So, right now I’m chillin’ on the plain, on my way to Hamburg Germany (from there I’m to change planes to head to Munich).
This means, I need to backtrack quite a ways. I’ll try to sum up how I got here as quickly as possible.
The day after I got back from Milan, a couple friends of mine told me they were going to Germany for a few days in a month and asked if I wanted to come along. I immediately bought my ticket.
Fast forward a month.
I spent this past weekend hanging out with some friends for birthday parties, so I didn’t really have a chance to pack / prepare for my trip. I figured that I’d just do it all the night before.
That plan was ideal… until I came home from the bar last night to some drama in my apartment (and outside). This was some serious stuff (like, I may have to change my flight, serious).
I wound up taking care of that stuff, then just passed out around 6am. I was thankfully smart during some portion of the night, because I set my alarm for noon.
This should have been ok. My flight was at 6pm, and as long as I left for the airport by 2pm, I was golden.
I woke up a little after 1…damn that snooze button!
When I felt the 1:15 being burned into the retinas of my eyes from the LED’s on my clock, I sprang out of bed, blasted some metal on my stereo to get my energy going, turned on the shower and through all my belongings on my bed (this is how I like to pack =). This way I can see everything at once, and I know I’m not missing anything. Unfortunately, it’s going to suck when I get home to a bed full of crap and all I want to do is sleep. Oh well.
Clothes, electronic gadgets, computer, and misc stuff in my backpack. Camera and book in my side-bag. Step 1, complete.
From there, I jumped into the shower, did the whole shower thing, then ran back into my room to get dressed.
Bam! I’m pretty much ready to go, and it’s 2:05! Oh yeah…
All I needed to do was run downstairs into my roommates room to scan some papers, and then I was outta there!
I tromped down the stairs and to my surprise, she was still there. Whoops! She was supposed to be gone at 8 in the morning. I apologized and we laughed about how embarrassing it would have been if she appeared upstairs right when i was running from the shower to my room…nekkid =)
I scanned my papers, ran upstairs, grabbed my things, and was out the door.
My first stop was the bank to make a deposit to make sure that I had money to spend while in Europe. From there I took a cab to Penn Station.
I hate Penn Station.
It’s full of bums, people that smell bad (besides the bums), armed (machine guns, armed) army guys walking around all the time just looking to mess with someone because they’re bored, drug dogs that you’re not aloud to pet (lame), and a ton of mindless lemmings that have absolutely know idea what’s going on around them, but somehow all collectively agree and plot to get in my way and make my brief stay there as painful as possible.
Today must have been my lucky day, because my train that was to take me to the airport had just arrived, so I didn’t have to hang around that long at all. Yay!
On the way to the airport, I double-checked my seat on the plane to make sure that I had an exit row, then I hit up SeatGuru.com to get the details on my plane. That’s when I saw the best thing of all things on that site… a little black dot next to my seat. AC POWER BABY! This means I can plug in my computer and be a geek the entire 7 hour trip. Muahahahaha!
Next task was to call my banks and open my cards for international travel. I’ve learned the hard way about this important lesson.
When the train arrived at Newark Airport, I printed out my boarding pass and headed for the shuttle that would take me to the terminal. Just like at Penn Station, the shuttle pulled up right as I got down the stairs. I’m liking this =)
Next stop, Terminal C. I know others have talked about this before, but I don’t think the word “Terminal” should be used around airports. I mean, they changed “Cock Pit” to “Flight Deck”, so why not change “Terminal” to something a little more upbeat? Anyway…. back to how my timing just rocked.
I left the tram and headed for the security checkpoint. My next major pain point in traveling… the fucking TSA. I swear it stands for “Total Shit Attitude”. Man, I hate these people. These people seriously need to be reminded that they’re not actually cops, and that they really just one step up above from a Wal-Mart greeter. I think, next time, I’m going to wear a fake badge and yell at them about their lame ass rules and shit-ass attitudes.
This time, I didn’t have to worry about it too much though, because they opened a new line, and decided that I was the cut-off point to start the new line. Boo-yah… right to the front!
Once I got through security, went to exchange some currency. the chick behind the counter convinced me that I should get one of their bank cards so I don’t have to carry cash and it comes with the perks of being replaced if lost or stolen. I decided to give it a shot. I told her to put two-thirds on the card, and give me one-third in cash. She wound up giving me two-thirds in cash. Thinking she messed up and put the other third on the card, I asked for a phone number to call to check the balance of the card and then walked to the Presidents Lounge to chill until boarding.
When I got to the Presidents Lounge, I called the number to check the balance, but the card wasn’t in the system yet, so I chose to maximize on the free drinks before my flight began boarding. I was able to get in 2 Jack-and-Cokes before they called for initial boarding. The Presidents Lounges are nice, but there’s no food in there, and you’re not allowed to bring in food. Makes absolutely no sense what so ever… meh.
While chillaxing at the bar, I was watching CNN and the top stories were both about airplane crashes. The first was a plane that crashed into a cemetery in Montana (that one actually made me snort my drink from trying not to laugh!). The other was about a FedEx plane that blew up on take off in China. This story was way better because there was video! They showed over and over, this massive jet in slow-mo trying to take off, and just after wheels-up, the tail end explodes and then engulfs the entire plane. The looks on everyones faces at the bar was priceless =)
The drinks hit me pretty quickly, which reminded me that I haven’t eaten yet, and it’s already 5pm. I headed to the food court to grab myself a Philly Cheese Steak. I thought this would be a simple procedure. Apparently I over-estimated the order taking abilities of thing that pushes the buttons and takes the money. Haven’t we figured out that you can just swivel those things around and let people place their own orders? It’s not exactly rocket science. Well… my conversation went something like this. Keep in mind that I’m recalling from memory here.
Me: I would like a Philly Cheese Steak with just mushrooms and a coke please.
Blob: BLARRRRRG!
Me: Umm… Yeah… I would like a Philly Cheese Steak with just mushrooms and a coke please.
Blob: BLARG?
Me: No…. no onions, and no lettuce. Just cheese, steak, and mushrooms.
Blob: Blarg, blag, blarg blarg!
Me: Dude, it’s simple just don’t put them on there!
Blob: Blargy blag blarg.
Me: Ok. Thank you.
(I watch blob number two make the food and I see him plop in a load of onions)
Me: DUDE! NO ONIONS!
Blob 2: BLARG!
Me: I know it normally comes with it but I told him I don’t want them, start over and this time, just don’t put them in. You don’t HAVE to put in the onions!
Blob 2: …blarg… (he mumbled this under his breath, so I’m only guessing here)
One more try later, and I get what I ordered…phew! That was a lot of work.
Onto the gate! Boarding has already started and they’ve reached general boarding, so I was able to walk right onto the plane. Once I “had my items placed safely secured in an overhead compartment” (read: put my shit away), I plopped down on my seat and nom’d away. Mmmmmm…..
The only thing that’s worth noting up to where I am now (somewhere over Iceland I think), is that when the pulled the walkway away from the plane and started to pull back, they stopped about 5 feet from where we started and then announced that they “were having fuel problems”. Wha?
I looked out my window and saw a fuel truck pulling up to the plane. Ahhh!
We’re having fuel problems = We forgot to put gas in the plane.
Rock! That would have been a short flight =)
While waiting to get gassed up, I called up the cash-card thing again to check the balance, and this time it worked. Turns out, the chick gave me two-thirds in cash AND put two-thirds on the card. SHAZAM BABY! I actually did a little dance in my seat when I heard them read the balance. This was the one time when I didn’t mind the person behind the counter not having a clue how to do her job.
On the plane, I’ve had my little dinner served to me (chicken and rice), I’ve watched “Twilight” (Utterly Horrible! I plan on doing a full write up on this later similar to my one on “Panic Room”), and now I’m writing this while getting bounced all over the place. The turbulence is ridiculous, and has been going on for about a half hour. The captain just came on the PA to tell us that this might clear up within the next hour.
So maybe these are my last words. How ironic would… Woah… THAT was a big one!
I will my belongings to my roommate.
Wish me luck!
I’m ordering some vodka now… Stewardess!
.: Adam
