Day 1 - Munich

Monday, June 1

Joyce was gracious enough to buy a ticket for me to the Amsterdam airport this morning and show me which track/train to get on in Hilversum. We had a brief goodbye (sad!) and my train was suddenly there--ready to quickly take me off to the airport! About 55 minutes later, I was there... and confused about what to do next.

I did understand where I was, as I had seen the atrium area when I arrived, but there are about a million signs, which you'd think would be helpful--but is actually somewhat overwhelming. I found a board that listed the flights and saw that I was supposed to check in at one of three specific check-in locations. Found one of those locations and saw lots of people doing self check-in. I didn't know if I had to do self check-in, as I would prefer someone to help me, but I decided I might as well just do it myself. It was easy enough. 

Then I got in line for checking baggage. I've never checked my own bag before, so this was a new experience. The line itself to check your bag was probably about 30 minutes long, but once I got to the front to chose one of the fancy machines that weighs your bag and prints out a tag for it... I chose the wrong one. The machine wouldn't properly weigh the bag for the person in front of me; once they figured that part out, the tag wouldn't print. Called over a KLM representative and she closed the line. Out of order. Alrighty! That debacle was like 15 minutes haha. Luckily I got to the airport early, so I wasn't in a rush or anything. 

I was finally baggage-free and ready to go through security. So many people. Another 15 minutes, a brief pat-down, and I am home-free to find my gate. Short walk. Plop down. Wait for an hour or so. Good to go.

The flight itself was uneventful! Once we were descending and I could see land (Germany), I got teary-eyed for a moment because I'm a nerd. I just feel so lucky to be able to do this in my life.

Baggage claim. Had a moment of panic waiting for my bag to arrive. I needed to locate the Cosmos person before 2:15 because that's when the shuttle to the hotel left. About 20 minutes at the baggage carousel and, alas, there was the purple and black houndstooth bag. Victory.

Walked out with nothing to declare and--yay--there's the Cosmos person. Easy peasy. The woman there was actually our tour guide, so that was nice. I was the last of our group to show up, so we got on the shuttle and drove about 5 minutes to our first hotel, which is where I'm at now. Pretty standard hotel. Doesn't feel like I'm in a foreign country other than the German magazines.

We had a short tour group meeting at 7:00 pm. Our tour guide, Amelia (from Bosnia), gave us some info and instructions for tomorrow. I felt kind of alone since everyone was paired off or with their families. I think maybe I'll have to find a pair of vacation parents haha. 

We start our day tomorrow with prompt take-off in the bus at 8:20 am.

I seemed to have left my phone charger at Joyce's, which sucks but would've been a much more major dilemma if I hadn't brought with me an external charger. I think it'll do okay for the rest of the trip. Fingers crossed!