It was 11:30 p.m. when we finally got onto our flight (good enough to start day two, right? haha). We were supposed to board the flight at 10:30 but the plane arrived later than scheduled. First they boarded families with children (not us), then Military in uniform (again, not us), and then finally everyone else could get on. We were one of the last people to board the plane, which wasn't too bad of an idea since there were assigned seats. Plus they advertise that most of their planes have extra leg room so I was looking forward to more room so I could get comfortable and sleep.
We walked onto the plane, and noticed that there was hardly any room for anyone. It was an older plane with hardly any room. The isles were not fun to walk down, especially since the seats were small so anyone sitting on an isle seat has their arm hanging off. Now just add some luggage to that mix and you're having some real fun. We sat down and realized we had even less leg room than we did on the last plane. My knees were touching the seat in front of me and I was feeling majorly claustrophobic. I was to the point of break down now. This move has been incredibly stressful and so not easy, especially with little sleep. On top of all of this and other little things that would take way too long to tell you all about it, the plane was having some issues so we sat there for an hour while they fixed it. All I wanted to do was get some sleep finally (remember, we're at about 39.5 hours of awake time now), and there was no way I was going to do that until after the plane took off so I could wait until my ears adjusted to the new altitude.
Finally things were all good and we were cleared for take off. We got into the air and were flying steady now and I passed out, fast. The next thing I remember is my husband waking me up asking me to move so he could use the restroom. After he got back it was really hard for me to get back to sleep. Especially since the guy in front of me had leaned his seat back. Now my knees were touching the seat and my face wasn't too far from it either. I tried sleeping but it was just way too enclosed for me. I couldn't handle it. Luckily there were two seats behind us open. I told my husband I was going back there and it was the best decision at that time. There was nothing under or on the seat in front of me, or next to me. I had lots of room and I loved it. I passed out and slept pretty good this time.
Next thing I remember is waking up extremely hungry. Probably because I could smell everyone around eating food that the stewardess passed out. My husband looked back and then got their attention and asked if we could get some food too. I ate and watched half of the movie "Elf" on my tablet (thanks to the Play Store I got it for free!). The food was okay, I mean it is airplane food haha. After I ate I passed out again and next thing I knew the pilot was saying over the speaker that we would be landing soon. I shook my head to wake up a little more and paid attention to the windows around me to watch and see Germany from up above. I could see lots of trees, and lots of snow! Soon enough we were landing and it didn't take long until we were off the plane and walking into the airbase's airport.
We went through customs and showed our I.D.'s and passports, then we headed to pick up our luggage. It took quite a while, so I stayed with the dog and some carts we grabbed while my husband watched out for our bags. Luckily there was wifi so I connected to it and was able to call my Mom through Facebook. How fantastic is that? I have never been so thankful for things like Facetime, Facebook and Skype until now. I let her know we landed and what all was going on. One of the security guards came to me and let me know where I could exit to let my dog out for a little while, and that they would let me back in.
It was so exciting to go out into the snow, I can't even remember the last time I had seen this much snow, and the last time I lived in snow was when I was about five years old. I was like a little kid smiling and taking pictures of it all. Whiskey had no problem getting used to it and walking through it. She even made a friend with an airman along the way!
Once we finally got our luggage (it took a while) we were sent into a room where they organized luggage by destination, then into another room where we sat and waited for everyone else to get there. I was reunited with the other wives I was talking to while waiting in line the previous day and we continued to visit (I sure wished that they were coming to the base we are stationed at, they were nice to be around). Once everyone was in the room they did a roll call and then separated everyone into two groups. We were then told that we were the lucky group that was staying the night at Ramstein. We didn't have to pay for the room, just for food and whatnot. And then a $10 deposit since we had a dog, which was whatever.
We "checked in" at the hotel there and were told that our room is in another building. We asked if there was transportation and they said that we could walk there or take a cab. We took a cab considering it was snowing....and we had all of our luggage with us. Taking the cab we realized that there was no way in hell we could have walked to our room. I mean, we could have, but it would have taken a long time and I would have been pissed and overly tired. It really irritated me though because we shouldn't have to pay for a cab to get there, I mean it's not even our fault we had to stay there. There should have been some sort of shuttle or other free transportation. We later learned that we got sent to the far rooms and not put into rooms right in the hotel where the lobby was because we had a dog. People with animals and babies were sent to the far lodging because they did not want any noise for the pilots who were staying in the main hotel building. How f**ked up is that?! They make the families who have more things and bodies to transfer figure out a way to head over to a far building. I was really upset about that. Rant over now...
We went to our room and I was so glad to finally sleep in an actual bed. We had picked up food before we headed over and ate dinner while we watched a movie. We got great sleep that night too. It was either a full or queen sized bed that we were in (and I'm used to our king) but I didn't even realize because I was just happy to be sleeping in a bed instead of a chair haha.
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Stay tuned for day three of our moving adventure!
