The beginning of the European Tour 2010

Its been a lazy day thus far. My friend Maggie was kind enough to let me sleep off the jet lag that accumulated over my 18 hour travel adventure since departing from Detroit Thursday evening. I woke up today around 12:30 PM which is actually 6:30 AM Eastern time (which is about the time I usually get up these days). And now after a shower and some Polish coffee... i'm ready to start the day and the writing of a new chapter in my book of independence.

The past 48 hours have been a bit insane and I have discovered that no matter the amount of preparation for a trip, you can still never account for every situation. Travel to and from the Detroit airport went without a hitch. I took the Michigan Flyer from Lansing to Detroit, a bus that runs constantly between the two cities with several other stops in between. I didn't realize how long it was going to take to get to Detroit using this method, but I'm sure glad i allotted for extra time and caught an early bus. The first hiccup came when checking in for my overseas flight. I should have taken this as a sign for things to come, but didn't think anything of it. The self check-in kiosk decided it couldn't find my reservation so i had to stand in line at the desk to check in. Then the attendee had trouble finding my connecting airline reservation. Go figure. But then I got my tickets and was on my way through security. With nearly 2 hours to spare, I decided dinner sounded like a good option, so I stopped in the airport bar and grill and had a pre-departure cheeseburger. mmm. couldn't leave the states without having a burger :)

The transoceanic flight went smoothly as it could. We took an odd flight pattern and flew over the sea of Labrador in the Arctic circle then descended into Amsterdam from the North. In my insomia during flight, I watched Avatar, a sci-fi version of Pocahontus, and the Blind Side and also got to see the sun rise over the horizon of the ocean at 1:30 in the morning. That was absolutely phenomenal.

Arriving in Amsterdam nearly a half hour late, I had to make a mad dash through the airport. I didn't realize that I had to pass through passport control and security in order to make my EU connecting flight to Berlin which further made me late! I had also filled my water bottle prior to departure and since i didn't want to risk losing my water bottle, I chugged a liter of water in 2.5 minutes... just as it was to pass through the scanner. Needless to say, i really had to go midway through the next flight.

I made the plan with 5 minutes to spare only to arrive in Berlin TXL an hour later to find that my luggage had not decided to join me in the hustle through the Amsterdam airport. I had thankfully planned for this situation and packed an extra change of clothes in my carry-on. But due to the delay and my inability to speak German, I had lots of issues communicating with the lost baggage clerk. But thankfully today, I learned that my luggage is on its way to Poznan.

Due to the delay with baggage lady, I missed my train to Poznan so I had to reroute to Szczecin Poland where one of Maggie's friends met me at the train station to wait for her to arrive. Mirek is a Polish linguistics student at the university where Maggie teaches. He speaks English very well, but with a combination of various accents. Its so interesting to listen to him and fortunate to have a native speaker with you when you are traveling!!

Maggie and I caught the next train back to Poznan and finally arrived at her dorm around 3AM this morning. Like I said, it was a long day. Pictures of the travel are on their way as well as the tale of my Polish adventures :)