Getting to Europe - June 15 & 16

At the airport!

So my trip started off with a bang - I had everything packed and I was rushing around trying to get everything done before my plane on Sunday evening, but I made it to the airport, my whole family came to see my off, except for Roger , who had left on Appalachian Service Project. I left my phone with the fam, said goodbye, and then realized as soon as I got inside that my plane to Charlotte was delayed, which would likely result in missing the plane to London . Go figure, US Airways is so lame. So anyway, they had to reroute me through Philadelphia, and then my plane there was delayed (again, lame) but luckily we finally got off to London on at 7 hour flight. I didn't sleep too much on the plane, resulting in some tired confusion finding my way through customs in Gatwick airport, but all in all it was fine, and I didn't have too long of a layover before I was off on a 2 hour flight to Luxembourg.

When I landed in Luxembourg, the airport felt deserted except for the people who had just gotten off my flight... luckily my backpack arrived unharmed, and by the time I got all the straps adjusted and such the airport was totally empty! I went out to find the bus, and although the bus driver didn't speak great English and I barely speak any French, we figured it out, and I took the bus into the city. I had planned to eat dinner in Luxembourg City and walk around before getting on the train, but I was so tired and zoned out that I figured I'd be better off just getting on a train! So I went straight to the train station, and caught a 2 hour train to Liege, Belgium, and from there I was going to catch a night train to Hamburg, Germany to meet Kasey. Easy enough.

Since I had gone to Liege early, I had 4 hours to sit in that train station beforet the night train came, and it was such a small train station.... that combined with me reading a Jason Bourne novel I had bought in the airport meant I was tired and paranoid haha. But in all reality, there were always other people at the train station, so it was safe. The biggest problem was that by the time I got there, the ticket office was closed, so I couldn't get reservations for the night train, which are usually pretty much required. Although my rail pass covers the fare, it doesn' guarantee a seat or bed. So when the train finallz arrived at about 1AM, I was totally exhausted but luckily the conductor spoke excellent English and let me on without a reservation and helped me find an empty compartment to sleep in. The train had come from Paris, so most of the passengers were already sleeping. My compartment had two sets of 'bunk beds' but since I was the only one in there, it was great. I finally got to sleep for real!!