Next Stop, Munich | Day 2

After all the fun of yesterdays game I had a full day before the overnight flight to London connecting to Munich. I had wanted to venture in to the city to go explore but then I battled back and decided to rest in. This is going to be a “long” trip so no need to burn myself out on day 1. I slept in till my checkout at 2 and went to grab lunch. There was a hockey game on so went to the Buffalo Wild Wings down the street. They attempted to put the game on but silly me didn’t recognize that the game time quoted was still Hawaii time so no game till 8pm. I had my lunch and walked over to the Best Buy where I needed to buy an adapted. Headed back to the hotel and waited an hour and the figured I would just take the shuttle over to the airport and hang out there until the flight.

As far as International Airports go, I have to say that Logan Intl. was one of the easiest to get through. Show the lady my passport, handed her my bag, and off I went. Once inside I had a few hours to kill and unfortunately Capital One doesn’t have a lounge within the airport. I sat down at a cool little bar and went through videos and images from the Celtics Game. Sometimes we forget how much international travel is really happening, and by how many different people. An older couple sat next to me and we struck up a conversation. They were heading to Anguilla to do a 7 day hiking tour. They had checked the box as “Spirited” hikers which stated that they could hike at least 5 miles in a day. They were incredibly nice and wanted to hear all about my own trip. They couldn’t believe all the countries and places I was going to. They had some recommendations of places and things to see before heading off to their gate. Cashed out from the bar and wandered over to my gate to find a delay.

There was another cool little bar just by the gate so thought to sit there during the delay. It was packed with a solid line to get in. I noticed a lady standing up at the bar so I maneuvered my over only to be shut down by the hosts haha. Back of the line I went. The lady in front of me applauded my effort to grab that seat so we started chatting. The hosts said she could be seated and off she went. A moment later she returned and said that she thought the hostess was going to seat us together but in fact it was just a solo seat which she gave to me. I thanked her and sat down. A moment later the person next to me left and as fate should have it the same lady sat next to me. We chatted away about her horseback riding and wine tasting trip with her friend as well as my own. Living in Hawaii Europe seems so far away, but from the East Coast is no further than Las Vegas to Hawaii. We exchanged some info and off she went. I gathered my stuff and made my way back to the gate.

Not having any status on British Airways there was no first class upgrade unless I wanted to pay big bucks. I was lucky enough to get a window seat for the 6.5hr flight. Walking through first class you got to see the individual pods that each person has. Gotta say was pretty nice. But to the back I went. When I arrived at my row there was a mom trying to see if there was a way her daughter could switch so they could set next to each other. I of course was happy to but there was some confusion from the stewardess. She was a tough cookie haha. Both the daughter and I went to the back to see if it could be sorted out. The issue was the daughter had paid for an aisle but got a window seat. So once the seats were an even switch then we were just assigned to our original seats. Turns out there was a poor explanation of what seats we were actually in and so a switch could have been possible. In the end the daughter said it was all good and she would sit where she was. Mudasa, her mom, sat next to me and they were on a trip to Paris. We chatted a good little while and then finally dozed off after watching an episode or two of Sugar on Apple+.

I woke up to the announcement that we were landing. Looking out the window it seemed to be typical London weather, cloudy. Upon landing there were of course people that were close to missing a connection. It even caught me off guard, but we were to deplane via stairs where a bus was meeting us to take us to the terminal. Naturally for those with short layovers that was an issue. Never the less we boarded the bus and rode to the terminal. There was a secondary screening from terminal to terminal but that seemed to go by in pretty short order. Was 10am by the time I got in to the new terminal. Food was in order so I sat at a breakfast spot that was just as packed as all the other restaurants and bars I had been to. When I sat down another girl sat next to me and immediately wanted to chat. We chatted about her displeasure with her home country Turkey and that she has moved from city to city in America. She started in San Jose as a coder but hated the people. She wrote a screenplay about a girl who is trying to find her identity exploring the game theory world. In turkey the kill goats and use the intestines as condoms. You know normal conversation. Instead of ordering a bunch of food I got a smoothie and then said I had to catch my flight. In turn, Capital One had a lounge within my terminal so I headed that way.

I was met with an insane line for the lounge. The attendants all told us that it was full inside and there wasn’t really a chance of getting a seat. With a free pass to the lounge I took my chances. Inside the lounge they had a lot of seating, all were filled, along with a buffet, and bar. All was complimentary and if needed they had showers available. I luckily found a seat in the back and decided just to sit and work on the computer. Some time went by and deemed it was time to head to the gate. I checked the board for the proper gate but it wasn’t displayed yet so I double backed for some food. They have a variety of things more aimed at lunch so had rice and pene pasta with a Sprite. The gate was displayed and I walked over to the gate. When I had gone through the check to get in to the new terminal I was told that due to my last boarding group I would need to check my roller bag. Wasn’t ideal and made it kind of awkward to just be carrying around my laptop and ipad. I lose everything in my life anyway so to just have things like that loose wasn’t awesome. Made it to my aisle seat and off we went. I slept the whole way haha. Was a bit bumpy on the approach to Munich and with my aisle seat I couldn’t see the city below just the clouds causing the bumps. Once we landed the next hurdle was to get through customs.

This seems to be a trend, the long lines. The customs line was long and since I don’t have a European passport I had to wait in the longest line which was for “All Passports.” That line took about an hour and scattered amongst the people waiting were a few Metallica fans in for the show. As I got about halfway towards the front an agent said 10 of us could go to this separate line which I luckily made. That cut that line time down by at least half which was a huge win. I got to the customs desk showed my passport prepared for the standard questions but didn’t have to answer any. He stamped my passport and a “Welcome to Munich!”

Collected my bags and headed curbside. When I read the directions to the hotel it did say that shuttle service could be provided with prior notice and for a fee. When I checked the hotel board outside it did say it would be 15 minutes. So I waited for a good 15 minutes and then decided to check the board again. In fact, it says that a ride could be scheduled if you called before and there would be a fee haha and the ride would be 15 minutes to the hotel. Suppose it pays to read for detail. I ended up just ordering and Uber which took me to the hotel Checked in no problem and once I got to the room I laid down on the bed and was game over. When I woke up it was about midnight and luckily enough was able to go back to sleep. Hopefully will be rested tomorrow and will transfer to the new hotel where I can go explore until it is time to go to the first concert of the tour.