Well, it’s 1:23am in the morning in Washington, DC, but here in Row 40, Seat K on Luthfansa Airlines, it is apparently time to get up. The cabin lights were just turned on and the flight attendants are making their rounds with warm, sanitary cloths and….breakfast. Welcome to the time zone change ladies and gentlemen. It is 6:23am in Frankfurt, Germany (our destination) so we adjust as so. I have been sleeping (if you can call it that) for probably just under 2 hours.
It is kind of weird to think that I am flying through Frankfurt. A lot has changed in my life since I last booked a flight here (and didn’t wind up going) nearly 10 years ago. This time I’ll only be staying for a 5.5 hour layover before connecting to my final destination: Innsbruck, Austria. There, Ellie has been living for the past 7 months, playing professional volleyball. I am catching her last few weeks “on the job” before her season is over and she heads back to the states. ..I am also the last Blankenship to visit.
The last time I was on an international flight was 8 years ago when I traveled to this same basic region on a 2 week trip with my high school friend, Tyler. We visited Rome and Florence in Italy; Munich, Daukau and Ludwig’s Sleeping Beauty Castle in Germany; Paris in France; and Lucerne, Switzerland. We packed it in – but had an amazing time.
This time, I’ll be visiting a few different places in Austria including Innsbruck where Ellie lives, Vienna (briefly, as she has a match there next Wednesday) and hopefully another spot in which the name has slipped my mind that Tyler (Ellie’s fiancé, not the one I traveled with) suggested Ellie visit. We have also made plans to visit Venice, Italy (across the border) for a day which is exciting for me – that one had to get cut from the list that last time due to time constraints. Finally, half of my suitcase is filled with….ski clothes! While the weather is warming (dad complained of poor, warm ski conditions during his trip here 3 weeks ago), I am so excited to be able to ski the Alps for a day! Contrary to Troy now living in Denver and living it up on the slopes, this will sadly be my only ski trip of the year this time around. Gotta love working college basketball.
But…back to this warm towel thing. I definitely don’t remember this from last trip – I guess I’ll need to pull out my journal. Oh yeah, we hand-wrote things “back then” (laughs). Screw that – this computer will be much faster…and this blog needed some dust knocked off of it. Anyway…again, back to the towel – the flight attendant comes down the aisle with a tin tray and lifts a square of sanitary towel (basically it is a wet wipe) that has been steamed with warm water. It is a little unclear to me if you wipe your hands with it – or your face, so…I went with both. I am very clean now, in case you were wondering :)
I have dodged watching any sort of entertainment. I was hoping for a JetBlue type experience with TVs in the back of the headrests, but I guess Direct TV (and the NCAA Tournament, lol) doesn’t fly over the Atlantic Ocean...at least not in the economy section of the plane. The TV monitors are still in the aisle and have been showing all sorts of things – a movie, sitcoms and some National Geographic special about Black Bears that played during dinner. …I choose the pasta over the Black Bear entree. …kidding.
Speaking of food – I remembered that on my last international flight we had been served food – but hello economy tanking. I was a bit unclear this time if we would even have snacks. So, I purchased some nuts for a whopping $8 in the gift store…Seinfeld would tell you that “nuts are very rare here”…and a pre-packed box with crackers and hummus. I figured those two things, along with a large bottle of water, would get me through the overnight flight. Then, right before boarding, my stomach growled. I thought to myself – uh oh. Guess I should buy a real dinner (my flight left at 6:50pm). So I made a quick stop at Potbelly’s and brought a sandwich on board. About 20 minutes after eating my sandwich, and 5 after I downed half the bag of nuts…wa-lah! Dinner was served. Crap.
So, as Smokey the Bear and his bear cub were trouncing around the fields on the TV monitor, I opted for the pasta over the chicken (for real this time). It came with a roll (I passed – since I’d just had 2 slices of bread wrapped around my sandwich), a miniature Caesar salad and some sort of pound cake with strawberry sauce. I put a decent dent in it…but was most amazed at the drink service. Upon boarding the plane, we were served a drink. I chose Orange Juice while the German-American speaking lady next to me selected red wine. The Asian man (who doesn’t speak and gets up and paces with his arms crossed) ordered a beer. Clearly my priorities weren’t straight. Then, with dinner we were served another drink. The woman chose red wine – I picked Coke Zero in attempts to keep me awake longer to finish more work. However, the flight attendants weren’t done yet – they followed each other back down the aisles, wine bottles in hand, liquoring up anyone who wanted more wine with their meal. Of course, the lady ordered the red. Coffee and then tea followed and I couldn’t help but think to myself about the mass bathroom break that would inevitably be occurring in about 30 minutes on the flight.
Somehow, the drinks must have been special because the bathroom break never happened and if you know me, you’d be impressed I only made one trip to the restroom in the entire 8 hour flight. I guess I also skipped the 3 wine servings and coffee pourings. But, in case the Potbellys and dinner wasn’t enough (only a few hours ago), we were just served breakfast (fruit, granola bar, roll with jam and a slice of cheese). I might need to go for a jog around the Frankfurt airport upon arrival!
The only other thing worth noting is the first class cabin is located upstairs on the plane. I cannot remember if this was the case last time I flew internationally, but I was in awe all over again. The staircase seemed so long and majestic (even though it was really just a bare staircase) that I was tempted to drop my bags and race up it for a minute. Of course, who does that right? (face turns red). No…I didn’t. Instead I walked across Aisle 1 to Aisle 2 and proceeded 40 rows back. In fact, when we land here shortly, by the time I deboard this plane my 5.5 hour layover may be almost done. :)Well, that’s probably enough for now. I am looking forward to hugging my sister and seeing/experiencing some new places and things in the process.
Ciao! (Screw German – I didn’t take it…and we are close to France too !)
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