Day 1
Friday March 4th - Saturday March 5th
I'm already late - go figure.
I'm supposed to meet Molly and Patricia at 4:00 sharp and here it is 4:01 and I'm just now managing to hop out of my room. With me, I have my purse, carry on, jacket, luggage, and wheelchair. Both Molly and Patricia have that much as well, minus the wheelchair of course. Somehow us three have to make it from McGlinn hall to the Golden Dome. For those not familiar with campus, that's a decent distance, especially with the amount of stuff we have with us. Molly was in charge of pushing the chair, Patricia dealt with the luggage, and I sat on my lazy bum and held the small bags. To make things even more hilarious, Patricia connected two of the suitcases with this strap thing. It looked absurd but dang was it handy.
We made it to the bus just in time. The bus ride was scorching and much longer than I expected. Catherine was my bus buddy for this adventure, very sweet gal she is. Somewhere along the way I fell asleep and woke up suddenly when the bus came to a complete halt. I was so confused and hurriedly packed up all of my things back into my carry on thinking we were at the airport. As I struggled, I realized that we were only at a stop light.. false alarm. We were somewhat close to the airport though, so packing up wasn't for nothing.
Once off the bus, the real excitement began. After we checked our bags, I was directed away from the group to the handicap line. Patrick, our assistant director was in charge of pushing me for this part. The people working the express lines were difficult to understand, so we ended up in the military line. Already frazzled, I get up to the guy who needs my passport and boarding pass and low and behold, mine is missing. Typical me put it in the opposite zipper to what I originally thought, so luckily, I was able to find it after wasting 3 minutes of the worker's time. Then the normal invasive security pat down was initiated. Once complete, Patrick and I were sent on our merry way to the terminal. Even with my flub with the boarding pass we were the first ones there.
Eventually the rest of the group joined us and we were all fairly hungry. O'hare doesn't usually disappoint with options but for some reason, this area of the airport didn't have much to choose from. Our group decided to eat at Chilis, seeing as it was really the only decent choice in sight. Everything was great except our waitress. She had this attitude the entire time and on top of that, she brought us the wrong food and then proceeded to act like it was our fault. Even she couldn't bring me down though, I was with a group of great people, eating cheese curds (which were tied for highest saturated fat on the menu directly behind the brownie chocolate explosion), and in an hour I'd be on my way to Europe. I had no room for negativity!
Patrick and I got to board the plane first #handicapperk . He offered to carry my bags before we got on and I was adamant that I would be fine. That was before I saw how huge the plane was. Holy cow.. Did I mention this was my first international flight? By the time I got back to my seat four rows from the back of the plane, I was dying, BUT I managed. I soon was introduced to my plane buddy, who just so happened to be Nick. I was delighted because I already sort of knew him so I wasn't worried about being able to hold conversation with him for an extended period of time. There were so many options available on how one can spend their time on a 9 hour flight. It took some time, but I was finally able to make a decision on watching The Blindside. Near the end of the heartfelt film, they served our first meal. It was delicious, better than I expected anyways. I chose the pasta option and was very pleased with the result. Upon finishing, I thought it was time to take an adventure to the restrooms which lie below the seating area on the plane. Yes folks, I had to hop down the stairs on a plane hurling itself thousands of miles an hour through the sky, please hold your applause. Going down was easy, child's play actually. Up, for some reason, was soooooo difficult. I made it, but it was NOT a walk in the park. Nick got to see all sides of me on that plane ride. I removed my face proceeded to perform my nightly face routine before falling asleep. It wasn't a good sleep or a long one, but I was able to at the very least. Nick and I both almost slept through breakfast, which was horrifying, but luckily the flight attendants were very kind and helpful and brought us a plate once we woke up. Before landing I used the restroom again, but the attendants had seen me struggle the first time so they allowed me to use THE FIRST CLASS bathrooms this go around. I was too excited for this experience. It was larger than the one's below and it had a window. I was frightened about mooning another plane or a bird in passing but other than that, it was just a regular bathroom experience. I began watching the Vow all the way until our insanely smooth landing.
Munich's airport is eerie in the sense that it reminds me of a dystopian world, but fascinating by how pristine everything looks. Glass everything surrounded us, fancy elevators and interesting passage ways. Only I could manage to have communication issues with the first European person I come into contact with on the trip. This woman in charge of wheelchair assistance was trying to ask me if I needed a chair and I kept saying no mine is on the plane. Apparently, until I said yes, she couldn't bring me my chair from the plane. Beyond confused, Ned Molly and I followed her through these passages until we got to the main area. There she was adamant that we ride this golf cart thing throughout the airport with her. It was odd, but we did it. At customs, I had an issue, again, go figure! I don't really know what happened, but the guy kept looking at me and had to go ask his colleague about something related to me and getting into the freaking country. Don't worry though, I was eventually allowed through.
Ned continues to push me to get my luggage and to currency exchange. He is tour director though, so Andy calls him over to take attendance as the woman is counting my money. Politely, he asks Matt, the kid behind me, to push me over to the group when the woman is done. So what does Matt do? He follows directly behind Ned as the woman with my money looks at my incredulously like I'm the weirdest person ever. I'm embarrassed and I explain to Matt what Ned meant. He is embarrassed as well and takes me back to I can grab my cash. I apologize and we go back over to the group for attendance. Two of our people are missing. What a fabulous start to the trip. The girls had to go to the bathroom and got lost trying to find us. Luckily, they figured it out and all was fixed semi easily.
Another country, same bus ride through flat farmland. Did we even leave the Midwest? I take a nap through most of our four hour trip through Germany but luckily wake up for the ending to get a nice glimpse of the ALPS. We're not in Indiana anymore folks!
Salzburg, Austria was our official first stop. It's the city of Mozart's birth and the Vonn Trapp family. Once we parked the bus, all any of us wanted to do was go to the bathroom, eat, and sleep. However, instead we have to take a fifteen minute walk across the city to a rehearsal. Awesome. It truly wasn't terrible however, the city is honestly the most beautiful place I've ever been and on top of that, the professor directing us was so unbelievably kind to us all. The biggest negative to all of this though is the frightening hill that Patrick had to push me up. It was steep, made of cobblestone, and full of people. Not going to lie either, down may have been worse than up. Gripping my arm rests and slow and steady movements allowed us both to survive that experience.
We finished the evening by having a pre-arranged dinner at the hotel. It was fancy and included a weird beef dish, bread/stuffing thing, vegetables and delicious cake! What it did not include was enough water though. I was so dehydrated from the plane. All I wanted was a proper drink of something and the restaurant couldn't even offer me that. Exhausted and full, I decided to get an early night so I could be prepared for the day ahead. Can't wait!
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