Germany!

Alright. Here we are again. Jennifer runs off on yet another adventure and apparently you're interested enough to sit in front of the computer to read about it.
I'm gonna have to admit right now, that this has been the smoothest, most organized trip I've ever been on, and I'm BY MYSELF. Even when I'm traveling in groups like with my friends, my siblings, or my parents, things don't go this smoothly. Maybe I was just meant to do this. Somebody please tell me I was meant to do this! You know I wouldn't argue with you! I'm also going to have to admit that it's really hard for me to sit down and blog about this, because I just want to go outside and run around!! I cringe at the thought of me sitting on my laptop when I could be out there on the German streets causin' some trouble instead. As long as I remind myself that I still have two whole days here to kill, on my own.
Let me start from the beginning. Last Sunday was my last full day at home, and it was definitely a full day. I went to church one last time, I drove with my family to drop my newly engaged sister off at the airport, I had a little farewell dinner with some friends at DQ, and then I went to a mini-family gathering weiner-roast. All in all, it was a wonderful day full of wonderful people and wonderful goodbyes and wonderful packing-procrastination. I tried packing that night, but the last two episodes of Gilmore Girls deemed more important to me.
On Monday after getting a little over six hours of sleep, I woke up at 7 AM to finish packing. And I did pretty successfully. But seriously, am I the only person on this planet who finishes everything last minute? Like who packs three months worth of clothes a few hours before they leave for the airport? Who does that?!
After I finished packing my Virginian sister and her family called, and we talked for over an hour! It was awesome. I even got to ask Alora "what does a cow say?!". :)
We had to leave for the airport a few hours earlier, so that I could go on stand-by for Executive class. The goodbyes were easy. Well, compared to last year when I moved to BC, they were easy. It's crazy though. Me moving a few provinces away to BC was a WAY bigger deal than me moving across the ATLANTIC OCEAN to Germany. Last time I was so nervous. Remember how I couldn't eat like weeks before? Well, food definitely isn't an issue this time around. And speaking of food, my first-class standby was accomplished. Oh my goodness. As soon as you sit down in your big comfy seat they give you a tiny glass dish of roasted almonds and cashews, a glass of champagne, and a menu. Who knew they gave menu's on airplanes?! After my gourmet mushroom-stuffed chicken meal, I was feelin' good. And I thought it'd be another 3 hours to Montreal at least. Boy, was I wrong! I didn't even get to finish my movie! All this first-class business sure makes time fly.

So when I got to Montreal, I left the terminal and went to the baggage claim and decided to go sit at the airport restaurant bar and see how many guys I could pick up. Haha just kidding, but I did meet a friend there, which was awesome. He definitely made the lay-over time fly by. It felt like I was in a movie or something, you know, running off the plane to meet somebody. Anybody seen Red-Eye? (haha...)

Later I got to my gate and heard my last name being called. "Fro-see, Fro-see please come to the counter." When I went to the counter, the gift of executive class was handed to me. YESSSS! This was the flight that I definitely wanted first-class for, since they have the chairs that transform into beds at the click of a button. I bet all the people around me thought I was some kind of weird-o. As soon as I sat down, I just sat there smiling. Just smiling. That's it. And then I flipped through my first-class booklet like a million times trying to figure out how my remote worked. And I looked beside me to find a little silver bag, I opened it and it was full of goodies: toothbrush, toothpaste, lip balm, socks, hand lotion, earplugs, a facial towelette, and one of those beauty-rest things you wear over your eyes. It felt like Christmas! Oh and when this salmon-delicacy was put on my table in front of me (that took me like a good half hour to set up), I said, "Sorry, I believe I ordered the ravioli..." and the flight attendant was like, "Yes, I know. This is just the appetizer." HAHA...I definitely gave myself a hard kick after that. Being able to lie down flat on an airplane was a new experience for me. I thought I'd be able to sleep for hours that way, but I only slept off and on for a good two hours. I even fell asleep during "Letters to Juliet". How could I, I love that movie. :(

I got to the Frankfurt airport expecting chaos. Because everyone had warned me, "ohhh Jenni, the Frankfurt airport is the most confusing airport you'll ever experience!!!!" and gave me millions of instructions on how to go about. So I got there, asked where my gate was, and got there in no time! I don't know what all the fuss was about. My flight from Frankfurt to Friedrichshafen was 35 minutes long. Talk about short and sweet. My first-class experience on that flight was getting off with my very own Toblerone chocolate bar. I got off the tiny plane, picked up my luggage and walked to the train station. A nice German woman helped me out with the ticket machine, and a few minutes later I stepped into the city centre of Friedrichshafen. Now all that was left to do, was to find my hotel. Easy as pie. Not. I went in circles at least three times and climbed up and down staircases pulling over 80 pounds of luggage behind me and on me, in sunny 24 degrees weather. I don't even want to imagine what I must've looked like: a sweaty tourist. After grabbing a map, I finally arrived at my hotel, my air-conditioned hotel. It's so cute. it has a single bed against the wall, a nice big window, a tiny bathroom, and an even tinier tv. But honestly, who has time to watch German television?

I pulled my laptop from my bag and logged onto facebook to notify my family that I had arrived safe and sound! Oh and when I found out that my laptop cord didn't fit into my power-adapter, I almost went into freak-out mode. Then I realized that if I put it upside down, and let it just sit in there nicely and don't touch the cord at all, it works! Phewwwww.
Changing into ripped jeans and loading my favorite fringe purse with a map, brochure, euros, my camera, ipod, and aviator sunglasses, I headed out the door. It was about 3 in the afternoon and the sun was hot and high in the sky. I explored the streets and recognized everything to a tee. It's been a good 4 or 5 years since I've been here last, and everything is exactly as I remembered it. I bought myself an Evian water, and a cone of Stracciatella ice cream just walked around. I had one of those "wow, I'm really here..." kind of moments, until I bumped into an H&M and went a little crazy. And while I was in the change-room, Taylor Swift started playing on the radio and I was pumped.

Seeing the sun go down, I decided to start heading back to my hotel. My plans that night were to grab McDonalds from the train station and eat it in my room, watching Bride Wars until I fell asleep. But, out of the corner of my eye I saw a restaurant called Pizzeria La Perla, and I was like, "oh my goodness!! I ate here five years ago!" I went inside and nothing had changed at all! I ordered the same pizza too, #301- salami and spicy tunafischen. I just sat there all by myself, reading through brochures and taking it all in. I ate a quarter of the pizza and brought the rest back to my room. I put in an episode of Gilmore Girls and fell asleep about two minutes in.

So here I am, 14 hours of sleep later, (isn't that insane?! I have never slept so well in my entire life), refreshed and ready for another day!
I'm super proud of myself. I know alot of people who couldn't do what I just did today. And the thing is, everywhere I go I feel safe. I haven't felt nervous about anything. I feel more scared walking in Winnipeg with a group of people than I do here, in a foreign country, by myself. Interesting, isn't it?
So thanks for all your prayers! They're definitely working. Oh by the way, to those of you who were wondering, I did not end up having a breakdown on the plane. Pretty much everytime I fly I end up crying up in the clouds for some odd reason. But this time, I never did!! I think that says something. :)
Anyway, I'm gonna go run around some more. I have NO idea what I'm going to do today. Everything will be an impulse decision, which is so fun and exciting I think. Haha. Thanks for reading!