It’s cold now,
But the grass is turning.
Hope is budding.
Fresh sunlight paints the world brighter.
I plant seeds, bless them with patience,
Watch for them to burst forth in vernal promise.
Around me winter grapples for more time,
But persistent and perennial,
Spring pushes Old Man Winter back.
Fresh breezes blow,
Change flowers–for good or for ill–
And the crocus promises warmth to come.
The rain here is barely more than mist.
It drizzles, cold and soaking, for hours and hours.
I miss the rain of Oklahoma —
Huge thunderheads rolling in,
Cumulonimbus giants shaking their fists
Getting ready to crash together
And knock the rain from each other in sheets.
Something about thunderstorms
Drives me wild with passion,
Makes me want to dance,
While lightning flashes outside the windows
And thunder shakes the house.
Here the rain is slow —
Persistent, gray, cold —
Like death settling over a house in
Winter.
I’m sitting by the waves, my heart in my hands.
Deep in the currents of emotion,
I search the billows for any sense.
My brain is in flux, my emotions confused.
I breathe deeply, suck in the brine-scented air
And struggle for peace.
I came here to stare into the offing,
Sync my heart to the tide,
Wave my anxieties goodbye and drop them into the waves,
But the sea doesn’t solve my problems.
Standing at the vast edge of the ocean,
I rest in my anxiety and let the sound of water
Crashing to the beach
Remind me of my mother’s heartbeat.
Athens:
We flew into Athens and arrived late in the evening. Our hotel, AVA Hotel & Suites in the Plaka district had ordered a taxi for us, so there was a driver waiting in the airport to pick us up. I cannot recommend this hotel highly enough. They had excellent customer service, a delicious breakfast, courteous staff, and great dining recommendations. When we arrived, there was a travel crib set up for Amelia and two small bottles of wine waiting for us. The room also had a small kitchenette with stoneware, flatware, and some cookware for your use. Definitely, if you plan to stay in Athens, check this place out.
We booked two tours for Athens—a photographer and a food tour, both booked through AirBnB. The photography session was about two hours long and we walked around the acropolis and the Plaka district to find some lovely places to shoot. The reviews made it sound like the photographer gives you a bit of a tour, but he mostly walks you different places and does the photography. If you’re looking for a history tour, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for some local advice on where to visit, what to eat, and some totally gallery worthy photos, Oltjon is your man.
Our other tour was an excellent food tour! Our hostess, also named Rachel, took us on a tour of the spice, meat, fish, and fruit markets and gave us lots of history and insight into Greek food culture. She is a Greek national, but was raised in London and has a lovely English accent paired with all the Greek food knowledge you could imagine. We enjoyed tastings at every stop and two sit down meals: a mezze meal (lunch of small plates) and a platter of gyros with a lovely house made red wine. Rachel knew the vendors at every stop and she was friendly and outgoing. She taught us some basic Greek, all about how the locals shop at the markets, and provided us with delicious nibbles the whole way. Another stellar recommendation!
We finished out our day with a dinner at Electra Roof Garden. The food was very good and the views of the Acropolis were excellent. It would be a lovely place to eat dinner as the sun sets.
The next morning, we headed out to the Acropolis to get in some sightseeing before the crowds and heat of the day arrived. The Acropolis tours were somewhere around €150, so we skipped the tour and just paid €20 for our tickets instead. I was happy we made that decision, since we were quite hot by the time we had walked around each of the buildings and were ready to head for lunch and the shade. So Ben picked up sandwiches and ice cream and I headed back to the hotel room to nap with Amelia before our ferry to Hydra.
Hydra
Next we headed to Hydra, a Greek island so named because the shape of the island resembles a saucepan. The island doesn’t allow cars, so once you arrive, you can hire a donkey or mule to haul your luggage, or you can hoof it yourself. As you spend time on the island, you’ll see the mules carrying grocery loads and luggage all over, as well as men lugging wheelbarrows full of supplies. We stayed close to Port Hydra, but there are stops all over the island with caves and beaches to explore. There is a daytrip service that runs €30 per person and allows you stop at something like 6 of the sights on the island.
We had a lovely dinner at the famed Douskos Taverna which Leonard Cohen wrote about in his poems about Hydra. I can see why! The dinner space was a lovely pergola covered in flowering vines and they featured fresh fish from the daily catch. They had an ice bed where you could walk up and choose your fish, if you wished, and they would cook it, filet it at your table, and remove the bones. The island also has lots of stray cats, and they will come to check out your dinner. Amelia was quite enamored with them, and spent lots of time throwing her bits of food on the floor to see if the cats liked it. Ben liked them a little less.
The next day we spent the morning trying to get Amelia to nap, but I encouraged Ben to go explore a little on his own. He found a beautiful pebble beach that we would end up visiting together before the end of our trip. Some of the locals had suggested that we visit Miramare, the only sand beach on the island and the home of Mandraki Resort. We took a quick water taxi ride to the resort and got ready for a couple of hours on the beach. The resort charges you a rental fee for each beach chair used. The front row runs €15 per chair, while rows in the back run €10 per chair. The rental includes a bottle of water and a towel for each chair. We selected a couple of chairs in the back, since I would be breastfeeding and Amelia would likely need to take a quick nap. Servers will gladly take your drink or food orders, but tend to focus on the front row customers. Drinks run about €10 each and the service for drinks is extremely slow. The beach itself is nice and shallow for a long way, which was great for the baby.
Our hotel on Hydra was the Hydroussa, whose wifi password is thebesthotelinhydra, but should be thehardestbedsyouveeverslepton. The hotel itself is a quaint old building, so the rooms have extremely tall ceilings and antique furniture. The downside of all that antique furniture is that EVERYTHING CREAKS. Not great for a teensy baby. They also put us in a room that required us to go up 1 1/2 flights of marble stairs and had no elevator. The bathroom was finished entirely in modern style marble, but had a shower stall that felt like it belonged in an airplane bathroom. The positive of the hotel was the lovely courtyard and delicious breakfast. There was a buffet style breakfast with lots of locally sourced Greek foods and made to order Greek coffee. This place would be great for a history buff, but was perhaps not the best place for kids. I think we were the only people there with a baby.
Vouliagmeni
Our final stop on the Greek vacation was a spot in the Athenian Riviera. Driving to Vouliagmeni from the port of Athens was a little concerning because it takes you past lots of shuttered resorts, broken down buildings, and generally run down areas. The effects of the 2011 financial crisis are still evident in lots of the city outside of the main tourist areas.
We were pleased to find that our hotel was lovely and close to the beach, though right on the edge of the resort area. Beach chairs in this area run somewhere around €30 per day, but there are also lots of public beaches with thatched umbrellas and no chairs. Since we were spending just one evening and one morning in Vouliagmeni, we stuck to the public beaches. The beaches here are filled with lots of Greek tourists, whereas in Hydra there were lots of Americans and Germans.
Vouliagmeni also offers several great seaside restaurants. The Panorama was suggested for dinner, but we went to Lasithi instead. The food there was excellent, and we were able to enjoy dinner with a seaside evening view. The hostess was extremely kind, fawned over the baby, and checked on us regularly to make sure all the service was up to her standards. As we ate, the restaurant was preparing for a wedding party and thought we left at 7:00 pm, the party still hadn’t arrived. Our early dinner time is definitely not the European way, and having the baby means we eat even earlier. It has gotten us reservations in lots of busy places!
Our main attraction in Vouliagmeni was allowing Amelia to walk in the surf. She loved it, though the beaches here have lots of seaweed and she sometimes seemed mildly concerned that there was seaweed on her feet.
Greece was a beautiful place to stay and we really enjoyed ourselves. I would happily return to Greece, and especially to tour the islands. I have received suggestions to return to Rhodes, Crete, and Elafonisi Beach. I would definitely suggest Greece as a great location for a laidback vibe, family vacations, and inexpensive food and attractions!
Hi! It’s been a while. Turns out there’s not a lot of traveling to be had during a worldwide pandemic. But we carry on.
Last year, we were able to host a Friendsgiving with something like 18 people piling into our house. We had kids playing in the living room, friends hanging out around the dining table(s), and even a visiting doggo. Unfortunately, this year, Covid-19 restrictions have made our plans…smaller.
Here in Germany, the current restrictions limit us to no more than two people from one other household. Ben’s work has been blowing up with cases of Covid though and we made the decision to limit our exposure, with the baby being only a couple of months old.
Since it is just Ben, Amelia, and me this year, I had plans to roast a chicken–maybe even a turkey breast–and make a pie. A sensible-sized dinner for two. But Ben really wanted a turkey. “Just get a small one,” he said. “The smallest one they have at the commissary.” Well, that turned out to be a turkey of over 12 pounds. Hope you like turkey sandwiches, my love!
Then we started talking about sides (because we know that’s really what Thanksgiving is about). We participate in a community sponsored agriculture box program and for the past couple of weeks, our boxes have been filled with carrots and sweet potatoes. So obviously, we need to make some kind of side with those. And we have to have mashed potatoes, since they’re a vehicle for turkey gravy. And I love roasted bacon-brown sugar Brussel sprouts which really say “THANKSGIVING” to me.
The menu just kept getting bigger. Our final menu is going to turn out something like this: a (12 pound) turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, honeyed carrots, cranberry sauce, Brussel sprouts, and a German apple cake. It will surely be a feast too large for the two of us to eat, but it will be Thanksgiving-y.
Today, I brined the turkey. I used Pioneer Woman’s brine recipe and was surprised to see that it completely filled our stock pot. Realizing my plan to brine the turkey in the pot was ill-conceived, I recalled that I had seen turkey bags at the commissary (and didn’t get them because Ben wants to spatchcock the turkey to get the skin crispy delicious on all sides). This called for a trip to the commissary the day before Thanksgiving…in a country that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Joy.
I made the trip in the first thirty minutes the commissary was open and was glad to see the lines weren’t too atrocious. As I left (via the express lane, woo hoo!), the lines were picking up though. Once I had completed our errands and a two month check up for baby girl, it was time to brine!
Let me tell you, wrassling a 12 pound turkey into a turkey bag, then topping it with roughly two gallons of brine one handed (because one hand has to keep the bag open and the brine from spilling everywhere), was a difficult task. The next time I brine the turkey, I will have to remember that it’s a two man job. After spilling brine all over the kitchen counter, drawer fronts, and floor, there is a turkey soaking up (what I hope are) delicious flavors in the fridge. I am also going to prep my Brussel sprouts and make the cake today in hopes of lessening the load for the morning/afternoon.
Tomorrow, we feast!
We have been planning a trip to Tromsø for a few months. We had a few big items to check off our bucket lists–be above the arctic circle, go dog sledding, see the northern lights–and we were able to accomplish most of them.
Our trip started on Ben’s birthday, and as we arrived in Oslow for a short layover before our flight to Tromsø, we got a phone call. The military had decided to restrict travel out of Germany for the next 60 days. We had a few days to get home, but we had to cut our trip short. We briefly considered just turning around, but decided to make the most of the time we had.
We arrived in Tromsø to find that Norway had basically shut down. All bars, lounges, activity centers, and restaurants that couldn’t place patrons at least 2 meters from each other were required to close. The streets were basically empty. As we checked into the hotel, the concierge noted our American accents and said, “You might want to turn around and go home. There’s a travel ban from the US!” After explaining that we were currently living in Germany, they checked us in and we started our Norwegian weekend.
I had booked a fancy birthday dinner at Smak and we arrived to find they were seating patrons at every other table to maintain social distancing. I’m sure this was a total pain for the restaurant, but it made for a nice, quiet atmosphere! We had dinner reservations at 7:30 and Ben chose the 6-course meal with wine pairings (wine for him, juice mixtures for me). Our hostess (and wife of the chef), was charming and lovely and gave us wonderful pairings for each course. Before the courses even started, we were given several amuse bouche, and a glass of wine/sparkling juice. Then the actual dinner started and each dish was delicious and artfully presented, with different dishes and flatware to match each course. Unfortunately, having gotten up at 5:30 that morning (and growing a baby who loves to sap my energy) by about course four I was starting to fade. By the end of the meal around 11:30, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. The hostess was very sweet and offered to call us a taxi, though our hotel was only a 10 minute walk from the restaurant.
The next day, we got up early to go dog sledding. We arrived at our meet up point and were informed that the lunch that came with the trip wouldn’t be included because of the new coronavirus restrictions, and the price of our lunch would be refunded. We agreed that was fine (lunch was not the main draw, of course). We trundled onto the tour bus and were driven to the Tromsø Villmarkssenter. There we received training from Johanna, a German transplant to Norway, who taught us all about how the dogs are bred, how to pilot a dog sled, and how the dogs live day to day. Finally, we were hooked up with our very own team and sled. I got to ride in the sled while Ben drove, and halfway, we switched.
The dogs were super friendly and sweet and we loved our time with them. They were really good at pulling us, especially considering that combined we weigh over 400 pounds! Every time we stopped the sled, they would look back at us as if asking, “Why are we slowing down?”
Each sled has a team of six dogs: two females in the lead (because they are less easily distracted and will follow the path) and four males (which are stronger and can carry most of the weight). Our team was made up of Alaskan Huskies, a breed that is specifically developed for strength and trainability to make good sled dogs. The dogs are each exercised each day and run about 60 km per day. They eat pretty much all day long–they are fed three times a day and have snacks of raw meat after pulling the sleds.
After our time with the sled dogs was up, we returned to downtown Tromsø, traversed the bay, and stopped in at Full Steam, a traditional seafood restaurant on the shore. Ben had the Norwegian traditional meal of baccalao, a goulash of sorts made with salted cod. It was delicious!
That afternoon, we visited a local jewelry shop, Wabi Sabi, for a silversmithing class. Wabi Sabi is a Japanese idea focused on the idea of finding beauty in unfinished imperfection. Our lovely host Dagmar taught us to coil sterling silver wire, melt it into rings, size them, file the insides smooth, give the rings several acid baths, and finally brush them with a bronze brush. The final result was perfectly imperfect sterling silver rings and a sweet reminder of our imperfect but beautiful trip above the Arctic Circle.
We finished out our evening at Maskinverkstedet, a delicious restaurant right off the bay. Ben had steamed cod loin and I ordered grilled roast of reindeer with delicious pureed pumpkin, pickled pumpkin, and pumpkin seeds. We topped the night off with a cinnamony sweet apple strudel and then wandered through the town center in the peacefully falling snow.
We had also planned a Northern Lights chase, but unfortunately we had to cancel since we needed to come back early. We didn’t feel too sad, as there was snow forecast for each night we were there, and seeing the lights probably wouldn’t have worked out anyway. Despite not getting to check that item off our bucket lists, we had a wonderful and beautiful trip. I think Ben had fun and felt celebrated for his birthday.
“London opens to you like a novel itself… It is divided into chapters, the chapters into scenes, the scenes into sentences; it opens to you like a series of rooms, doors and passages. Mayfair to Piccadilly to Soho to the Strand.”
Anna Quindlen
This was my birthday trip, and I have no idea how Ben will ever top this. We had an awesome time and I loved every part of our trip (except the flights, of course). London has it all: museums galore, quirky bars, awesome food, and lovely parks. And royalty!
We spent so much time perusing museums and even got to see a play in the Globe Theater! We visited the Tate Modern, the British Museum, and the National Galleries. We spent at least an hour or two at each museum, and could easily visit again and see more in every one. We typically spent our mornings in a museum, and found them to have excellent collections, but also to be crammed with visitors. The large museums in London are mostly free and that means lots of tourists visit on the weekends. But it’s worth standing in the midst of crowds (for me, anyway) to see works by Matisse, Dali, Van Gogh, and Renoir, among other big names in art history.
Visiting the Globe was a super exciting adventure for me, English nerd that I am, and I really enjoyed the play. We saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the set dressings were modernized with awesome costumes and minimal set design, but the dialogue was all Shakespeare. The play was easy to follow and they even pulled a spectator from the audience to play one of the minor parts! The show was funny and sweet and most definitely a spectacle. We had box seats, which ran us about £ 44 per ticket. But prices can be as low as £ 5 (if you’re willing to stand for a 3 hour show exposed to the elements) and go all the way up to our fancy box seats. If I were to go to another show there, I would book earlier and get the middle-of-the-road seats directly across from the stage. The seats are wooden benches, but you can hire cushions for the duration of the show for just £ 2 each. (If you book a gentleman’s box, there are already cushions on the seats.)
We visited a few bars while we were in London, of which The Cauldron was my favorite. In addition to the Cauldron, we also checked out a speakeasy called Nightjar, a dance club type bar called …Loves Company, and a couple of local pubs The Friend in Hand and Three Crowns Pub. The speakeasy, Nightjar featured heavily ornamented cocktails and was a pricey, exclusive feel. We didn’t make a reservation, so they were only able to give us the table for an hour, so we ordered one cocktail each. My cocktail had a stem of eucalyptus in the glass and fruit leather attached to the stem by three toothpicks wired together. It made me wonder how good the cocktails would be if I ordered something simple, like a French 75. But the speakeasy had fun, low lighting and was underground. There were tables set off in little alcoves and more private spots and small tables for couples. There is apparently live jazz sometimes as well.
…Loves Company was a dance club type bar that we ducked in for a moment while the rush hour traffic eased on Monday. They have a great happy hour deal with a bottle of wine for £ 10, two (of the same) cocktails from a limited menu for £ 12, or 4 beers for £ 10. It was a good spot for watching harried commuters out the window, but would be even more fun if you find yourself in the dancing mood in Shoreditch.
Both pubs we visited had a more local feel. The Friend in Hand had excellent food and we stopped in for a steak and ale pie and half a roasted chicken for lunch one day. The beer was good, too! Three Crowns was close to our hotel in Shoreditch and we stopped in there for a drink after Nightjar. Both pubs had the order at the bar, drink in comfy spots, and we’ll leave you alone type vibes.
Last, but not least, was the Cauldron. This was actually a suggestion I saw on Facebook in one of my group pages, and once I looked it up, it was a must. You book a session for as little as £ 29 and with your session comes a welcome cocktail and two “potions lessons.” You work with your group to create your potions with lots of magical ingredients like “Fairy Dust” and “Bladdarwort Nectar.” The result is a delightful cocktail for each of you! I thought three cocktails per £ 29 experience was a pretty good deal and we had a lot of fun with the theatricality of the potion masters (servers) and the setting. This would be a great date night experience (as long as you know the person well enough to know they’d be into this sort of thing).
London is a kind of epicenter of good food. And it being such an international city, you can find all kinds of excellent options from all over the world! We had excellent Turkish food (which struck a chord with Ben, since he lived in Turkey for a while), traditional afternoon tea, a French dinner in complete darkness, and Michelin-starred Indian food.
Our Turkish food was from The Stone Cave, which had won some local award for best themed restaurant. It had a funky created-cave interior with gold accents and lots of Turkish lamps hanging from the ceiling. The food was excellent! Ben got a three course lunch menu and I got the Chicken Shish Wrap. We shared everything and couldn’t find a thing we were disappointed with!
Dans Le Noir is a dark restaurant. By dark I mean you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face. You order a menu of meat, fish & shellfish, or vegetarian and are lead into a pitch black dining room by a (blind) member of the waitstaff. You eat your dinner in complete darkness, and are served meals with traditional plating and bottled water you pour yourself. You must leave your light-up smartwatches and phones in lockers in the reception area. The food was good, but what this restaurant really excels at is a new experience. It was interesting to eat a dinner without our phones, without being able to see the food on the plate, or the wine or water in the glass, or the ambiance of the restaurant. We talked more than we usually do and met a lovely couple from Surrey. We talked all through dinner and then got to see each other once we left the dining room. Ben noted that while this was a new experience, it was also discomfiting. Our table-mates also spent a lot of time talking about what it would be like to be blind and have this be a normal experience. I was very glad we went, and it was one of the most social dinners we have had in a long time.
We were told (while we were in London) that the best afternoon tea is at the Ritz, but I have to say, it would be hard to beat the views and deliciousness of afternoon tea at Oblix. Oblix is on the 32nd floor of the Shard and the views are spectacular! We had a table right next to the window and were able to see the Eye and London Bridge from our spot. The afternoon tea included unlimited finger sandwiches, scones, and tiny desserts for £ 42 per person (which isn’t a lot compared to tea at the Ritz or the Savoy).
While we were at dinner at Dans Le Noir, our table-mates suggested Tamarind, a local Indian restaurant with a Michelin star and apparently a favorite spot of Gordon Ramsey. We decided to book there for lunch both to get a table and to try their prix fix lunch menu, which is just £ 25 per person. The restaurant has a beautiful upstairs dining room with green accents and lots of shiny wine glasses and fresh flowers. The food was stunningly beautifully plated and tasted lovely. I ordered the three chicken plate, which had three types of tandoori chicken. Ben had fish curry. The lunch portions came with a spinach dish and lentils for the table to share and we ended up having too much food to eat! It was a lovely experience.
London is a bustling city with lots of buildings, concrete, and stone, but there are lots of green spaces tucked away too! We spent a lot of time rushing around this trip. On average we walked 8 to 10 miles per day, even using buses and trains to get around. So sometimes, it’s nice to take a break from the hustle of the street and soak up a little green. We loved visiting Green Park, Hyde Park, and Russel Square.
Green Park and Hyde Park are both close to Buckingham palace and we walked through Green Park to get to the palace to see the changing of the guard. There was a protest going on by a group called Extinction Rebellion down the street from the palace, so we walked down to check it out and found ourselves directly in front of one of the regiments of the guard. It was fun to walk along beside them as they headed into the palace grounds, our feet finding the rhythm of the band. It certainly stirs the spirits of camaraderie to march along to the beat.
After the changing of the guard, we walked along the park to visit Hyde Park, which had lots of beautiful flowers, a restaurant with lots of ducks, geese, pigeons, and crows on hand to eat any crumbs left by patrons. Don’t miss the upside down tree; a tree that created a canopy that touches the ground, allowing you and your sweetheart to sneak in and steal a few kisses (assuming there aren’t tons of other tourists coming in all the time).
Probably my favorite park though, was Russell Square. It was sunny (a rarity for our trip) and there is an espresso shop called Tropea. Ben ordered some espresso and a pastry and we sat on their patio watching the light stream through the golden leaves. There was a father and daughter duo collecting bouquets of fall leaves and a canopied walkway created by weaving trees’ branches together. Next to the walkway was a little birdhouse with a book in it. We pulled it out and found it was a book of secrets. I tried to come up with a secret to put in it, but couldn’t think of one, so Ben wrote a secret in the book and we put it back in it’s spot. In a weekend of cold, rainy weather, Russell Square provided us with a golden hour.
If I have any advice for someone travelling to London, it’s MAKE RESERVATIONS. I made at least two reservations per day and while we were able to get in to some spur-of-the-moment locales, reservations made everything easier. We also broke up our day into just a couple of places we had to be and a list of places we wanted to visit. That allowed us to have some structure and some flexibility.
London is often rainy, so have some wet weather contingencies. Bring an umbrella and light rain jacket. They’ll come in handy! We liked being able to duck into a museum or coffee shop to get out of the rain and planned lots of bookstores to visit to wait out rain.
If you are flying into Stanstead Airport (as we did) there is a train called the GreaterAnglia. It will drop you off at Liverpool Street. If you’re traveling with a group of people, be sure you get a group ticket at the ticket vending machines. We didn’t the first leg of our trip and paid about double what we could have.
For traveling around in London proper, I highly suggest the Oyster Card. It allows you to load money onto the card and ride the bus or trains to wherever you need to go in the city. It can be topped up at any underground station, so it’s a great way to get around without having to rent a car. We traveled around the city for four days for about £ 10 a day per person!
I have to admit to fighting some travel-specific anxiety today. One would think I’d be excited to be going back to Oklahoma tomorrow but I am a little anxious about spending several hours on a plane and jet lag and spending 10 days away from Ben and all of the general stressors of travel.
I remember the excitement of my first flight. I was 14; we were going to Orlando. On the other side of this giant tin can of engineering was my brother and Disney World. The plane wasn’t packed full, like they are these days, and we all got to sit together. We had snacks and soft drinks on the plane. I looked out over the tiny landscape, which looked like a diorama of real life. I loved the beginning of the flight and how you could feel the rush of force against you as the plane took off, rising, rising, your ears popping and eyes widening at this totally new sensation. I loved the luxury of having a soft drink poured for me into a tiny cup of ice, the condensation rolling off the cold can onto the tiny desks built into the seats. I loved the glossy magazines full of terribly overpriced and impractical goods that you could order RIGHT FROM THE PLANE. It was so exciting and glamorous!
But 19 years and many, many flights later, flying has lost its sheen. I hate flying. I don’t like the lines and there are ill-defined lines everywhere. I can never remember to take off my shoes and a TSA agent will make me go back and forth through the scanner repeatedly because I have forgotten that my cell phone is in my back pocket because I had to wake up BEFORE THE BIRDS to be at the airport. I hate how tiny everything is. I have gotten bigger than my 10-year-old self, and the seats have become too small for me to sit comfortably. And no matter how tiny you are, or your neighbor is, you are going to get jabbed with an elbow or run over by a snack cart because everything in the plane is made to barely fit as many people as possible. I hate how everyone is stressed out and frustrated. Their flights are late or have been cancelled and can they make the connection? I hate the unexplained delays and cancelled flights. And should your flight by some miracle be on time, you’re still making the people on stand-by angry by showing up to your flight. I hate that you have to show up two hours early just to sit in uncomfortable seats across from other people who also hate flying. (And then your flight will probably be delayed, so make that six hours of staring at people who are actively loathing you and flying and their very lives.)
The flight to Germany was the longest I have ever been on a plane. My hips ached from sitting in the exact same position for so long. During the seven hour flight, I got up only one time (to use the restroom and there was a line of five people waiting. Because of course, there are two restrooms for a cabin of almost 300 people.) I tried to sleep, but sleep on a plane is the worst sort: sitting straight up (because if you lean your seat back the two inches it will recline, you’ll crush the person behind you), no neck support, babies crying, lights on all around you, with a roaring engine for white noise. And turbulence to jolt you awake every now and again. I was too tired to read, too tired to write, I had forgotten to download music to my phone and had nothing to listen to. It was singularly one of the worst flights I have ever experienced.
Our flight took off at 10:30 at night and arrived in Germany the next afternoon (there’s a seven hour time difference). We checked into the hotel, deposited our bags and changed into different, less plane-smelling clothes. Ben’s sponsor took us to get phone cards and pick up our most basic groceries. By the time that task was finished, I was out. Done. Dead on my feet. Ben and Dan dropped me and the groceries back at the hotel and Ben told me not to sleep until bed time if I could help it. I couldn’t. I fell asleep at something like 6:00 PM and woke at 3:00 AM. My sleep didn’t normalize for about a week. I was moody and irrational and every. single. thing. made me want to throw something.
So the thought of making that same terribly long flight twice in the next two weeks is giving me a little bit of anxiety. If I come to see you on this Oklahoma trip, please be patient with me. I will be sleepy, missing my husband, and generally irritable. I will really try to put my bad moods in a box while I’m there, I will take melotonin to make myself go to sleep and set alarms to remind me to eat, but no guarantees.
Pancakes are apparently seen as a dessert here in Germany. At every festival and concession stand are crepes and waffles. If you go to a restaurant for breakfast in Germany, they often have a Parisian breakfast (croissants, juice, and coffee), a Norwegian breakfast (an assortment of smoked fish and bread), and “American Sweets” (pancakes and waffles).
Now, I’ve always considered both pancakes and waffles to be entirely breakfast foods (well, besides a waffle ice cream sandwich), but here these are desserts. And if they are offered at breakfast time, they are labeled “American.” I like to think of Germans scratching their heads in wonder. Why do these crazy Americans eat dessert for breakfast? And, I mean, they’re not wrong. We eat flat carb cakes covered with fat and additional sugar and call it a balanced breakfast. (Not that Parisians are any better. I think the only reason a Parisian breakfast works for Parisians is that they’re going to eat enough calories for an entire day in foie gras for Elevenses.)
In German grocery stores, you can find precooked, prepackaged pancakes like this:
So if you’re wondering what legacy we Americans are leaving on the German population, it’s that we like to eat dessert for breakfast.
This morning we ate breakfast with Mom and Dad, put some of the last things that needed to be stored into their attic, and took pictures before taking off. We were on time and ready for the day.
When we arrived in Grand Prairie, TX to the car shipping facility, we were thirty minutes early for our appointment. After some initial confusion about where to park the car, we figured ourselves out and signed the sign-in sheet. We sat in the lobby and noticed that there were lots of people who were out in the parking lot cleaning out their cars. Ben had cleaned all of the personal effects out of the car, but our luggage was still in there. It was 11:15, so he had me stay in the lobby in case they called us while he went and grabbed the luggage.
After Ben brought the luggage in, he noticed that there were people being sent out to their cars with tape and rags to clean all the dust off the dashboards and sediment out of their carpets. There hadn’t been any mention in the approximately 30 pages of paperwork he completed before the appointment time that said the car needed to be detailed. The outside of the car also had to be spotless. We devised a plan where I would go get the car cleaned and Ben would stay to do the paperwork. I took the car to a well-rated car wash that specialized in cleaning cars for shipping. I paid for a basic clean and vacuum and the technician told me that he’d try to get the car ready to ship, but with the dog hair in the back, he wasn’t sure if it would pass inspection. He vacuumed and vacuumed until the owner of the place came to him and said he was taking too long.
20 minutes of vacuuming later, it was noon and Ben was finally being seen for his paperwork. He texted me to see where I was and the car was just being put through the wash. Another 15 minutes later, as I was getting ready to leave, Ben said we had lost our spot in line because cleaning the car had taken too long. The lady at the shipping office assured us that we would still be able to make our 2:15 flight, she would bump us up the list once I returned with the car ready for inspection.
I got back around 12:30 and put our names back on the list. If there was any list bumping, it took about an hour and a half to do. At 1:30, I was sure we would miss our flight and I hadn’t eaten since about 8:00 that morning. My mood was sour and I was about stressed and annoyed as I could be. Finally they called Ben’s name and I waited impatiently with our baggage as he talked to the clerk. When he stood up, paperwork in hand, I threw on my backpack, ready for escape.
“Order food,” Ben said, “We have to wait about 40 minutes until someone can inspect the car.” At this point, we were MOST DEFINITELY missing our flight. I ordered food from a Church’s Chicken that was two miles away (to be delivered in 50 minutes, wtf?), and called American Airlines to reschedule our flight. After being placed on hold and offered a call-back when a call center person was available to reschedule our flight, of course the food and call-back arrived at the same time.
I was on the phone with the ticket officer and trying to wrangle the Postmates delivery guy who was super uncomfortable with delivering to the vehicle shipping office. I was on hold, then not on hold while trying to collect the food and hand it off to Ben, and wrangling airline options while (of course) still waiting for our car to be inspected. After a thirty minute phone call, we had a new flight for tomorrow at 8:30 in the morning. Of course, this meant I would eat the cost of the $120 hotel room I had booked in Baltimore and would have to book another hotel room in Dallas, but we had a way to get to BWI.
I ate my room temperature fast food — which despite being lukewarm, brightened my mood considerably — and called Mom and Joy and explained the changes. Of course, we wouldn’t be able to meet Dave and Joy in Baltimore any more, since they were planning to leave about thirty minutes before our plane arrived in Baltimore. After the phone call, we waited. I read my book. Finally around 3:00, the inspector came to see the car. By 3:45, we could finally leave. We booked a hotel with shuttle service to the airport, took a long Lyft from Grand Prairie to Euless and are finally safely ensconced in our hotel room with a way to get to where we need to be for our flight to Germany tomorrow.
Was it an annoying day? Absolutely. But we are going to have Thai food for dinner and take a swim in the hotel pool, so it can’t be all bad.
Whatever Comes Next 