Germany

I know these are on the same day but this deserves a post in itself. Natalie, I hope you are reading this! Being one of the best story tellers I know, I feel that you will really appreciate this story. Sadly, I’m not as interesting as Natalie. When I check in at the Austin airport, they said I would need to get my baggage and go through customs in Germany. Well as the plane is landing they say that all connecting flights will have their luggage automatically moved. Naturally and very typically, I was confused. That confusion led to many awkward moments (shout out to Michelle who shares my awkwardness and Laura who is our friend anyway). So I asked the lady who is supposed to be helping with these types of situations. She tells me to go to the second passport control and they’ll tell me what to do. So I go get into the MASSIVE line. When I hand the lady my passport she, in stereotypical airport security fashion, says nothing, doesn’t smile, stamps my passport, and hands it back. So I think to myself “Its fine there will be signs everywhere”. Well hello, I am not in America anymore! So I follow what signs there are up an escalator. When I get to the top I see I’ve encountered some type of tram. So I walk to the other end and right back down the escalator-awkward moment #1. Then I find the main area and look for a Lufthansa counter. The lady here is very nice. When I checked my bags in Austin, they only checked them until Frankfurt (thanks Us Airways). I had also thought it would be a good idea to give the receipts for the luggage to my mom and had to tell the sweet lady this-awkward moment #2. She sweetly looks it up and finds the receipt. Then she tells me that it’s dumb of US Airways to only check my bags until here and not give me a boarding pass. Of course I’m not sure how to respond to that since I had no choice in the matter and fumble greatly with my words-awkward moment #3. This poor nice lady witness lots of weirdness. So she tells me to go to terminal C and ask someone there. This man is also sweet (I decided I really like Germany) and very helpful. He tells me to go to this big lift (elevator) around the corner and go down. Then I will turn right, pick up a black telephone and be connected to baggage claim. As I’m waiting for the lift I am silently praying for safety because this all seems so sketch. So the elevator opens and out comes all these pilot and official airport people and I feel like I shouldn’t get on this elevator- awkward moment#4. I get on anyway, turn right and see the phone and a man with a button that says “Ask me for help”. So I ask him.{ Now would be a good time to point out that I have had to show all these people my boarding pass, two other plane tickets, passport, and baggage claim sticker.} Anyways, this man just says come with me. This is where it takes a turn for the worse (haha not really, but it got a little crazy). He opens this door with his ID and we step inside. We go through two other secure doors and I start to worry. It was very silent, the walls were all plain and it was kinda scary- awkward moment #5. As we step out of this hallways and I say a quick “thanks” for the safety, we arrive in baggage claim. He tells me to go ask the US Airways man for help. So I do that and he walks me over to the lone bags. I see my bags and breathe a big sigh of relief!! Then I have to strap my bags together (see other post) which is way harder than it looks-awkward moment #6. Then I drop my bags off and the lady asks me why I didn’t check my bags for all 3 flights. To Which I respond “I have no clue”. So I think that I’m home free! I find the security entrance to my gate and think that I will finally get to sit down. Well the guy checking tickets suggests I try to get an earlier flight and to go to desk 444 or 446. They tell me that I'm in the wrong place and I need to find the ticket desk. Well I passed it and didn’t know. So the desk I thought was the ticket counter tells me again where to go. This time around I found it, find out that it will be $200 to change-no thanks. So I have to go back to the security gate and hope that I don’t see the guy. And I don’t! However, he is in the line area. So I cannot escape him-awkward moment#7. However, he turns out to be really sweet and giving me directions where all to go. I finally made it to my gate! If you know me, this trip through the airport is not that surprising. I figured that you would get a kick out of reading it and imagining a frazzled, super tired, jetlagged, sweating, zombie me going through the airport. Never a dull moment, right?! Love you all!