It wasn't 100% straightforward, or without trouble though. First off, Newark Airport was unpleasant; really fit the whole New Jersey stereotype that I keep on hearing about. I arrived in Newark, and then went through security, found my gate, and then of course the security guard informed me that I had to go get my boarding passes reprinted; they had been printed by Northwest in Minneapolis, and I needed to have British Airways reprint them. Kinda dumb, huh?
So Newark (or at least the terminal I was at) has two main floors where all of the activity is. And then they have a basement, where British Airways is. Great design, I know. Crammed into a little room was a huge mass of people waiting for the seemingly overworked and understaffed teat at the counter, trying to accomodate the sea of people. Because all I needed was to get my ticket reprinted and didn't need to check in, I was allowed to go in the "fast lane", which probably took 30 - 45 minutes of waiting. Would I make my flight? I only had two hours of layover time!
I eventually reached the counter, and tell the guy my story, how security upstairs said I had to get my boarding passes reprinted, and he goes and takes them, and types stuff into the computer. And then I was taken off guard. "I don't see you on this second flight to Hamburg."
WHAT? I went on explaining how I was obviously booked for it, since they were able to find it in Minneapolis, and look at my luggage receipts! They got to Hamburg! He insisted that I was on the flight to London, but not the connecting flight to Hamburg, and that I'd have to go to the ticketing booth (just a few feet away) to get it straightened out.
So I made my way over there, and waited patiently (another 15 - 30 minutes), and then told the guy there my story. Turns out British Airways took the courtesy of rebooking my flight without bothering to inform me, because an hour and a half between flights in London wouldn't be enough time to make the second flight. Which, I later found it, was completely true. But it still was a pain that I hadn't been informed and was afraid my flight had been cancelled.
So, I made my way back upstairs, went through security for real this time, and got to the plane right as my row was being called for boarding. I kinda lucked out, because when the guy at the ticketing booth "rebooked" me, he was able to get me some pretty nice seating. I was in the front row of the coach section for the flight to London, and got me in the 5th row for my London-Hamburg flight. 10 feet of legroom is pretty nice, I've gotta say.
Newark - London was pretty boring. I had a hard time sleeping, but did manage to get a little rest. I devoured the food that mom had packed for me, but in retrospect, I should've saved it for London...
London Heathrow is an enormous airport. It dwarfs the quaint little MSP Lindenberg Terminal that I'm so used to. I think that if I had known exactly where to go and I had sprinted to the shuttle bus, and then to the right gate, I might have been able to my original flight on time. But because I followed the signs like everyone else, and didn't sprint, and because the ride on the shuttle itself took 20 - 30 minutes (this is after the 20 - 30 minutes it took to get there and wait for the shuttle to come), I didn't get to Terminal 5 until well after my original flight had taken off.
At Terminal 5, they deemed my backpack to be a security threat. I had accidentally left my bathroom-kit in there, which had some nail clippers, and a pair of scissors. I had the option of throwing them away, or checking my bag. After some deliberation and discussion with the security guards (the security guards were actually pretty nice), I decided to carry my laptop by hand, so that I'd have something to do for the next 4 or 5 hours, and then check the rest of my backpack. This wasn't necessarily a mistake; I just wish I had remembered the other half of the sandwich that I had in my backpack before checking it.
So, here I was, in the London airport, no food, no British Pounds, and a lot of time to waste. I think I managed to get a new high score on my tetris game on my computer during the wait. The only options for food were good old regular airport food; and there was no way I was going to pay £8.95 for a Hamburger (that's about $18, by the way). Anyway, it worked out fine, and I ended up making it to Hamburg alright.
In Hamburg, I was met with a slightly different set of issues. First off, they didn't really mark where you're supposed to go, so a lot of the people (including me) wandered to "Baggage Claim Terminal 2" instead of "Baggage Claim Terminal 1". This resulted in about 10 minutes of me looking for the "London British Airways" luggage claim, and asking around to figure out where it was. I made it to Baggage Claim Terminal 1, and then after a few minutes found out I was allowed to walk against the one-way signs, and into the baggage claim. I found all my luggage, and it was all in good shape.
Then came the problem of transportation. I had to figure out which bus to take; Doris (my renter) told me to take the 39, but the 39 stops at the airport and can go two different ways. After about 45 minutes of waiting, the "correct" bus 39 came.
After all of that, I made it to my little home here. It's not the best, but it's not bad either. My room is huge, which is a nice plus. I'm not such a big fan of my roommates, and they smoke all the time in their room, but they're moving out in two weeks, so I'm not really too worried. I met the new guy who's going to be moving in, and he seemed pretty decent. I seem to get along with Doris, who lives next door, and her brother, who lives on the ground level of my place.
So this weekend, of course I haven't been able to get my credit card to work. I'm always met by the "Incorrect Pin" or "Falsche Geheimzahl" message. Who was I to assume that after calling ahead to Wellsfargo, that my credit card would work here. And of course, everything is closed in Germany on the weekends. Ok ok, not everything, but banks are, and I needed a bank to exchange my traveller's checks!
Doris gave me some bread, cheese and butter, which in combination with my sandwich and carrots, held me over nicely. I managed to find a weak wireless signal in the area, and got ahold of Jakob, who's another Waldsee Betreuer, who's studying here in Hamburg. He biked over, and we walked around, and he bought me dinner. We found this Greek place (there are several in the area, actually) that was pretty good. For Sunday, I ate some of the Thai Noodle packages that I was planning on bringing for Lindsey, and some more bread that Doris gave me.
So, here I am, jet lagged at 6 AM, typing away. Everything will be fine money and food wise after today, since I can go to a bank and deposit my traveller's checks, and maybe even fix my credit card. I've heard that you don't need your PIN number to get money from it at Citibank, so I might have to try that out. I'm still researching the different pros and cons of different accounts at different banks, but I think I'm just going to pick a free account that gives me an EC Karte (debit card), and see what else I can get. You might be thinking "Zach, don't you work at a bank? Can't you just use them?" And the answers are "Yes, sort of" and "No". I'm working at an investment bank, which isn't really cut out for the individual saver. More for rich people and companies that want to invest tons of money.
Anyway, I'm going to try to get another half hour of sleep before I have to "wake up" and get going for the day. I figure I should be super early for everything today, since I have no idea how long things will take, and I probably have to walk a ways, since the bus stop near my house doesn't have an Automat, where I could buy a Tageskarte (day pass for the public transportation). I'm going to see what kind of discounts I can get, and see if there's any way that I can get the student discount, etc. Everything gets sorted out today!
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