Hey everyone! I’m back from Europe! I had a lot of fun, but sadly, very little internet access. That made it hard to post while I was there, but now that I’m back I can tell you ALL about it! :D It’s a long story, so here’s the short version: Europe was beautiful, we hit Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Nuremberg, Munich, Dachau, Innsbruck (Austria), Vaduz (Liechtenstein), and Lucerne over ten days.
Want the longer version? Here’s part one!
Getting to the airport:
Making it from the parking lot of my church in Austin where our group met to carpool to the airport in Houston was an adventure in and of itself. By 1:10 pm or so we were packed up and heading out. I rode in a car with a friend (hereafter known as Friend #1), her mom, and another friend (hereafter known as Friend #2), along with a bunch of luggage (not mine though, it was in another car). Somewhere between Brenham and Houston, Friend #1 looked at her passport...and discovered it was actually her dad’s. A laminated photo copy of the picture page from hers had been stuck in there somehow, so when her mom grabbed the passports she saw Friend #1’s picture...and so there we were, hours from home and another hour or so (if traffic was nice, which was doubtful) away from the airport, only a couple hours from the time we HAD to check in (or we wouldn’t get to fly) and no passport for Friend #1.
Okay, a little background on why this matters. In 6th grade, the event I was most looking forward to was my school’s 7th grade Germany trip. Then, halfway through 6th grade, I switched schools. No trip. Then, at the end of sixth grade I switched schools again, and in 8th grade I was promised an end-of-9th-grade trip - to Germany. Finally! Nope. At the end of 8th grade, we moved to Texas. So by the time this trip came around, I was afraid that I was somehow cursed to never make it to Germany, and SOMETHING would come up to stop me this time.
Many, many phone calls later, Friend #2 switched cars, since the car she switched to had room for one more, and also had her luggage. We were driving back to Brenham to meet Friend #1’s dad, who was driving down with her passport. But by this point, I was no longer concerned that I would miss a third chance at Germany. Instead, I was stubbornly determined that somehow, some way, I would make it on that plane. So while I was concerned for Friend #1’s chances of making it on the plane with me, I was relieved when I found out that rather than waiting in Brenham and risking Houston traffic, we were going to drive the rest of the way to the airport and have Friend #1’s dad meet us there. That way I could check in and they would at least be ready to go when her dad arrived.
We got there, I checked in at British Airways (more on them in a minute) and headed upstairs toward security with our group leader, the mom of another friend (hereafter known as Friend #3). We made it through security without too much trouble, and I even managed to avoid both the dreaded TSA scan AND the thorough pat-down! We got dinner, sat at the gate, and waited, hoping and praying that Friend #1’s dad didn’t get stuck in traffic. They’d talked to the British Airways people, who kindly allowed them to check in an hour later than what was normally required if they needed to. Which they did. Finally, with only about an hour until our departure time, Friend #1 and her mom made it to the gate! They had just enough time to grab dinner, and then we all boarded our plane to London.
On the plane:
Oh, international flights! Our plane left at 8:30 pm and landed in London at 5:30 am (Central Time). Yeah, 9-hour flight! Yay! *sarcasm*. Actually, it wasn’t all that bad.
We got on the plane, and I discovered Long Flight Heaven: free movies and TV, where you choose what you watch, when you watch it, and you can pause, rewind, fast-forward, whatever! I turned on The Adjustment Bureau, which I’d missed in theaters but really wanted to see. The flight attendants (who all had awesome British accents) brought us a choice of either chicken curry or pasta for dinner (never mind that we’d already had dinner at the airport - shh!) and then brought us TEA. We had British TEA in a TEACUP with sugar and milk and everything! It was amazing. Then, somehow I managed to sleep despite the uncomfortable seats, and woke to the sunrise and breakfast, which came in a box. A breakfast box. A muffin, some weird-looking granola thing, raisins, more (wonderfully British) tea, and a yogurt drink. Then, to wake myself up, I watched Unknown, which opens with the main character on a plane landing in Berlin (deja vu?). Not long after I finished that, we landed in London!
In London, we had to go through security AGAIN, even though we were just catching a connecting flight. Thankfully, all my liquids were in my checked bag, so it went smoothly enough. Unfortunately, not so for one of the guys, who got pulled aside for a full search of his backpack. Luckily, our connecting flight was delayed, so we had plenty of time.
After another quick flight, we landed in Berlin, got our bags, and met Dionesia, our tour guide (the best tour guide ever, actually). She took us to a charter bus, where we loaded our bags and headed off toward our hotel, the Ibis. There, we put our luggage in a small room in the hotel lobby before heading back out to meet the other two groups we’d be joining, one other group from Texas and one from Minnesota.
Dinner came soon after, at a little buffet place on the top floor of a department store. Then we went back to the hotel, checked in, and discovered that wi-fi was free only in the lobby. Thus concluded day #1!
Want the longer version? Here’s part one!
Getting to the airport:
Making it from the parking lot of my church in Austin where our group met to carpool to the airport in Houston was an adventure in and of itself. By 1:10 pm or so we were packed up and heading out. I rode in a car with a friend (hereafter known as Friend #1), her mom, and another friend (hereafter known as Friend #2), along with a bunch of luggage (not mine though, it was in another car). Somewhere between Brenham and Houston, Friend #1 looked at her passport...and discovered it was actually her dad’s. A laminated photo copy of the picture page from hers had been stuck in there somehow, so when her mom grabbed the passports she saw Friend #1’s picture...and so there we were, hours from home and another hour or so (if traffic was nice, which was doubtful) away from the airport, only a couple hours from the time we HAD to check in (or we wouldn’t get to fly) and no passport for Friend #1.
Okay, a little background on why this matters. In 6th grade, the event I was most looking forward to was my school’s 7th grade Germany trip. Then, halfway through 6th grade, I switched schools. No trip. Then, at the end of sixth grade I switched schools again, and in 8th grade I was promised an end-of-9th-grade trip - to Germany. Finally! Nope. At the end of 8th grade, we moved to Texas. So by the time this trip came around, I was afraid that I was somehow cursed to never make it to Germany, and SOMETHING would come up to stop me this time.
Many, many phone calls later, Friend #2 switched cars, since the car she switched to had room for one more, and also had her luggage. We were driving back to Brenham to meet Friend #1’s dad, who was driving down with her passport. But by this point, I was no longer concerned that I would miss a third chance at Germany. Instead, I was stubbornly determined that somehow, some way, I would make it on that plane. So while I was concerned for Friend #1’s chances of making it on the plane with me, I was relieved when I found out that rather than waiting in Brenham and risking Houston traffic, we were going to drive the rest of the way to the airport and have Friend #1’s dad meet us there. That way I could check in and they would at least be ready to go when her dad arrived.
We got there, I checked in at British Airways (more on them in a minute) and headed upstairs toward security with our group leader, the mom of another friend (hereafter known as Friend #3). We made it through security without too much trouble, and I even managed to avoid both the dreaded TSA scan AND the thorough pat-down! We got dinner, sat at the gate, and waited, hoping and praying that Friend #1’s dad didn’t get stuck in traffic. They’d talked to the British Airways people, who kindly allowed them to check in an hour later than what was normally required if they needed to. Which they did. Finally, with only about an hour until our departure time, Friend #1 and her mom made it to the gate! They had just enough time to grab dinner, and then we all boarded our plane to London.
On the plane:
Oh, international flights! Our plane left at 8:30 pm and landed in London at 5:30 am (Central Time). Yeah, 9-hour flight! Yay! *sarcasm*. Actually, it wasn’t all that bad.
We got on the plane, and I discovered Long Flight Heaven: free movies and TV, where you choose what you watch, when you watch it, and you can pause, rewind, fast-forward, whatever! I turned on The Adjustment Bureau, which I’d missed in theaters but really wanted to see. The flight attendants (who all had awesome British accents) brought us a choice of either chicken curry or pasta for dinner (never mind that we’d already had dinner at the airport - shh!) and then brought us TEA. We had British TEA in a TEACUP with sugar and milk and everything! It was amazing. Then, somehow I managed to sleep despite the uncomfortable seats, and woke to the sunrise and breakfast, which came in a box. A breakfast box. A muffin, some weird-looking granola thing, raisins, more (wonderfully British) tea, and a yogurt drink. Then, to wake myself up, I watched Unknown, which opens with the main character on a plane landing in Berlin (deja vu?). Not long after I finished that, we landed in London!
In London, we had to go through security AGAIN, even though we were just catching a connecting flight. Thankfully, all my liquids were in my checked bag, so it went smoothly enough. Unfortunately, not so for one of the guys, who got pulled aside for a full search of his backpack. Luckily, our connecting flight was delayed, so we had plenty of time.
After another quick flight, we landed in Berlin, got our bags, and met Dionesia, our tour guide (the best tour guide ever, actually). She took us to a charter bus, where we loaded our bags and headed off toward our hotel, the Ibis. There, we put our luggage in a small room in the hotel lobby before heading back out to meet the other two groups we’d be joining, one other group from Texas and one from Minnesota.
Dinner came soon after, at a little buffet place on the top floor of a department store. Then we went back to the hotel, checked in, and discovered that wi-fi was free only in the lobby. Thus concluded day #1!
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