Ok, I'm finally gonna grit my teeth and write about my trip. It's gonna take me a while, because I want to do it well (or at least thouroughly). I decided to do one post for each day (or couple of days) of my trip.
I left on a Thursday. My plane left at 4:10, but we got to the airport around 1:00. I waved to my family the whole way through security, and then I was ALONE. I ate at Bennigan's because all the ones by the house closed, but it was kind of yucky. Then I bought an entire liter of water. I read my book forever before it was time to board. The row I was sitting on was full, but the flight attendant came and told the people next to me that once the plane took off, they could move to an aisle where they could sit with their son. When they moved I had an extra seat to myself, which was great!!!! I was unfortunently motion sick the entire time. Too sick to read, watch the TV, listen to my iPod, or even really open my eyes. It was a really long nine hours. After we got underway, they served us mystery meat. They said it was chicken, but I had my doubts. It was uncharacteristically dark and chewy. I had a Luna bar instead. Then I tried to avoid seeing the movie that was playing, so that I wouldn't get sick. After that I tried to sleep. I could kind of scrunch up and lay sideways, and I managed to doze through most of Drillbit Taylor (a good idea, judging by the few seconds I saw of it). When I woke up, the plane was bouncing, and I was hungry. A bad combination when trying to fight a battle against barf. I lost, but luckily the bathroom was empty. Then I ate some peanuts and waited impatiently for breakfast. It was slightly more paletable than dinner, as long as I didn't pay too much attention to the color of the eggs. By then we were almost there, yay!!!!! BUT, we were almost there half and hour too long because of wind, and we flew in a circle around the airport. So fun!!!! We finally landed around 9:30 AM. On the tarmac. Then we had to ride in a shuttle for 20 minutes (not exaggerating, I promise, the Frankfurt airport is massive, and the shuttle was SLOW). Finally we got to the building, and I only went the wrong way once. I really had no excuse for even that time (except missing a night of sleep, I guess), all the signs were in English and German. I got my passport stamped, and went through "customs" There was only a sign asking if you had anything to declare. There wasn't even anyone standing there, and I didn't have to fill out any paperwork. I went through the doors, and Kirsten was waiting for me!!!! She had a big welcome sign (purple, of course). I'm mad I didn't take a picture, but I was too excited to see her. Luckily she led the way after that, because that place is a maze!!!! The exit was crazy and twisty, I'm nearly positive my van wouldn't have made it. I would love to write about all the cool things I saw on the three hour car ride home, but all you can see from the Autobahn is trees. Kirsten told me about all the areas we were passing that I couldn't see. I looked at the cars though, and they were interesting. Mostly hatchbacks. Kirsten said regular sedans aren't cool cars there. And all the license plates start with the first few letters of the county it belongs in. I slept a little, because a) there really wasn't much to see, and b) I decided that I would only sleep in the car so that I could get used to the time difference. When we got home We talked and then went to a few grocery stores. And bought LOTS of chocolate. And some yummy yogurt. Those are two of the things that have a WAY better selection than in the US. And both taste better there. It was fun to be in a foreign grocery store. Oh, and one other interesting (to me anyway ;-) tidbit: they lock the shopping carts up, and you have to put a coin (or a fake one) in to get it out, and you get it back in the end. And everyone brings baskets to shop with. I think that's really cool. I'm thinking about bringing my ikea bags to use instead of plastic shopping bags. We got food at a place I forgot the name of, but it was really good. I had Frikadelle (I'm nearly positive I didn't spell that right) and french fries (NOT with mayo, which seems to be the norm there, yuck). I went to bed at 9:30, and I was really proud of my self for making it that long.
I just read through this and realized it was really long ad boring, but ya'll are just gonna have to deal.
1 comment:
It's funny reading about your first reactions to the country. It brought back memories of first arriving in Hungary. They do that whole put the coin in the cart thing in Hungary too. And there carts swivel on all four wheels, so you can have great fun with them.
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