Today… err… well for the past few days I’ve been travelling to finally get to Freiburg, Germany. It started out the few days after my going away party when I began to frantically pack anything and everything I could possibly need in a foreign country, which ended up being 2 luggage things full. I left from Indy, but because mom took me to the airport, she wanted to leave extra early just to be safe. So I got to the airport at about 5 even though my flight wasn’t until 9pm. My mom, naturally, was a little emotional seeing her son off to a foreign country for months. She was more nervous than I was! But I didn’t see her cry when I left her, and I know that took some work.
Anyway, my first problems of the journey began at check-in when the agent was determined I needed a visa to fly out. He said if I didn’t have a visa I was going to have to go home. Now, I had learned from the program that I didn’t need a visa and I told him I was going on a study program and that I didn’t need one. I don’t know if he thought I was lying, but he told me he couldn’t let me go. But then another attendant came over and showed him something on the computer and he finally realized I WAS studying for a semester abroad and didn’t need a visa, and I wasn’t even going to Switzerland. Well I made it out of there and then had to wait 2 hours for my flight. So I’ll just map the trip out for you:
· 5PM Arrive at Airport
· WAIT WAIT WAIT: The airport was almost empty at this point, which was a little eerie to see this huge airport with no one in it.
· 9PM Flight to Chicago
· 37 min. Flight. Read one chapter lol; it was so cool when I flew over Chicago, the lights from the city clearly laid out how square the city blocks were. Also the plane was about the size of a pencil. I had to bend over walking to my seat. After the pilot wound up the rubber band, we took off.
· International Flight. After landing I got off my plane and looked for the connection flight sign, which conveniently wasn’t working. So I asked someone at a desk who had no idea. When I finally found out that I had to be at gate K15, I realized it had been boarding for 10 minutes. (Aunt Kandy was right… not enough time to connect to my other flight!) So there I was running like a fool through Ohaare yelling out “WHICH WAY TO K15??!!” Luckily I wasn’t the only bimbo late for a flight, running around like a chicken without a head. This lady started to run beside me and said, as if the world was ending “Are you going to St. Paul??? HOLD THAT PLANE FOR ME” I told her that I was actually going to London, and she became more panicked. But someone must have sacrificed three rabbits to the airplane gods that day in my honor, because when I made it, I was just in the nick of time… ANYWAY! It was close but the plane that I flew over the pond on was HUGE. Compared to the smallest one I’ve ever been on in Chicago. I got 3 seats to myself in the back, which was like a half mile back down the runway…
· On the overnight flight I slept a little, read a little and got a free dinner and breakfast! The hostesses were really nice and we talked a lot. The dinner was beef and rice and green beans… it was actually really good. They also gave out free wine on the plane… I took two. After my two mini-glasses of wine, I slept on and off for about 4 hours.
· When we arrived at Heathrow, there was a dense fog warning, so we couldn’t land. We had to fly over London in circles several times before they would let us land, which I wasn’t too upset about, I got to fly over the center of London and saw the eye, parliament, and big ben!
· Heathrow is about the size of Columbus, Indiana. There was a whole shopping district it seemed too. Also it was great to hear the fancy British accent everywhere. I giggled a little when the little old lady asked me for my “Teeket” and then directed me to a “lift”.
· From London, I flew to Basel (Bale if you’re French) which is about an hour away from Freiburg. When I landed there, I had to go through customs, which the officer’s supposed English, was only a little bit better than my German. When I finally figured out which bus I needed to take, I had an hour to kill so I chilled an hour trying to pick up what people were saying.
· The busride took about an hour and then I was in the center of Freiburg. Now, I hadn’t made a reservation for a hotel, because the people I had tried to contact online hadn’t answered before I left the states…. So I was kind of on my own. I just went to the one hotel I knew was for sure open. It was a bit expensive, but so worth it after my hours of travelling. The front desk guy, I started to speak German to, but it was so butchered because I was so tired, he ended up just speaking English to me. That night I showered, took a little walk around the city, and then went to bed.
That really sums up my adventures TO Freiburg. And after seeing the city just a little at night, I’m so excited to see what I’m going to do in the coming days! Also if you were wondering, everyone speaks German in Germany; Frau did NOT make up the language just to torture us in high school. Anyway! Bis Gleich!
