Twas the night before Europe ....

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Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring ... except for Elliott who put off packing for his European trip until Christmas Eve...

Flying out on Christmas day was a bit of a worry for me. I didn't know how I would feel spending Christmas in airports and planes. However, this thought was quickly overcome by the amazing Christmas that I spent with my family on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning before going to the airport.

Of course this didn't mean that things were going to be easy for me ...

My original flight was supposed to be from Cincinnati to Atlanta to connect to my flight to Zurich. Flying standby, I missed my small hop to Atlanta. However, my luggage didn't seem to miss that flight ... but we will talk more about that later.

I quickly went into action calling family members to research train and flight schedules from other European cities, hoping that I could catch a flight out of Cincinnati that day! All I wanted to do was get over the Atlantic and get my feet on the ground in Europe. I knew from there it would be easy to navigate my way to Zurich to meet Bernd.

Here is a small account of how it unfolded ...

I switched my buddy pass over from the connecting flight in Atlanta to Zurich for a direct Delta flight to Frankfurt Germany. I called my friend Bernd who was waiting for me in Liechtenstein who then booked an eticket for a flight from Frankfurt to Zurich. Nothing was going to stop me now!!! All I had to do was wait in the airport on Christmas day for another 5 hours...

With the buddy pass (Thanks Tina!!!!!!!!) I got a first class ride across the pond!!! Before I could put my luggage in the overhead bins I had a glass of champagne. I could feel that the stress of the afternoon was ending. As the plane took off the darkness of the night beneath me was decorated with firey veins of light. I realized after a moment that it wasn't just the normal lights of homes I was seeing; It was Christmas lights!! I couldn't help but think that not many people would imagine their lighting would be for an audience aboard an aircraft.

I got settled into my first class lounge by the time we reached cruising altitude .. and my order for Crab Cakes was in!! Then the flight feast began!! I had a 5 course meal with a complement of wine and dinner cocktails while I watched Knocked Up on my in-flight personal movie player. The food was awesome!! I couldn't believe how good airplane crab cakes could be. The drinks were great too!! ... but that is kind of hard to screw up... at any rate, this is the point where I fell comatose for 6 hours.

I woke up just as my plane passed over Ireland. My blood must have knew I was over the motherland!! I had a chance to brush my teeth and wash my face in the plane just before we began our approach into Frankfurt.

Going through customs was a quick breeze. I got my Germany stamp and headed to the baggage claim. There I waited ..... and waited ... and waited. No luggage!!! I checked with some people in the lost luggage department who set up a transfer for my luggage to Zurich in case it showed up in Frankfurt. However, they thought that it might already be in Zurich. I knew this was going to be bad...

I hopped on the Frankfurt Sky Rail and headed to Terminal 1 to try to find Lufthansa to get my eticket. This was my second time on the Sky Rail at this airport. The first time was on my way to China. I remembered a little bit about the airport at least. Frankfurt is one of the largest airports in Europe. Sooo .. I got my ticket and headed to a bar to wait a few hours and have a few ½ litres of fine German beer!! Ok ... they weren't all fine. One of the wheat beers tasted like a German butcher soaked some bierwursts in my glass of beer for a few hours before serving me the drink. It made me gag ... bleeahh.

So, with no luggage .. and a bad taste in my mouth I checked through the gate of my air escape to Zurich. A tram drove us, the passengers, 20 minutes around runways until we finally found the one that was to be taking us. We boarded and waited for takeoff.... and waited .... and waited.... and waited until we had an announcement that the plane was frozen and the deicing truck ran out of fluid and another had to be sent. Takeoff was delayed an hour!!

I finally made it to Zurich!!! No luggage was there either!!! Sweet! I had to check in with a smoking hot Swiss girl about the lost luggage. When it turns up it should be delivered to Bernds house in Liechtenstein, an hour away.

I went through the Swiss customs .. and there was Bernd .. a familiar face!! ... Little did I know how good of friends I would make while in Glasgow. Here is an excerpt from a previous blog titled Usiege Bietha... “...trapped in a hostel with seven guys from Glasgow Caledonian University .. from six different countries. Slovenia, Lichtenstein (Yeah, I didn't know that was a country either ... but now I do, and now I know that it has a population of 37,500).” Well, now I know a little bit more about Liechtenstein ... and I have some awesome friends here as well!!!!!!

Anyway, into Bernds BMW I hopped with nothing but my carry on bag that contained this laptop, my ipod , a copy of Steven Colberts “I am America and So Can You” & my camera. Snow was falling on Zurich as I got my first view of The Alps! It was beautiful .. but it was already starting to get dark. As the road wound through the mountains snow and fog settled into the valley camouflaging the mountains within them. I was weary from travel. An hour later (it really seemed like minutes) I arrived in Balzers, Liechtenstein.

Bernds mom and family were waiting for us. They were playing board games and drinking wine in the kitchen as I hauled all of my luggage (my carry-on backpack) up the steps (Yes that was sarcasm). I'll skip the details of the formalities for now ... it was a quick meet and greet so I could get a shower. 27 hours of traveling tends to add some funk to your clothes and body. (For another example read my blog Traveling China .... For Dummies)

The shower was great! .. but dinner was to be even better! There was salad with homemade dressing .. cooked red cabbage ... fresh bread .. and homemade goulash. This was all washed down with a nice red wine!!! I had never had Goulash before ... It is now one of my FAVORITE dishes!! I think I will need to get the recipe from Bernds mom. So .. we ate and I talked with Bernd and his brother about the flight and Europe .. and the plans I had for my time here. The food and wine was mixing with the jet lag and putting me into sleep.... and alsdafffffffffffffffffff


Update: Things I've done since writing the previous blog... Dinner and partying in Austria and Dinner and partying in Switzerland!

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