yes… Yes… YES!
A small part of me that has been dead for a long time came back to life today. As soon as I got off the airplane, and was one of the first to get my luggage, and walked through customs without even being stopped, I was thinking everything was going so well and something is bound to get skrewed up in a minute. But it never happened. I walked upstairs, and before getting on the bus that would take me to the other side of the airport where the train station is, I stopped at the cafe/bar in the terminal. I walked up to the counter and asked if they would accept US Dollars, since I hadn’t exchanged my money yet. They said that was not a problem. So I ordered a cola. The bartender grabs the bottle of cola and a glass and then he stops and looks at me. “Did you want this with whiskey? Or without?” He was dead serious, too. I looked at the clock. It was just past 7:20 in the morning. “No thanks, it’s a little early for whiskey.” Then it happened. Check this out: “Do you want ice with this?” he asked with a concerned look on his face. He obviously knew I was American because of the Dollars. But my German was throwing him off, so he wasn’t quite sure about the ice. “No ice. Thank you.” I replied. Then he said, “Good, because I would have to charge extra for the ice!” And right then and there I know that there was indeed something right in the world. I almost cried out of joy. God bless Germany. (God bless America, too! I’m not trying to be unamerican here, just giving praise, where praise is due.)
No Snakes on the Plane
Yep, the flight was pretty good. There weren’t even any snakes, which is weird, since I just assumed that snakes hung out on planes now. Oh well. There was what sounded to me like some kind of security concern at the airport in Frankfurt when I got there, since they evacuated me and all the other Germans out of the train station. But I guess that could happen anywhere. Overall, the flight was good. Other than getting a drink spilled on me, the food being gross (the mashed potatoes were Beaver Orange), and them charging 5 US Dollars for alcoholic beverages (never flying Delta again for that!), I did indeed make it alive and safe. They didn’t even lose my luggage, as Lufthansa prides themselves in doing every time I fly with them.
European Vacation, Day 1
I made it to the airport! The airport in Portland, that is. I stopped by the Portland State University campus last night, to deliver a car to one of the new Germans. After the obligatory beer, I caught a cab down to a hotel and slept for 5 hours, before the annoying wake up call. Amazingly, I didn’ have any problems getting through security. Now I’m mad, because I got checked in, through security and found my gate within 15 minutes, and now I have to wait an hour and a half before the flight. That is precious time, that could have been used sleeping! 
Oh well. Maybe I’ll see how many people I can call at 5:30 in the morning… The wireless connection here is pretty terrible. I get full signal strength, but for some reason, the access points in this airport want to disconnect and reconnect me ever 45 seconds. That’s helpful. Maybe they don’t want people to download large files with their bandwidth. Whatever. I’ll just blog instead.
Well, that’s about as much interesting stuff as I can come up with right now. I’ll be updating my blog as my vacation progresses, so everyone reading can become more and more jealous as time goes on. First stop is Frankfurt!! (Well, after the 12 hours of flying time and a stop in Atlanta…)
