Today, I was running on about 5 hours of sleep. As much as I tried to get to bed early last night, it just didn't happen, too much packing and such to accomplish.
The path to get on the plane for our Atlanta leg of the journey was a process and we kinda thought we weren't going to make it at first. The lines to check in a bag were absurdly long, not to mention the security check. However, it was nice that they do not do x-Ray screening on everyone here in Europe (unless the detector goes off.)
And of course, I totally forgot about the small jar of honey I had stowed away for my Father. Apparently, thick creamed honey is considered a liquid. Whatever. At least I have my little single serve packs for him to try.
It wouldn't have been so bad if the security guy hadn't enjoyed teasing me about it. I had used my line about having two sisters and five brothers back home.
"Aber Sie haben fünf brüder!"
"Who will feed them?"
"I think he was flirting with you, just a little bit." said Aunt Rachel.
(Sometimes I have trouble telling when people are flirting.)
"But he's old-ish, and that's creepy!"
This same chap tried to take Aunt Rachel's extra collapsible cane because it might be "used as a weapon."
"Oh, you mean like this? *WHACK*
Thankfull she did not take my advice, listed above. We may not have made it home.
;)
Next, my laptop, my phone and yours truly had to walk all the way to this shady back room to be swabbed with strip of what appeared to be paper by a Polizei dude. (I was not swabbed, but I wouldn't have put that entirely out of the question. Anything is possible.)
Though I really have no right to complain, because my bag (and Rachel's too) were not overweight, and the main thing that I was concerned about- letting my super cool yet rather big Deuter backpack pass for a "purse"- ended up being nothing to worry about. They let it on.
I think it was because I said "yes ma'am" to the check in lady and perhaps she thought that was cute.
Do you recall the flirty Amsterdam border guard? No? Well, you can read about him.
Apparently, the stamp that he put on my passport was so very wobbly that the Germany border guards had trouble reading my date of departure. Thanks buddy.
Since we boarded the flight rather late, and with me carrying all but one bag of luggage, and then the luggage struggling to fit in the overhead, let's just say that by the time I got to my seat I was just DONE. And still thinking about the jar of honey I had to leave. Oh well. Thank goodness they didn't bat an eye at my seventy bars of chocolate.
To set the mood, I plugged in my long-dormant "folksy/bluegrass/country" playlist on Spotify, clicked shuffle, and the first song I got was Charlie Daniels playing "South's Gonna Do It Again."
The guy I ended up sitting next to on the plane was reading a civil war history book and so I figured we'd get along just swimmingly. He kept very much to himself and went from book to movie to snack to movie to sleep.
I looked over the middle aisle to see Rachel sitting next to man with a little girl chattering away on his lap. When the flight time is nine hours, I think that I got the better end of the deal with Mr. Keep-To-Himself. I don't like sitting next to "talkers" on long flights, so this suited me just fine.
It was a very clear day and as such, when we took off, one could see all the way back to the airport and took the all too familiar route that most over seas flights go, over Schönaich and Böblingen and Esslingen and Sindelfingen and Vahlingen and all the other towns I know so well.
You know you are flying high when you can see planes flying below you. Yeesh. We flew over some of Switzerland and France, which did not have the red and orange roofs I have become accustomed to. Spain's cities look like ugly glittering-grey gashes in the earth when seen from above. I also saw plenty of ocean, which, on a clear day, is almost indistinguishable from the sky.
During the nine hours, when we weren't eating the surprisingly good food served to us, I watched the Imitation Game (BENEDICT!!) and Unbroken (thankfully they had the edited version of that last one.) I have read the novel that inspired Unbroken, and the only thing I didn't like about the movie adaptation of was that in my opinion, it didn't give proper credit to his faith and his journey to the Lord after the war was over, but other than that, I thought it fantastic.
I also watched Cinderella, the new one with Lily Jones, along with Cate Blanchett as the stepmother, and Helena Bonham Carter as the fairy godmother. Cute adaptation, and I do love a good happy ending. Well, I take that back. I like either happy ending stories or tragic/depressing story endings.
The movies helped keep my mind off the slowly creeping plane icon on the modem that tells you just how far you have left to go (longer than you might wish.)
Then we had a rather frustrating time at ATL airport. Frustrating would be an understatement.
Our layover was so short that when I realized the time we had left before our next flight's take off, I had no idea how we'd manage to make it through customs, immigration, picking up our checked baggage AND get done with the second security check.
The wheelchair that was supposed to expedite the process was AWOL, and so Aunt Rachel had to walk all over tarnation with no assistance. By the time we got through all the aforementioned hoopla and found a wheelchair that I could push for her, I rushed like a madwoman through the airport only to arrive at the gate minutes after they closed the flight. We (well, especially me) were very frustrated at this point. How on earth does one manage to get through all necessary checkpoints within such a narrow time frame? Why even put that time on the ticket, if it can't happen?
Thankfully, a Delta flight going to Charlotte was leaving in an hour, so we were transferred to that one.
By the time we got on that plane I was covered in sweat and we were worn out, but so happy to be finally headed back to Carolina.
At the time, it was extremely frustrating, but looking back, it's rather comical, the two of us rushing around the Atlanta airport on a Monday afternoon, with our poor biological clocks set at approx. 10 PM Germany time.
I had prepared myself for the inevitable reverse culture shock, and it may sound ridiculous, but one of the first things I thought was "wow, everything is written in English! No more constant decoding/ code cracking." Well yeah, no joke, it is America after all. Already said "Danke" and "Entschuldigung" by mistake.
Let me tell you, it is one of the best feelings in the whole world to see your Mom waiting expectantly for you at Baggage Claim. I waved to her and then ran up for a big ol' hug.
Having our checked luggage safely in hand, we headed to the van. Can I say how HUMONGOUS it looks to my eyes, which are conditioned to seeing small cars and minivans?
We ate at Jason's Deli together and we enjoyed talking about the trip and what I missed on the home front, along with what's going on at home.
Mother drove part of the way home and then I did the rest. I walked in to a flurry of hugs and banners and FLOWERS and wild blueberries picked especially for me. I felt so loved, and I'm so grateful to be home! I missed everyone so much. Will blog my closing thoughts tomorrow.
1 comment:
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