First Class Treatment

I arrived at the airport by 7:00am for my 9:10am flight, just as planned, and began to wait in line to check-in. Inside my head I was running through all the things I needed to ask at the ticket counter, hoping I could make my impending 15-hour journey home as simple as possible. I would be flying from Dusseldorf (one-way ticket story here) via Ft. Myers to Atlanta. 

"Any chance you have a window seat available?" I said with a smile as I approached the counter.

Click. Click. Click. She was looking at her computer for a minute and glanced at me just long enough to say, "No. All booked up."

Flight route: Dusseldorf to Ft. Myers.

The next couple questions I asked didn't improve our rapport one bit, and by the time I stepped away from the counter (still without a seat assignment) I was visibly in tears. Yes, I was that girl. I admit, I sometimes cry when I'm flustered, but I don't think I've ever been so frustrated at an airport before. Boyfriend went back to ask her one more question for me and reported back that the counter lady would be at my gate too and I could get a seat assignment from her there. Great, I thought, just the person I want to see again.

By the time I got through security and to my gate people were already standing around ready to board the plane. I finally found someone to help me get a seat assignment and she took my paperwork asking, "You still don't have a boarding pass?"

She looked at my name and said, "Oh, we've been calling for you. We have upgraded you to first class. Here is your boarding pass."

I looked at the ticket in my hand for a minute before I could really believe it. Seriously? I was in shock. I found the lady from the check-in counter working at the door to the plane and thanked her for her help. She was completely pleasant and sincere.  With a smile I boarded the plane and found my way to my first class seat thinking the whole way about how people can surprise you sometimes.

First Class seat on Air Berlin.

While sipping champagne and putting on cozy slippers I settled into my home for the next 10 hours. It wouldn't even be close to the longest flight I've ever been on (it wouldn't even be close to the longest horrible bus ride I've been on), but I had still been dreading that time on the airplane. Now I was excited to enjoy it!

Nice meals, friendly staff, and a cozy chair. I was such a happy camper.

Delicious mealtime in first class. That's just the appetizer.

The flight arrived in Fort Myers right on time and I was one of the first people off the plane. After customs and baggage claim I followed the signs to Departures to check in for the next leg of my journey. Tanned tourists with golf bags were scattered throughout the atrium as I approached the Delta kiosk. I scanned my printed confirmation, smiled at my aisle seat assignment, and handed my checked baggage to an attendant at the self-check-in area. Then I went through security and sat down at my gate about two hours before my flight was scheduled to leave.  Even though I worried about things beforehand, it worked out perfectly with my separately-purchased connecting flights.

I arrived back in Atlanta just before 6:30pm, weary from my long travels. Even with first class for the majority of my trip I was exhausted and just happy to be in the company of my loving family once again.  Arriving at my house I had that two-sided sense of peace you only have when coming home after a long trip: A sense of happiness for building unforgettable memories and a sense of sadness knowing the trip is over.

One-Way Flights

Long story short, I had a one-way flight booked for July 8^th from Atlanta to Luxembourg (via London) since February. And since I promised to keep this portion short, I’ll spare the details and just say that I considered it a freebie, or a bonus, and was willing to lose the ticket if I couldn’t find a flight back to Atlanta.  The problem is, when flying internationally, one-way tickets tend to cost more money than a round-trip ticket. A little strange, but mainly just an airline tactic to make sure you book your whole trip with them. Or maybe to ensure balanced flights going both directions?

Every few weeks I would check my favorite flight-finding website, kayak, for ticket prices, hoping I would find a cheap round trip ticket which I could justify only using half. But rarely can you use the word “cheap” to describe flying to Europe in the summer.  Flight prices to Europe are sometimes more than double in the summer than in the springtime or autumn. But after searching and searching, the boyfriend and I discovered that Air Berlin offers one-way tickets for half the price of their round trip fares! I decided I could justify that half-price ticket (since my flight over to Europe was kinda free), so I booked the flight.

Searching for flight deals online and actually boarding the plane are too different things. When looking online I turn into Ms. Frugal, rarely considering the hassle involved in some of the connections I book for myself. And when I booked this return flight back to America it was no different. Air Berlin is nice enough to offer reasonably-priced one-way tickets, but their departure airports near Luxembourg mostly connect through Berlin (that is way out of the way) with the exception of Dusseldorf. Then I had to choose an arrival airport in America that would offer a cheap connection to Atlanta (which I would purchase separately).  A New York connection was too problematic since it involved different airports; same with DC; Chicago was an option, but domestic connections were outrageously expensive.

Checking in for my flight from Dusseldorf.

Alas I found one that would work: A flight departing from Dusseldorf airport flying direct to Fort Myers, Florida (who knew that would be a direct flight?!). Then I separately purchased a flight from Fort Myers to Atlanta for under $100. This was a slightly risky move since booking separately means I am responsible if I miss my connecting flight, not the airline.  But I gave myself a three-hour connection time, which I figured should be plenty. To be extra safe I also tracked the flight for a few days and it seemed that Air Berlin flight to Fort Myers was regularly one time: a good sign!

I have another story to tell about the flight, so you’ll have to check back to read about the connection tomorrow!

A Belgian Adventure

Late Saturday afternoon we left Bruges to head for the coast, just 15 km away.  The nearest city on the beach is Oostende, so we drove towards there and decided to head west once we hit the coast to look for a campground.  When we had decided originally to camp on the beach, I imagined something akin to this picture:

"Beach camping" as pictured on the National Park Services website.

Wrong. Boyfriend wasn't surprised at all when we pulled into this camp ground:

Albatros Camping, just outside of Middelkerke, Belgium.

What?! That's not a campground, it's a mega city! I guess campsites in Belgium look a little different than our national park campgrounds in America. The picture above is actually of a postcard of the camping megacity which they gave us when we checked-in. It had the gate code on it so we could get our car inside the very secure megacity.  Welcome to Belgium beach camping!  I think this quote from a Flanders toursim website describes it well, "A real family residential campsite park where both young and old feel at home."

Boyfriend said there might have been a smaller campground had we kept driving further down the beach, but we were tired, the dark clouds were rolling in, and I kinda wanted to experience the real camping megacity.

We then pitched our tent and headed back into the nearest town, Middelkerke, to find food for dinner. Luckily, we just caught a few stores still open and found the essentials for sandwiches. Then we bundled up for a quick walk on the beach! It was super windy, the sky was overcast and the water was freezing, but I had to say I'd put my feet in the North Sea.

Sandwiches back at the campsite, a few rounds of uno and then we called it a night. Before I knew it, I was waking up to the sound of a loudspeaker yelling in Dutch and French.  Not the setting I would have chosen for an alarm clock, but for 25 Euro, what do you expect?

Slowly we packed up the tent and drove back into Middelkerke to return to a place we had spotted the night before: a mini golf course! As I've mentioned before, we love mini golf, and for me, no trip to the beach is complete without it!

Boyfriend playing mini golf in Middelkerke.

Not too happy being stuck between those hills!

21 holes later (I know, I thought that was strange too) the sun was almost about to shine through the clouds, so we decided to drive down the coast and find a nice beach.  I wasn't too hopeful since I hadn't seen much blue sky over the past couple weeks in Europe, but I was willing to cross fingers and at least take a nice walk.

To the beach!

To my surprise, it turned out to be a gorgeous day! We parked the car and climbed the huge sand dunes to the beach access and walked along with our feet sinking into the sand.  The wind made it too chilly to run around in bathing suits still, and the water was just plain cold, so we went back into the dunes to find a spot sheltered from the wind.  The beaches I normally visit in Florida don't have such dunes, but I really liked that people would just hangout there.

Napping in the dunes.

After a relaxing afternoon in the dunes, and a nice long nap in the sun we both were sun-kissed and sandy, and ready to head home.  Even though it was only one night away, it really felt like a vacation, and we had so much fun.  We did make one more stop though, since we were in a spontaneous mood. I spotted a highway sign that said, "Spy" on it and mentioned, "Hey, I think Bill Bryson talked about going to that town in his book."

Boyfriend said, "Want to go?"

"Yes!"

The problem was, I didn't remember what he said about the town of Spy. We drove around the ordinary town for five minutes and I wondered if Bryson thought it was a dud too. Maybe that's all he said about it? Don't go! I thought. But just as we were about to give up, we spotted a brown tourist sign with an arrow that said, "Grotte de Spy." Hmmm... intriguing. Let's go!

The road towards "Grotte de Spy"

We drove down a long road until finally we reached a parking lot where a few other cars were parked, and there was a large graffiti-ed sign and an arrow pointing down a path that said "1 km."  I was wearing a bathing suit, a coverup and flip flops; hardly an outfit for hiking, but who am I to pass up an adventure? So we started walking.

Eventually we were lead to a steep winding trail that ended at the entrance to a big cave. We walked around inside and even found a very narrow part that lead deeper into the cave. The sign posted was in French, so we didn't exactly know what we were looking at besides a big cave.  Wikipedia has since informed me that Grotte de Spy was where scientists made some major discoveries about Neaderthals.

Inside the narrow section of the Grotte de Spy

Turns out, Bryson didn't visit Spy. He went to Spa. Think I would have preferred the latter.

But I love the idea that just because we thought there was something to see there, we went on search of an adventure. And we found one.

"I went to Bruges for a day..."

Bill Bryson begins his three-paragraph overview of Bruges in neither here nor there with, "I went to Bruges for a day." And since my visit to Bruges was completely inspired by these three paragraphs, I figured I should start that way too.

But before we got to Bruges, we realized that just because you have everything all planned out in your head doesn't mean things will flow as smoothly as you hoped!  At our 6am departure we realized our navigation app (that we always use) can't calculate directions across country borders (which made me curse my dependence on technology and wonder why I hadn't printed simple directions as back-up). Soon enough though, we had made our way 30 minutes to the Belgium border and the system started calculating.

Another hour down the road and the oil light came on in the car, threatening our weekend in Belgium once again.  We pulled over in a gas station where mobile phones were barely letting us call out to boyfriend's parents (we were driving his mom's car), and rain clouds were darkening the sky. It still wasn't even 8am; the day wasn't looking promising.  You have got to love the Germans though for always being prepared: boyfriend's mom had a liter of spare oil in the trunk!

Boyfriend fixing our oil problem.

We were back on the road, just an hour behind schedule, and ready to enjoy our day in Bruges! We arrived just before 11am, found free parking at the train station right outside the city and began exploring.  We almost immediately found ourselves on a deserted street, just as picturesque as Bill Bryson had described. And so here I begin my story of Bruges:

On a quaint side street in Bruges.

"I went to Bruges for a day" and it was even more quaint than I expected. We found our way into the city center and visited the tourist information where we purchased a map for 50 cents.  I contemplated not having a map at all, since wandering aimlessly seemed more pleasant and natural, but since we were only there for a day we didn't want to miss anything crucial.

Figuring out what we should see on our map of Bruges.

I'm not the biggest fan of museums, especially when the scenery around town was breath-taking and the weather was clearing up to be a gorgeous day. The chocolate museum and frites museum seemed tempting, but we decided to just stay outside and eat pralines and frites instead to experience the best of Belgium.

One of the hundreds of praline shops in town. Yum!

You read correctly, a frites museum. Did you know frites, or french fries were originally from Belgium?  Well, there are a lot of theories out there about the actual origin, but I like the story popular in Belgium: They used to eat small fish from a river cooked in oil, but one year, when the river froze over, they decided to cut potatoes in the approximate shape of the small fish and fry them instead. So, when in Belgium, make sure to eat some of the delicious frites!

Our frites from a friterie, founded in 1900. Yum!

The tourist were flooding the streets, just as Bill Bryson had mentioned, so later in the day we wandered away from the city center, ventured through the small quaint streets and followed the canals around the city. Boat rides available around the canals seemed like a nice option, but strolling along the empty streets without the loud voice of a tour guide on a microphone was, we think, the best way to explore Bruges (and more budget-friendly).

Overall, Bruges was everything I expected it to be and more. Simply put, it is just a pleasant place to be.  As Bill Bryson mentions, it's hard to imagine that people actually live here and experience this beautiful place on a daily basis. It would be lovely to live in such a place, but for now I am just happy to have spent a day there.  Late in the afternoon we found our way back to our car and headed to the coast to find a campsite. I'll write another entry tomorrow about the rest of our weekend in Belgium. For now I'll show you just a couple more photos of the wonderful Bruges.

Next Destination: Bruges

In the spring, while hopping around Europe for several months, I finally took the time to read a book that had been on my bookshelf for over a year. Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors mainly because he writes about my favorite thing, traveling; He also knows how to paint a picture using words, and his use of sarcasm to makes you laugh out loud. His European adventures, neither here nor there, first published back in 1993, was a great book to read while exploring this continent.

One particular place he visited stuck out in my mind, and I couldn't stop thinking about the enchanting city of Bruges he described. Nestled less than 15 km from the North Sea in Belgium, and just over 3 hours from where the boyfriend lives in Luxembourg, I decided that this town should be on my to-do list.

The spring passed though and we never planned our visit to Bruges. Now that I'm back in Luxembourg for July, the boyfriend made sure to leave a weekend free so we could make the trip we've been talking about for months.

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson

I went back to the boyfriend's bookshelf and flipped through neither here nor there to re-read the chapter on Belgium before we leave for the weekend. And, to my surprise, Bryson only talked about his stay in Bruges for one page! I can't believe I was so enthralled with his brief description, I was sure I'd read a whole chapter about Bruges. After re-reading that page though, I realized that was all he needed to say. It's a simple and elegant description and it makes my heart beat with happiness to know that I get to visit this quaint city in just two days! If you have the book, take a look (Reading Rainbow style) at pages 60-61 in chapter 6, titled,"Belgium."

Early Saturday morning we will start our weekend in Belgium, hoping to camp Saturday night on the beach somewhere.  I usually am attached to my Lonely Planet guide at all times, but this trip we're going guide-free. Good idea? I'm not so sure, but I'll be sure to report!

80s, Meet 2011

Recently I've starting falling in love with Music Beta. That's right, I'm the victim of another internet phenomenon. But what's not to like? I can listen to my entire music collection from any computer (or phone) with internet. Sweet! It's like my own personal Pandora with all my playlists and favorite songs on-demand. I'm sure there will be consequences one day for having uploaded 13,000 songs into the cloud, but for now I'm a big fan.

I just had to take a picture of this gem though:

That's right, you can call Tommy Tutone's Jenny on Skype!

Yes, Skype, I would like to call Jenny at 867-5309. I love that Skype picked up on that phone number in Music Beta.

And another one that made me smile:

"But I would walk 804.67 km, and I would walk 804.67 more..."

Thanks, Google for that conversion, but I'm not sure if "804.67 km" has the same ring to it as "500 Miles."

Weekend in Germany

This weekend the boyfriend and I went to spend time at his parents' house in a small town just an hour from Luxembourg. After spending most of the spring in Luxembourg, I've come to love these weekends away in Germany, and I love spending time with his family, even if we don't always speak the same language.

Friday, while boyfriend worked from home, I went shopping and adventuring to Trier with his parents. Lots of pantomiming and really bad German, but we had so much fun together!  Since I had been to Trier before we only did a little sight-seeing to the Basilica, which had been closed last time I visited the city, and we took a walk around the palace gardens.

The palace gardens in Trier, Germany.

That night we were able to celebrate a friend's birthday by playing in a poker tournament at his house. I was the only girl, and while I didn't do so well in the first round, I won the next round at the losers' table!  Five Euros in my pocket; Thank you very much.  I love being the only girl sometime and showing those boys not to judge too quickly.  I think I have to thank my brother for sparking that competitive side in me back when I was little.

Poker night.

Saturday we joined some friends for one of our favorite sports: mini-golf! This new course we went to had some fun and exciting holes, like this one:

Shooting the ball into this hanging net!

But overall cement is not the best base for a mini-golf course. You simply tap the ball and it flies down to the other side of the "green" and the littlest sand or dirt can totally mess up your shot. Past mini-golf courses in Germany have been far better. 

Cement courses, really? Not the best mini-golf surface.

More fun to come in Europe. Tomorrow we'll head back to Luxembourg and I have high hopes to see the new Harry Potter movie later this week. I love the local movie theater in Esch that plays movies in German, French and English!

Taste of Home

We are in Germany for the weekend and just as I was drooling over the Haribo and chocolates in the grocery store, I spotted this gem. The America section! Nothing subtle about it. American hot dogs, American popcorn, American cookies, and even American tortillas. Hmm... Not so sure about the last one.

The America section of a German grocery store.

 Don't worry, I'm sticking to sausages and salty bread this weekend!

Comparing Summers

Having been born and raised in Atlanta, I think of summer as a sweltering time of year, air-conditioning not optional. This thinking has only been reinforced by living in Ethiopia for two years where, even though potentially high temperatures are offset by the high elevation, heat is still unavoidable.  I often forget that in other parts of the world summer is the more pleasant time of the year. 

My mom and I (plus dogs)  all bundled up in Maine in June.

At the end of May, just as beautiful spring weather settled in Atlanta, my family and I took off to spend three weeks in Maine, where the late Winter happily awaited us.  But, with the lilacs in bloom, I had nothing to complain about.  I appreciated our escape to Maine more than ever once we came back to Atlanta and experienced the brutality of the Georgia heat: Highs in the 90s for the next several weeks (which was nice for our July 4th fun!).

Panting dogs = HOT July in Georgia!

Now you understand why, as I was preparing to leave for Luxembourg last week, jeans weren't even on my packing list.  One light jacket for the plane, just in case, and the rest just light summer outfits.  Luckily I had a last-minute impulse to wear jeans on the airplane. I think I will survive this mild summer weather in Luxembourg just fine, but it is good to remember that when you cross the Atlantic, you don't ever go back as far south!

Comparing latitude of Atlanta, Luxembourg and Ethiopia.

Today it's overcast and 60 degrees here in Luxembourg. Good to remember that it is further north here than all of the lower 48 states! I put stars on the map to show Atlanta, Luxembourg and Ethiopia for comparison.  I know there are other things to take into account when looking at weather (gulf stream, etc.), but don't forget to pack some warm layers for traveling to northern Europe in the summer.

Overcast Luxembourg.

Suburban Gardening

First, I want to say that I have safely arrived in Luxembourg and I have almost adjusted to the time change already! It's great to be back here in the mild summer and away from the Georgia heat.  I'm taking today to relax a bit and the topic on my mind is my garden back home.

Although I've grown up surrounded by my mother's beautiful garden oasis, I had never had experience with growing vegetables before my time in Ethiopia.  As part of our "in-service training" from Peace Corps, my group of volunteers received a three-day "Permaculture" training, teaching us how to build small household gardens.  Their hopes were that we would return to our respective towns/villages, and pass on our knowledge to neighbors and groups needing extra nutrients.

About a year after that training, inspired by my favorite read of Peace Corps, I dug my first garden bed ever. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle really changed the way I viewed gardening, and it motivated me to produce my own food. It was especially fun since many of my favorite vegetables (zucchini, green beans, and yellow corn) were rare and expensive in Ethiopia; so, why not just grow them myself? I started the garden on a whim, but it definitely paid off in the end.

When I returned home in April I realized that I had no excuse not to continue my gardening in Georgia.  My mom allowed me to dig up a section of our dying backyard grass, and once again inspired by literature, I began planting my second garden ever. This time I was reading Michael Pollan's Second Nature and knew that if I hurried, I could still get my seeds in the ground in late April.  Three days later, I had my garden beds ready for seeds. If I learned nothing else during those Peace Corps trainings, I do remember this: double dig, and use plenty of compost!

Digging my garden. It wound up being two beds this size.

I have plenty of stories about my American garden thus far, but for now I have to go enjoy the beautiful day here in Luxembourg!

My New Backpack

My favorite birthday gift (besides those beautiful flowers below) wasn't actually a surprise at all. I searched long and hard for a new backpack to meet all my tough criteria, and knew exactly which one I was getting. I picked it out long enough ago that it inspired the title of my blog, even though I am not planning any real "backpacking" trips in the near future.  I will be jet-setting tomorrow though, off to Luxembourg to visit the boyfriend and see a bit more of Europe. Does it count as "backpacking" if I'm visiting the country with the highest GDP per capita?

Birthday Flowers from Boyfriend :)

Back to the pretty new Pack... I've had the same traveling backpack for almost five years now, so it was about time that I picked out something new. My old one, a North Face W Crestone 60, is a bit bulky with over-sized back pads, thick hip belt, and too many useless straps.

For my new pack, I knew I wanted the new suspension that allows your back to breathe while you wear it, not be smothered with non-breathable super padding. I also wanted an outside pouch that you could slip a jacket or dirty shoes into (which this one has, as you can see in the picture below). The last criteria for my new backpack I had to give up on: a bottom zipper to access the bag from both top and bottom. I realized that you have to get something way bigger that a 55 liter size to have a bottom zipper.

My new backpack, the L.L. Bean AT55, all packed to go!

I finally settled with super light L.L. Bean AT55, which in Women's is actually just 50 liters. It has a shorter frame than my old pack, which means it is small enough to pass as a carry-on luggage, as long as I don't stuff it to the max.  What a great birthday gift! I'm leaving for Europe tonight and I'll update the blog as I travel.

Happy 4th of July!

This week my travels are just to north Georgia, but I’m still having just as much fun as I would if I were half way around the world!

Great view of the neighbor's fireworks!

Setting of our fountain firework pack on the dock.
Costco special!

Fireworks, boating, swimming, and family. The perfect recipe for 4^th of July. I hope yall are having just as much fun, wherever you are!

My adventure for the weekend was water skiing for the first time in three years. A great idea at the time, but I'm paying for it now with sore muscles.

Way too many waves on 4th of July for skiing! 

Equally adventurous was my dog's decision to jump in the water after me (okay, I coaxed her). Her first swimming lesson was a bit of a panic, but she survived.  Not a water dog after all!

My dog, Arbay, pre-swim.