When I had originally written down all the flights I would have to take in Europe, it looked exhausting. Living it was another thing. In hindsight I could have probably cut down my number of flights by two, but I've learned. Going to both England and Germany in one trip in itself was a hard task too, especially when it's your first time going overseas in the first place. I definitely know that God was with me this trip. I didn't miss any of my eight flights, even though I came close once. I made it to Dresden despite the bus drivers not knowing any English. I never felt unsafe. No one tried to steal from me. An airport employee helped me at the Berlin airport when I didn't know what I was doing without even being asked, etc.
Back to the actual getting to Europe. I flew out of Chicago on the night of September 10th, and arrived in Switzerland the next morning. In Zurich I had a 6 hour layover, before flying to Bristol, England. I arrived in Bristol the night of September 11th, and had to stay overnight in the airport for my morning flight to Berlin. Before I got to Berlin I would have an hour and a half layover in Amsterdam. When I got to Switzerland is when the first burst of anxiety occurred. The anxiety of actually being almost 5,000 miles from home for the first time. The surrealness of being in Europe in the first place. The second burst of anxiety occurred while sitting in a booth at the airport coffee shop in England after traveling for 24 hours. I hadn't gotten that much sleep, and hadn't eaten the best so that played into this anxiety. I wondered if it would be better to just fly home, because over a week in Europe suddenly seemed insane. My thoughts were calmed by the fact that I would be seeing the friends I would be staying with the next day. That the bulk of the most stressful part was probably order. That I would feel much better once I got over my jetlag, ate properly, and slept well. The closed airport coffee shop is where other travelers staying overnight camped out. There wasn't really any other places to hang out before you dropped off your bag at the airport. The airport staff had went home so I had to wait until the next morning to check in for my flight. On the certain airline I was flying with, you could only start checking in 2 hours before the flight which felt unnerving. Before I learned this fact I stood in line behind two other people who were also flying to Amsterdam. We bonded on the fact that we didn't want to miss our flight and our vacation plans etc. We joked until eventually the airport staff checked our bags and we headed to security. It turns out when we got onto the plane that I was sat next to the lady who had stood in front of me in line. We excitedly greeted each other as we discussed our vacation plans further, at the beginning of the flight. Her final destination was Sierra Leone.
And then I almost missed my flight to Berlin. Everything had been going well. The staff were even nice enough to let me cut the long line to get my passport checked due to my flight leaving within the next little over an hour. I went through the airport routine but then somehow had looped around back to the long line where I had originally began. I told the airport staff that I had somehow got turned around, and they let me cut the line again after finding out that my flight was literally leaving in the next 40 minutes. The guy checking passports noticed I had already got a stamp in my passport with that days date on it, and asked if I had already flown out of this airport today. I explained how I had gotten turned around and began booking it to my gate. It turns out I had gone through extra steps the first time that I hadn't needed to do, and would have been able to just find my gate. Time was running out, and I didn't think it would be possible to make it in time, but by some miracle I made it to my gate with like 15 minutes before take off and they let me on the plane. I arrived in Berlin the afternoon of 9/12.
I had originally planned to explore Berlin when I got there before taking a bus down to Dresden, but after having traveled so long I decided I would take one of the next buses to Dresden. All the Berlin attractions would be more than a half hour drive to get to as well. After calling my friend, Phil who I would be staying with we found that there would be buses leaving from the airport. I followed his instructions that the bus would be straight out the doors. (Another issue with my phone was that I didn't have any access to mobile data so could not access Google maps unless connected to public Wi-Fi. I had tried to download an E-sim card to be able to have data but it wasn't compatible with my phone. Since I didn't have any phone data, my friend Phil needed to purchase the bus ticket. To purchase the bus ticket it wanted to send a text confirmation and I couldn't get texts. The tickets luckily had a QR code that could be scanned when sent to my phone). I figured out where to go and started walking straight ahead, and that's when I saw a bus leaving that looked like the one I was meant to be on. I kept walking and saw that there was the same type of bus in the area it had driven away. I pulled up the ticket on my phone and showed one of the drivers. The driver spoke no English and talked in his native language. The other driver spoke broken English and I was able to figure out that the bus I had saw leaving was going to Dresden and that this one was not. Another bus pulled up and the driver pointed out that, that bus was going to Dresden. (I found out later in my trip that on the ticket it indicated the bus number.) I went up to that driver and he scanned my ticket and let me on. Since I hadn't known about the bus number thing, I don't know if this bus had been mine or the one that had driven away was, but I do know I did make it to Dresden.
Once getting to Dresden the evening of 9/12 Phil met me at the main bus area, and we took the public transit to his apartment. Once we arrived we then walked to the grocery store near Phil and his wife's apartment for the food needed for dinner that night. (People in Europe in most places go to the grocery store most days due to just buying what they can easily carry on a walk or public transit.) Phil's wife made an amazing broccoli pasta dish for dinner which we ate out on the balcony. We also had Ben and Jerry's icecream for dessert. After dinner and cleanup everyone retreated early for the night. The apartment was super cute, I wish I would have gotten more pictures of it. A sectional couch with a ton of decorative throw pillows and blankets, a polka dot rug. Artwork on the walls, and plants everywhere. A small cute kitchen, and balcony. Magazines and books in the windowsill by the couch. A little stuffed bear by the decorative pillows. When Phil was setting up the couch for me to sleep on for the night he placed the bear down by the pillow so I could have a friend while I slept.
And that is the story of my travels of just getting to Europe, and my first night there.
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