Dinner Date

My tour to Dachau was a guided English-speaking tour. The guide was this guy from England, with the rest of the party consisting of: 2 South Africans (male/female couple), 1 lady from Perth, Australia, 1 lady from Montreal, 1 guy from Madison, Wisconsin and myself. I chatted up everyone during the entire tour and when we were leaving, the guide was giving us directions to wherever we were headed next. The lady from Australia and I were headed in the same direction, so we walked together. Then, we ended up dining together… It was nice having company for dinner. I am enjoying my time here alone, but I do wish I had someone with whom I can share my experiences…

Plane Tales

Business Elite is supposed to be the pride of Delta’s operations. I, however, found it to be overrated. Yet, I could not imagine being in Coach for 9 hours. So, why is it just okay? The amenity that people find the most appealing are the recline seats. They are horrible…I did not sleep well at all. I just could not get comfortable. Delta is planning on reconfiguring this class to full-size sleepers by the end of the year. This would be great! However, there is a downside. There will be about 25% less seats with this layout, which means less available for Frequent Flier redemption….

The food part was pretty good and plentiful… For dinner, I had:

Warm mixed nuts, which I should not have had considering my allergy

Variety of rolls with butter
Appetizer of sesame chicken with cucumber, nut coated trout and goat cheese with sun-dried tomato, of which obviously I did not eat any

Mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, yummy!

My vegetarian special entrée of rice with tofu and mixed vegetables and side of spinach…. This was absolutely delicious!

Fruit plate with cantaloupe, strawberries and pineapple. And, I ate the pineapple, even with my allergy.


Dessert of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and Pirouline coffee. A great way to top off a meal!

About an hour before arriving, I was served breakfast. Or should I saw that breakfast offered to me. I tried to eat, but it was unrecognizable, unappealing and disgusting! Chris, my steward, did not even know what it was…. By the way, this time I did not eat the pineapple…

Before all of that happened, I cried…for about 20 minutes, from about 5 minutes before they closed the door until we were in the air. Some of the tears were because I am overwhelmed that I am living my dream and the other from the pure fear of the unknown. I thought that if I screamed, “stop the plane, I want to get off.” They would pull the plane back to the gate and let me off… Obviously, I did not.

One final thing about Business Elite, that is where they have the heat. I have never been hot on a plane. Well in most places, I am not hot at all…very very cold usually. I was hot on this plane. They had the heat on super high! I guess it was better than me freezing…..

Final Day Frustrations

I leave tomorrow. With this final day of preparation, I have had many many frustrations...with some resolutions.
1. The Weather
The storm is still headed towards JFK. I, however, am not! I changed my flight and am now going direct from Atlanta to Frankfurt! :-D I will even arrive 2 hours earlier and leave 2 hours later....
2. Packing
I bought these supposedly handy-dandy compression bags to assist in my packing. As I was beginning to gather my belongings, I learned these bags are not really that handy or that dandy! I struggled for about 4 hours, but finally managed to get all of my clothes and stuff into my bag. Let us all pray that I do not have these problems when it comes to packing up my items mid-trip and for the return.
3. Rude Behavior
I had two guests come over for a see you when I return gathering and because of my crappy mood about the struggle to pack.... I was rude. I apologize to my guests.

So, I guess I am all ready to go... Except I still need to do my hair....

UPS, Part 3...The Final Chapter

My Magellan order arrived today...the last of the bunch! It included my power adapter so, I can now use all of my electronic devices while I am away. Well not all of them... After reading the instructions, I found out that my rechargeable battery adapter is too low of a power to use with it. So, I will just have to bring along real batteries... Even still, I am EXCITED!!!

Zwei Wochen (2 Weeks)

It is getting so close. I feel so ready yet, so unprepared. I have worried about almost everything about which I could worry. At this moment, I have none. In five minutes, that could be completely different.

My packing list and itinerary are 99% complete. I just have a few more items on which to decide.

Tomorrow, I hope to complete my shopping.

With 4 Weeks to Go, I Am All Things...

As I woke up this morning I realized that four weeks from now, I will be in Germany…AMAZING! This is making me, all things about this trip.
I am excited! I have never gone on a vacation this long before. I have never left the continent before.
I am scared! Besides my visits to Montréal and day trip to Tijuana, I have never been somewhere where English is not the primary language spoken.
I am worried! I am trying not to read the weather reports about the blizzard that is attacking the Northeast. I cannot have bad weather that delays my flights or interferes with my touring. I do not want to leave my mom…..
I am overwhelmed! I have a laundry list of items to take care of at work and at home and for general and specific preparation for my journey.
I am trying not to annoy everyone around me, with my constant talk of Europe!
As I mentioned earlier, I AM EXCITED!!!!!!!