Apologies for the delay in my first post from abraod. I have been on the road ,in the air, and on a ferry for a few days now and it has all been, needless to say, exciting. Let me share with you the happenings of my journey since I left Salem for the Portland Airport on Tuesday September 21.
I flew standby on a buddy pass, which essentially means that I am an alternate as a passenger on the plane. There was a little complication with my initial flight out of the country, but i eventually made it to Germany on day two of my journey instead of day one. The buddy pass worked for me to get down to San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon, but then the SF - Frankfurt connecting flight was . . . you guessed it . . . full. So, that meant that I had to turn around and hop onto the next pland back up to Portland in order to catch another flight out to the East Coast early Wednesday morning.
Although it was a little frusterating to know that I had to be in the air for a lot longer than I had originally anticipated, I did not let it irritate me. As my mother always says "Adriane, you are a Bolliger, and we don't let those things get to us because we can always laugh about them later." Thanks mom. Really. I count myself lucky to have a buddy pass that allows me to fly for free, and a sponsor (the "provider" of the buddy pass) who was supportive and consistently available by phone throughout my entire trip. Plus I had given myself several days to get to my final destination of Tunis, Tunisia. Last week I was becoming anxious because I had not purchased any train tickets or ferry passes, but after Tuesday had come and gone and I had not even left the west coast, I felt better about my decision to wait to purchase the additional transportation.
So, Wednesday morning I woke up and told myself "ok, this is a new day, and maybe THIS time I will finally get to Germany . . . and then I can laugh about how ridiculous this has all been." After flying from PDX (which, by the way, is one of my most favorite airports in the world) to Dulles, Washington D.C., I quickly ran across the crowded terminal to find that I had made the list for stand-bys to Frankfurt! The other passengers were probably curious about the motivation for my sudden victory dance, but some things are left best without explanation. Like crazy celebratory dancing in the middle of the terminal.
As I boarded the plane, I reminisced of the flights that I had taken with the University of Oregon Marching Band and Colorguard to the Bowl Games over the last four years. For the 2008 and 2009 games, the entire UO group (consisting on band members, colorguard, cheerleaders, staff, and faculty) filled a 747 plane that greatly resembled the one that I was flying on to Frankfurt. However, this flight was overnight and was therefore much more quiet (though I love band trips because no one sleeps for the entire weekend). I was seated with one other gentleman in the very last row of the plane, and we were lucky enough to have the entire row to ourselves! I was so stoked to be able to fold up the arms of the seats and stretch out across three of them. It made the whole trip much more enjoyable. Yep, that's right, I actually slept on the overnight plane to Europe.
Upon landing in Germany, I got off the plane and onto the shuttle all while watching the sunrise over Frankfurt airport. In a way, it was very special to see the beginning of my trip start in such a fresh and meaningful way. Immediately after, I turned into a mini tourist as I took photos of all the funny German signs. For all you people who are taking German back home, stay posted for pics from the airport. Example of me being touristy: laughing to myself at 7:30 am as I leave my place in the customs line to take a picture of the signs marked "Burgers, this way" . . . who would have thought a German "burger" is a German citizen!
After meeting up with our family friend, we loaded my three bags into her car and drove one hour south to Landstuhl, a small town just outside the US military base in Ramstein. After taking care of travel logistics all morning (exchanging US dollars for euros, reserving my train tickets for my trip to Italy, reserving the hostel in Genoa, the ferry tickets from Genoa to Tunis), I found myself getting very . . . very . . . sleepy. I felt like I had been up for longer than 24 hours, even though it had only been eight hours since I had landed in Frankfurt. I laid down to take a short nap knowing that I did not want to throw off my sleep schedule any further . . . and, you guessed it . . . woke up two hours later. I imagine that all my college friends are smiling and shaking their heads at this point because this is a common false assumption that we share in relation to our ability to actually take SHORT naps in the face of sleep depravation. However, this surprisingly did not make it more difficult for me to go to sleep early that night, so I suppose that it was greatly needed after 48 hours of constant travel either in the air or across various terminals in the airports.
This morning I was up at 6:00am to catch my first of several trains that eventually took me down through Switzerland into Genoa, Italy. The European countryside is beautiful and the train transit system here in Germany (actually, throughout Europe) is fantastic. Im taking the ICE train for a portion of my trip, which travels at around 170 mph. This makes the overall experience very different from my beloved Amtrak that travels at an average speed of 40 mph. ;-) I hope the US looks the Europe and develops a similar system. That would be amazing.
I met some military guys a few rows down from me who were heading to Oktoberfest. They were stationed in Ramstein and Landstuhl, and seemed to be pretty stoked to be able to travel in their free time all across Europe. We shared stories and lunch together, and then I saw them off as I headed South to Italy while they headed North to the festival. It is not as easy as I thought trying to get around with three bags between trains, but then again I remind myself that I am going to be gone for six months, and that half of my larger bag holds gifts for future friends and colleagues. Plus, incase anyof you were wondering, Lambo (my stuffed Lamb that goes everywhere with me . . . yes, even college) is along for the ride as well. I got a lot of smiles in the terminals and on the train, so I think it's ok.
For anyone who has been trying to text me, my phone is currentlyout of commission. It does not function outside the US, despite the information that I was given when I purchased it, so I will be finding a replacement in Tunisia. For now, emails, blog comments, and skype calls or messages are the preferred method. Thank you all for reading and keeping me in the loop with what is happening in your lives!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An afterthought about train travel in Europe and a crazy Italian taxi driver:
Although I had a lot of fun with the traintrip, Im not sure that I would do it again in the same way. In total took six different trains and one metro plus walking on foot to get to my destination. That is a few too many trains changes for me, two of which occured because I missed my stop while on the train. I was supposed to arrive at my hostel tonight at around 6:30, but instead arrived much later at 10:30. The scene was set for a noir film. There was a crazy storm in Genoa that evening with wind, rain, thunder, and of course lightning. The cabdriver drove me to the neighborhood where he "thought" my hostel was, and then dropped me off on the corner waving his Italian arms in the air and saying " It eez nawt faahr. Guud lauck bella!". yeah, thanks crazy Italian cab driver. with no phone, laptop, or even a remote knowledge of the Italian language, I was able to ask a spanish woman in a shop (who surpisingly did not speak Italian, English, French, OR Arabic) about the hostel through a crazy serious of hand gestures: literally my last option at the bottom of the Adriane creativity barrel. Thank goodness it worked and she led me to an apartment building that had been remodeled into a multistory hostel . . . with no exterior signs, hours of opration, or phone number contact. Not kidding. So, im pretty lucky I suppose. Someone is looking out for me.
I must say that on the bright side, everyone that i met along the way (Americans, Swiss Germans, Australians, Spanish mono-lingual lady and Italians (excluding crazy cab driver) were all very helpful in getting me to the correct train. I have enough challenges with train connections when they are in English, and a few more when the language keeps switching every two stations. However, I am glad that I arrived well, even it took a lot longer than anticipted.
Glad that you made it safely! Drink it all in.
ReplyDelete