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Published: February 1st 2009
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On the day we left...
I definitely underestimated the time it would take to properly pack for a five month stay in Europe. It was nearly 5am when I went to bed and only got to sleep for a few short hours. Dad loaded up the suburban and took us to the airport where we ended up having too many checked bags and unfortunately had to pay a hefty fine of $400 (we learned our lesson to always pack light)!
First we flew from Phoenix to Los Angeles where we then walked to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Unlike I expected, getting through security was a breeze. There was no line at all! We boarded our flight to Frankfurt, Germany on Lufthansa airline. The flight went really well considering I slept for eight out of the 11 hours :-) When we got off the plane in Frankfurt you could feel how cold it was there. It was about 38 degrees with snow on the ground (burr!!). We only had a short amount of time to get from one terminal to the next so we headed straight there. The Frankfurt airport is the most confusing airport I have ever
Tearful Goodbye
Group Hug! We love you Dad! traveled through because the signs are so misleading. We followed the signs correctly but somehow ended up getting to our gate eight minutes late and our plane to Florence had left without us!
We went all the way back through the airport to the ticket counter and they put us standby on the next flight out which was less than an hour (not too bad). With high hopes we waited as people started to board the flight. That flight ended up being completely full as did the next three flights. By the time we actually got on a flight to Florence almost 10 hours had lapsed. Sitting in a foreign airport for over half the day was so irritating because I just wanted to get a breath of European air!
While waiting in the Frankfurt airport we had some difficulty communicating to home and to our school. We needed to let our program coordinators know we wouldn’t be arriving since they were waiting to pick us up. The payphones were really complicated and didn’t seem to like our prepaid calling cards so we found an internet kiosk that was very costly but allowed us to email. One
International
Finally found the Tom Bradley International Terminal of the coordinators at our school Nienke emailed back quickly saying that because we were arriving so late no one would be able to pick us up and we would have to take a taxi from the airport to our apartment on Borgo San Jacopo where we would be able to ring our roommates and be let in. Things did not go according to this plan whatsoever....
When we landed in Florence it was midnight and we were all very drained from all the traveling. Baggage claim took a long time and we were nervous that all of our bags wouldn't make it since we had missed our original flight. Surprisingly, seven out of our eight bags made it! But that meant we needed to wait in a long line to fill out the necessary paperwork for lost luggage. Finally we made it out of the airport, and were on our way!
When we got to our apartment doors we had no idea what button to push or who to contact to enter. The streets were completely empty and every shop was closed. Our cab driver was nice enough to let us use his cell phone
I'm all set
and ready to go! to try and call our emergency line at school. Of course, nobody answered. So here we are with 11 suitcases, sitting outside a building with no clue what to do when all of a sudden a local man came walking up to enter the building. We asked him if he lived there and if he knew what apartment three students might be staying in. He did in fact live there, but he had no idea what apartment we were in. With our cab driver getting anxious to leave Alfonso (the neighbor) told us we could bring our luggage in to the bottom of the staircase and we could knock on the doors to see if our roommates answer. The girls and I proceed to knock on every door possible with no answer to any of them. At this point we’re thinking we may just have to go back to the airport and wait until further notice. Alfonso was also very kind and actually let us call Dad from his cell phone to the U.S. (which I’m sure was pretty expensive). Dad informed us that Nienke had written another email after we boarded our flight stating that we have no roommates
The Ultimate Nerd is Made Up From
earplugs, an inflatable neck rest, and sleeping with glasses on! and no one would be at our apartment so we were suppose to go to a hotel they had reserved for us for the night and someone would be there to pick us up in the morning for orientation. Alfonso called a taxi for us and helped us tell the cab driver where we needed to go. It’s now almost 3am when we get checked into the hotel. What a night it had been! The elevator was the size of a very small fitting room so it took us about four trips to make it up with all the luggage. Although we were extremely tired and probably could've fallen asleep standing up we were all very hungry.
We walked a little down the road and found a little restaurant/bar that was just closing. The owner Adriano invited us in and after hearing what a journey we made from the states he gave us the best pastries I've ever eaten (with an extra bag full to take to the hotel). He then insisted we end our hectic day with a celebratory shot which we of course accepted. We took a menu home with us and told him maybe one
Gate A3
I don't really mind if I never see gate A3 at the Frankfurt airport again! day we'd come back for breakfast. Finally.....it was off to bed!
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