This was the pre stages of packing
I also got some of the super sweet vacuum bags. You shove as many things as you possible can into them
and then suck all of the air out with a vacuum. The bag then feels like it is a hundred pounds, but it is really just more compact.
We then drove to the airport. I was alright just thinking about how my flight was going to be and getting nervous about leaving everything I know and being thrown into a country that I do not know the language, besides, horse, dog and sink, things I am sure I will not need.
We waited in line to check in and I paid $50 to check my second bag on my Lufthansa flight. Then went over to Chick –Fil-A and ate my last meal in the United States for the next six months.
My mom and Steven walked me over to my gate and said bye, no one cried. Then I got to my gate and realized everyone around me was speaking German and I started getting hot flashes and trying to remember why I was putting myself through this. Why was I leaving everything I have ever known? My mom, dad, Steven, Tucker, everything. And I had never felt so alone in y life, I mean there were 300 people around me but I could not communicate with any of them and I just wanted my mom. lol
I started to tear up a little but held it together and finally boarded my flight. I sat next to an older married couple from the U.S that now live in Luxembourg. They were so nice and assured my I would love Innsbruck. When the plane was taking off the woman even asked me if I needed to hold her hand!
The flight took forever, the food was pretty gross, the first meal was chicken and mashed potatoes, or paper and water I should say, the chicken was tough and of coarse they do not have sharp knives to cut it with so I gave up. For some reason all of the flight attendants would speak to me in German, they would speak English to the people next to me and then switch to German for me, idk how long it took her to realize I speak English.
The meal towards the end of the flight was egg and spinach and something I thought was potatoes but it was definitely not. The egg was dry and so was the spinach, I love spinach but I couldn’t eat it. So I gave up again.
I watched “Morning Glory” with Rachel McAdams, I thought it was going to be great from the commercials but it wasn’t, then I tried falling asleep. FAIL. I cannot sleep sitting up.
So I finally landed in Frankfurt and they unloaded us right there on the runway and put us on shuttles to bring us to the terminal. The older woman said she has been flying from the U.S to Germany for 20 years and they had never done that before, just my luck.
So there were not even decent enough to bring us to the inside of the terminal but the outside, so we had to go through the front of the airport and have our passports checked. The man drilled me and acted like he wasn’t going to let me through. But he did. Then the crowd moved to security. They do not make you take your shoes of there. So I put everything in bins and sent it through, of coarse the sensor went off a hundred times and I ended up taking my shoes off anyway, getting felt up, all over by a German woman with a metal detector, then she said I was fine. I look over and another security guy is going through my carry-on, apparently metal bracelets look like bombs.
I had the next three hours to sit and wait for my flight. The bathrooms were so nice and clean and private, the sinks and stalls are in separate rooms and each toilet is full enclosed, so basically no children will crawl or peak under your stall, which has happened to me multiple times before in the states. I also learned that the toilets have two buttons, one for number one and one for number two, very interesting!
Outside of the bathroom was this weird looking box/room type thing that was clear. I figured out it is for smokers, they make them sit in a filtered box. Hahahaha.
So for this flight we walked down a hallway, down stairs, outside, onto a shuttle, which took us on a what felt like 15 minute drive to our plane. THEN there were a bunch of exchange students talking next to me that really thought we were being punk’d… our plane had propellers.
I have never been so scared to get on an aircraft in my life. The 25 of us that could actually fit on the plane, walked up the steps and took our seats. I buried my head in my book, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, and tried to tune out the loud shaking of the plane. The man next to me passed out, practically on my shoulder, until we were in sight of the Alps.
OMG, they are AMAZING, I didn’t pull out my camera because electronics were supposed to be off and I really did not want to risk it on this sorry excuse for a plane.
We, again, got off the plane on the runway at the airport in Innsbruck. Which really isn’t an airport at all, it is a runway with a building next to it, you don’t even need a shuttle, you get off the plane and walk right inside to get your bag, I don’t even know why they bother bringing your bags inside.
I managed to get my two huge bags, carry on, and purse into the next room, which is where people pick you up, there were two benches in there. Haha I waited about three minutes and then Johanna pulled up to pick me up. Her and Matt helped me get my bags to the car and she drove us to our hostel.
More to come in the next post!
Tschuss!!
(if you click on the photo it will get larger)
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