It's official! We are finally in Germany. We got here a couple days ago and have been trying our hardest to adjust to this new time zone. We are 9 hours ahead of our usual time so I'm sure it is going to take us a while. It's weird talking to friends who just wake up when you're only a few hours from going to bed!
We survived our crazy long flights and boy oh boy was it a journey. After our last flight (and before our 9 hour bus ride) I looked over to my husband and said "We aren't coming back to the states and going through this again until we absolutely have to." And I mean it. It was not fun getting here, as you will soon find out..
Saturday
We were already on leave (vacation) and visiting family in Northern California and have been for the past couple weeks when it was time for us to leave on our moving adventure. We left around 4 or 5 in the evening and started our drive to the airport. It was about an 8 hour drive, and our flight left around 6:30 in the morning. Our last meal in California was In-N-Out, of course!
We decided to leave the evening before and get to the airport early for several reasons. One - taking a pet on the flight was first come first serve to fill the "pet spots" and we did not want any problems. The sooner we got there the better, right? Two - We didn't want to get a hotel just for barely a night, so we drove down with just enough time to check the dog in early, and wait a few hours to get on the plane. Not getting a hotel meant we didn't sleep (we were doing everything we could to save money).
So by the time we got onto the plane we had been awake for 24 hours already. It was a flight across the states so it was only a few hours long and not too bad. I had an okay amount of leg room and we were able to find seats next to each other. The only things I were worried about was how the dog was going to do (it was her first flight) and our luggage getting treated well (and not getting lost). We were about to take off and I popped some gum into my mouth to ease the popping of my ears (little easy trick if you didn't know that already). The next few moments are blurry because I was going in and out of sleep. I was so tired I couldn't keep myself awake. Once I finally realized we were up in the air I took my gum out afraid I would end up swallowing it in my sleep.
It wasn't comfortable trying to sleep on this ride, with little leg room and a full flight. Plus there was another family with a dog that was whining the whole time. Thankfully our dog just took this as an opportunity to take a good nap, she did so great I was very impressed! I didn't like the flight attendants at all, sadly. This had to be the bad flight experience, right? When I had several days of traveling. Of course. The attendants were rude and snobby. There was even a point where I accidentally spilled my water down my shirt and asked her politely for some napkins and showed her what had happened. She said "oh of course just one moment!" And went back to talk with the other working women, never bringing me anything for the rest of the flight. That was my last straw.
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When we arrived at the BWI airport on the East Coast we had an 8 hour layover until our next flight. It was night time over there (don't ask me times I was too tired to remember). We had to exit the security and pick up our luggage. We luckily got every single one and went to get some carts for them. There was no way we could carry four big suitcases, one small one, two bags and a dog without some carts. Sadly for us, they cost $5 per cart. $10 well spent, right? We stacked our belongings and walked across the airport to the USO.
(The USO in LAX was amazing. They were incredibly welcoming, had free luggage carts, welcomed our pet (as long as she stayed in her carrier which was no problem), had free food and drinks, showers, computers, couches, everything! And they were open 24/7 which came in handy considering we got there the night before our flight.)
The USO at BWI was nothing compared to the one in LAX. We were incredibly disappointed with it. We arrive at the doors and see that it's basically the size of two hotel rooms. It's open until 10pm, had no food, charged for drinks, didn't allow pets, and didn't allow luggage carts. For real?! We just spent $10 on these damn carts and we can't even go into the damn USO. Even if we got rid of the carts we couldn't go in because of our dog. Which is even extra ridiculous considering she's the most behaved dog you could meet, plus she is hypoallergenic (meaning people with allergies can be around her, and she doesn't shed).
We decided to say screw it and just went to the ticket counter for our next flight and waited in line a few hours for them to open. I stayed in line with our luggage while my husband took our dog to the bathroom outside. I met two wives while standing in line and they stood around next to me and we visited for a while which was nice. After a while the lines started moving and we were able to check our bags and pay for the dog to be on the flight. This was a huge relief because there was a lot of paperwork involved with taking our dog there, thankfully everything was good and she was able to go with us with no problems! We were off to our terminal!
We had several hours until our flight and were so happy to be able to sit down and rest. We were going to get something to eat and drink and use some free internet until we had to leave. Oh waiiiit, apparently none of the restaurants were open on Saturdays. Because that makes sense, right? We went to the little store in the airport but all they really had were things like chips and candy. It would have been nice to know that nothing was open in there, we would have brought food with us.
So now it was time for us to sit, and wait for our flight. Hungry, with only about 2 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours. I had my feet up on a suitcase in front of me because my ankles were swollen, trying not to pass out. What a crazy start to our adventure.
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So far the traveling wasn't so fun, and extremely tiring. But I promise it get's better...eventually! haha. Click here for day two!
