much needed.

The plane ride to Germany was spectacular. We were treated to a nice pasta dinner, unlimited alcohol (I went with a nice white wine) and free movies. X-Men put me right to bed, or perhaps it was the wine?

We landed in Frankfurt and had a couple hours to catch what would be our next flight to Vienna, Austria.

Because we switched airlines to Austrian Air we had to go get our bags, recheck them and go through security again. This was theoretically no issue with a couple hour layover, but wouldn’t you know it, our bags never arrived in Germany.

Let me tell you it has been a blast wearing the same clothes for five days.

I had my biggest meltdown in Frankfurt. Jaimie and myself couldn’t get our boarding passes until it was actually time to board. Also, fun fact, Jaimie is in a walking boot and needed a wheelchair to get to the gate. Gary was dealing with the baggage so I had no clue where he was at the time and Craig went ahead of all of us to make the plane.

Sprinting down the Frankfurt terminal with Jaimie in the wheel chair we made the plane by a nose. Gary and Craig sitting quite comfortable on board. Then two minutes after we boarded and took out seats, here comes Mike winded from a dead sprint as well.

The flight attendant was kind enough to let us all sit in the front of the plane and bring us a beverage before taking off to Vienna.

We landed in Vienna and made our flight to Milan, Italy with little hassle. We were all relieved because we finally had a connection time with plenty of room to spare.

Before getting on our flight to Uzbekistan we all sat down at “Harry’s Bar” in the airport and had some divine pasta, pizza, wine and tiramisu. It was Jaimie’s birthday so we all toasted to that and found our way to the Uzbekistan Airways line.

We discovered there would be an added leg on our flight to Ugrench, Uzbekistan before we landed in Tashkent. Apparently Ugrench is quite to vacation spot because most of the passengers on our plane exited there.

It was wild flying over the Middle East and Asia. All I could see for miles outside my window were sand dunes. When I finally saw green it was on the outskirts of Ugrench. Forget about seeing any blue. It was the same scenery flying to Tashkent, but the relief of touching down was indescribable.

After traveling through eight cities, five countries and twelve time zones I set foot on Asian soil.

There would be plenty more to come on this journey and we are only five days in. More details about my first three days in Tashkent will be posted once I get some energy.

Here is to trying to stay positive,

Rich