Home Sweet Home

It's a little late in coming, now that I've been home for over a week, but I thought that my blog is not quite complete. There is one story missing: my trip home.

It started by taking the bus down the mountain on Friday (21st). It was my first bus ride in Eichstätt. We had been given a coupon for a free bus ride, and I had purposely saved it the entire trip, just so I could use it on my way home. It was certainly an experience, and, as Kelton said, a fitting last bus ride. The driver seemed to have a bit of road rage, and we almost ran into a few vehicles, and the driver honked his horn a few times, yelling at the other people. So that was fun. Then came the 1:44 train out of Eichstätt Stadt. Both Casey and I took the same train. But she was headed out to Frankfurt (through Nuremberg) and I was headed to Munich, so after we reached the Eichstätt Bahnhof, we parted our ways. Kelton was an absolute sweetheart, and offered to take the train with me to Eichstätt and then help me carry my luggage down a flight of stairs, and then back up a flight of stairs to get where I needed to be for my train to Munich. That was probably the most difficult part of my trip on Friday. Made it on the train successfully. At the Munich train station, I had a bit of difficulty maneuvering my luggage down to the S-Bahn platform, almost had it smash into the person in front of me, but I managed. Got on the S-Bahn no problem. Rode the S-Bahn all the way to the airport. I had decided earlier that instead of getting off and having to get my luggage onto a bus, then back off again, and then walking a distance to a hotel I'd never been to before, that I would just spend the extra 6 Euro and get a shuttle ride from the airport to the hotel. So once at the airport, I went to the Information desk where they called the hotel for me. Got picked up, went back to the hotel, got checked in, and was shown my room. It was a very cute little room, and it had a TV. I felt a little too tired to do any exploring, so I pretty much locked myself in, and relaxed for the rest of the evening. It wasn't a very long evening - I had to wake up really early the next morning.

I didn't sleep very well, even after taking Tylenol PM, but then... who would? I was much too excited about going home. I ended up waking up early, and got ready. It was quite a feat getting all my luggage down the stairs. Of course there were no elevators. So I had to lug one piece of luggage down the stairs at a time. Then I got on the shuttle van, and off to the airport I went. And that is where the real story begins. Found the correct check out counter (as there was a special counter for flights to the US). As I was getting checked in, I found out there was a problem with my connecting flight from Chicago to Minneapolis. I was supposed to be on the 1.10 plane out of Chicago. But, as it turned out, there was no such flight out of Chicago to Minneapolis at 1.10. Problem! I was sent to another counter (the ticket counter) where they searched (and found) a different flight from Chicago to Minneapolis for me. But instead of flying United, I was to change airlines, and fly American Airlines. My flight also left at 2.40, not 1.10. I guess what happened was that my original 1.10 flight had been pushed up two hours earlier, which would have been impossible for me to make, considering I wasn't supposed to touch down in Chicago until 11.40. All in all, it wasn't that big of a set back, but it definitely something I didn't really want to deal with on my way home.

My flight out of Munich posed no problem, other than the fact it was nine hours long. How I managed to last, I'm not quite sure. Maybe because I had a good travel companion. An older lady from Germany, but living in the US. She was kind of like my grandma for the day. We talked a bit, and I helped her fill out her US Customs Declaration form. Going through US Immigration and Customs was a breeze. I didn't have any problems whatsoever. Got my luggage re-checked, and my ticket printed. Rode the train out to the American Airlines terminal. Ended up getting lucky, and was picked for a random search of my body and personal belongings. That was fun. Got to my gate way before I needed to be. The whole Customs and re-checking my baggage went so smoothly, that I would have easily made my original 1.10 flight. But I had an extra hour and a half to wait. Bought a pop at McDonald's in the airport with my debit card, because I didn't have any American money. Sat around for a while, not being able to do anything, because I was too excited to go home. The airline ended up switching my gate, so I had to get up and walk across the terminal to get to the new gate. My connecting flight was uneventful. I spent most of the hour or so just staring out the window, and watching the clouds and the ground. And then, before I knew it, I was landing in Minneapolis. Kyle, being his usual self, was late picking me up, so by the time he made it to the baggage claimed, I had already claimed mine. It was a little weird to see him again after four months, but it was good nonetheless. After leaving the airport, we had a little picnic, and just hung out a bit, before going back to my house. He made me orange muffins. =) Once home, everyone was glad to see me, except for Curly, who didn't even pay much attention to me. After seeing Kyle's dog, and having her being really excited to see me, we decided that Curly must have been mad at me for leaving, or that he just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to leave again. After a walk, a car ride, and lots of attention, he finally forgave me. All is well in the world again.

And that completes my Germany trip blog. It certainly was an experience, but it's good to be back home. <3