Flying Standby
I arrived at the airport almost 3 hours early to catch my flight to Frankfurt. After drinking a tall glass of beer in the airport to calm my nerves, I walked down to my gate with my fingers crossed, hoping there would be enough empty seats on the flight for me. About 45 minutes to boarding there was announcement saying "this is a full flight," which didn't make me feel so good. After about 3/4 of the people had boarded the plane, they finally made an announcement for waitlisted passengers and called my name, handed me a ticket, and I was ON!!!
The Flight
The plane departed around 7pm, so I pretty much just watched a movie and "tried" to go to bed. I'm usually pretty good at falling asleep, but I definitely struggled to get comfortable (especially since i forgot to take out my contacts). The meal on the flight was pretty miserable and I'll never get the "meat' dish again. Always go for pasta says my friend Leni. Despite being a 10 hr. and 40 minute nonstop flight, it really wasn't that bad and we got into Frankfurt at 3pm.
Saved by an Angel
Oh man, it was so weird getting off the plane and seeing everything primarily written in german, and hearing german announcements on the intercom. A wave of, "kyle, you are definitely not in america" hit me a I proceeded to walk around confused looking for the exit for about 10 minutes. haha Sadly, this was only the beginning of the frustration and confusion.
Once I got through security I tried to call my friend Leni Biener to let her know I had arrived so she could pick me up. I tried using the international phone Carolyn Boynton had given me, but sadly, I could not get the dang phone to work. I then tried to get on the internet so I could call Leni using Skype, but at Frankfurt there is no free wi-fi, and I didn't want to risk using my debit card to pay 5 euro for an hour of internet. Ok, now what? I then decided to exchange my $20 american dollars for euros, which sadly only gave me 10 euro and 30 cents. :( I then tried using a pay phone using euro coins to call Leni, but I couldn't figure out a. how to use the machine, b. what number I should really be trying to call Leni at. International phone numbers can be confusing. After messing around with the dang phone for 20 minutes, I went to the information booth, kinda got directed to free internet, then was told there is no free internet at the airport, which is HUGE by the way. I was walking all over the place by this point, from train terminals, to the departure area, going up and down who knows how many escalators, trying different phone booths again, and talking to more information people. It had been at least an hour since I had arrived, and I had no idea if Leni was waiting for me outside in her car, or still back in her home town 30 minutes away. I decided to use my 10 euro to buy a phone card in hopes that THIS was the solution. But after playing around with it for another 20 minutes, I still couldn't make the call, and now only had 30 cents left in my pocket. I needed a new plan, and started walking away from the phones, when all of a sudden, what do I see??? An Angel, in the form of Leni Biener, turned around a corner and saved my life! Oh man was it a relief to see her. After a big hug and brief hello, we hurried to her car and left the airport.
It was really quite amazing that we ran into each other at the airport. Little did I know, Leni had been at home, checked her computer, and saw that my flight had landed. After waiting 30 minutes for me to call her, she decided to hop in her car and drive to the airport, assuming I'd call her on the way, seeing as though that's what I had told her I was gonna do. Then, when she got to the airport, and I still hadn't called her, she thought I was lost and decided to try to find me inside. Finally, after getting an illegal parking spot, she ran through the airport searching for me, and 20 minutes later we ran into each other. Whew!!! Both of us were definitely happy to see each other, ending my nightmare in the frankfurt airport, and we were off to her home town of Aschaffenburg! Tschüss
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