I’m not exactly sure where to start, so we’ll start with Gasparilla, in Tampa.
Gasparilla is a HUGE pirate invasion celebration that takes place every year in January. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about the town I live in celebrating piracy, but alas, nothing else of great interest has happened in Tampa worth celebrating. I decided that, it being my first year in Tampa, that despite the fact that I had all my packing and last minute errands before the trip to run, I would go and partake in the event with my lovely former-roommate Cristina, and her friend Claire. Needless to say, I understand why Jon refused to go, he hates crowds like that, but quite honestly, I had a great time…
That is until Jon called me to inform me that we couldn’t check into out flights because we didn’t have return tickets. Uh oh, could they have waited until the very last minute to tell us this? Needless to say, it was a long, agonizingly stressful process. But, after a long evening of packing, a morning of running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and not eating a suitable breakfast, 12:00 PM Sunday finally rolls around, and we head to the airport. Jon has a brownie in his hand, and I actually turned it down. A BROWNIE! Butterflies were the least of my concerns; I had dinosaurs in my stomach- big mean T-Rex dinosaurs. Last minute goodbyes, a few unexpected tears, calls home to mom, and a Facebook status that only read “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!” we were on our flight to Dulles International in DC, conveniently seated in Economy Plus- free of extra fees. That leg room was quite the teaser.
In flight, I worked on some questions for a quiz I planned on taking as soon as we got to our gate in Dulles. I finished everything, was feeling great, until we got there and tried to connect to the WI-FI… I will never take free WI-FI for granted again. Yes kids, Dulles International Airport charges their commuters for WI-FI. So I had to call my mom and walk her through taking the quiz for me, which was quite the experience in itself. As if being stressed about an 8 hour flight to Munich wasn’t enough. 9 out of 10 questions (apparently you can’t keep two disagreeing thoughts in your head at the same time, maybe I’m super woman…) and a final goodbye, and we were off to Munich…
Let us go back to the Economy Plus seats we had on our first flight. We didn’t realize these were special seats until we saw our seats for our Munich flight. Needless to say, the last time I flew for longer than 3 hours was well over 10 years ago. I was significantly shorter, had a lot less to carry, and could entertain myself endlessly. Our seats had so little leg room my knees were touching the seat in front of me… for those of you who know Jon, can you imagine how he felt? To top it off, we had snotty nosed little Chinese kids in front of us who for the first 20 minutes insisted on bouncing back on their seats. That is until Jon politely punched the back to the seat so hard his mother finally got the picture. I need not go into the level of discomfort I felt on this plane. I just kept thinking “I’m going to France… I’m going to France… This will not defeat me!”
8 hours later we landed in a cold and dreary Munich. The first thing I noticed was that thankfully, every sign had instructions in English. Second thing, the airport is so stereotypically German- I love it. Clean, utilitarian, sterile in color and design, it’s wonderful. Let me also note that their restrooms are incredible, and their women’s sign is sort of adorable. Third thing, the police carry MP5s. I haven’t seen something larger than a hand gun carried by police (other than on a military base) since I lived in Spain. It sort of gave me the creeps. I felt like thats what Nazi Germany must have felt like or something. Guns of that power is something I would expect to see in Dubai, not Munich. Goodness. Fourth observation: Free coffee/tea/hot chocolate. A welcomed dose of caffeine and sugar, I might say. Though I think you work off all that extra energy walking back to get more, since you only get 6 oz at a time. Oh, and another downside: yet another airport without free WI-FI.
After a three hour layover, we were ready to board our final flight to Nice. Only we were unaware that we would have to bus across the the tarmac to get to our plane and politely wait outside as we climb the roll-a-stairs to our seats. Mind you, this is the end of January in Munich… which means it was a bone-chilling 23 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold enough that not only the breath from your mouth was visible, but from your nose, and if I’d paid close enough attention, probably our ears too. Not the pleasant 74 we left in Tampa, that I was dressed for. We had a tiny plane, with significantly more legroom than the previous, and finally a window seat. Which was perfect because this was the first flight with a real view- The Alps. Less than 2 hours later, we landed in Nice, though given that its surrounded on one side by water, I was certain that we were about to plumet right in to the Mediterranean Sea (or The Med, as I heard an Englishman call it).
We are now settled into our room with our host family, awaiting our first dinner, while watching their son Nicolas play with ping pong balls and this neat cube thing. He’s kind of adorable.
Parlez Lentement. 