It is after 3am here in Germany, and I have been completely unable to fall asleep. Although I will probably regret this in five hours when Olaf arrives to pick us up, I have decided to update about my travel misadventures.
The trip so far has been absolutely invigorating, which is nice, because getting here was a nightmare. First, around 7pm Saturday night, I realized that my Eurail pass was not in any of my bags. Although I had put it with the rest of my travel documents, I could not find it anywhere. So, Joseph and I decided to make the two hour drive to College Station to look for it. Fortunately, we did find it there, on the floor behind my desk, probably having been knocked down by one of the cats. We made it back to Austin around midnight and promptly went to bed.
At 7am Sunday morning, we got up and headed to the airport. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, and I got in a good 10 hours of reading. Then, about an hour before my plane to Amsterdam was to land, the captain announced that everyone's favorite volcano had erupted again causing the Amsterdam airport to close. So, our flight was rerouted to Paris. We landed in Paris around 11:30AM local time (subtract seven hours for Texas time), and the chaos started.
Because many planes in similar situations were rerouted to the Paris airport, there was not a gate available for our plane. So, they let us off outside, and a bus took us to the terminals. They did not give us our luggage, and no one gave us any direction on where to go. So, I immediately tried to get an internet connection up and running on my laptop. The airport did have wireless available for a small fee, but the website was in French. Because I speak no French at all, it took me quite a few tries to get all of the necessary information entered in properly. Once I was connected to the internet, I began emailing both Joseph and Dr. Wasser.
Next, I set out to find a new flight to my final destination, Cologne. After a long trip across the terminal, an extremely helpful lady was able to get me on a flight that afternoon with a different airline. She told me where my luggage should be and suggested I go pick it up before getting on the new flight. So, I set out across the terminal again, and eventually found my way into the appropriate baggage claim area. After about an hour of searching, I could not find my suitcase. A man there looked at my flight number and told me that my bag never got off of that plane, and it was likely already on its way to Amsterdam as the airport had reopened. So, I headed off to a completely different terminal to wait for my new flight.
There, I found an ATM, took out some Euros, and found a Starbucks. At that point I had been up for nearly 24 hours straight and was completely exhausted. However, with the exception of one accidental 15 minute power nap, I managed to stay awake another five hours until my new plane boarded. I unsuccessfully tried to catch some sleep on the plane ride, and finally made it to Cologne around 6pm Monday evening. I put in a claim for my missing baggage, met up with Will from AIB, and made it to dinner on time where I enjoyed a nice wienerschnitzel topped with, yes, mushrooms.
After a solid 36 hours without sleep, I finally got the key to my room in the AIB dorm. Since then, despite the fact that my luggage still has not arrived, the trip has been fabulous.
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