We Made It! - Getting to Berlin.

We have arrived!

Our flight was long and mostly uneventful... We left LAX via AirBerlin at 6pm PST and arrived in Berlin after about thirteen hours of flight and layover time. Some highlights of our flight include:

- My relief once we got on the plane. I had meant to call the airline a few days before we left to confirm our reservations, but somehow never got around to it. As a result, I had been having these mild, internal panic attacks that our reservation had been cancelled and we wouldn't make it to Europe after all.

- Billy. I mainly include him as a highlight because I have always had these horrible visions of him being torn open by airport security in search of drugs or something, so every time he makes it through the x-ray machine with all his stuffing intact, I am so relieved.

- Our dismay (mostly Steve's) at how little leg room there was in our seats. Seriously, this was probably the smallest seat I've ever been in, cars, trains, buses, and planes all included. I think Steve's knees were touching the seat in front of him the entire time.

- Our excitement over each seat having its own monitor for movies, games, music, etc.... Only to find that Steve's didn't work and that headphones cost 5 euro if you didn't bring your own (which we didn't). We did end up playing mahjong together on my screen for a while and watching part of Happy Feet in silence before we fell asleep.

- There were two Americans sitting behind us who were.... an interesting couple of people. And by interesting I mean they ordered like four shots of Bacardi rum in the first two hours of being on the plane, which meant everything from that point on was HILARIOUS for them. Also, the guy brought a guitar on board... Which he didn't play, but how in the world was he going to fit that in an overhead bin if there hadn't been a few empty seats??

- The food was actually pretty good. We had chicken, veggies, and mashed potatoes in our little microwaveable containers and it kind of tasted like pot pie. Plus the girl sitting next to us gave Steve her piece of cheesecake because she didn't want to eat it. A complimentary glass of wine or beer was offered with the meal, which of course we took advantage of.... I wish I could say you can't go wrong with free wine, but in this case I was wrong. We are both open to all kinds of wine, but this one was gross. It was some kind of Italian table wine, so it's probably supposed to taste how it did, but our California palates were not prepared for such tannic, weak wine. Give me a rich, bold, fruity Paso Robles red over this any day.

- Digestif service! After the dinner trays were cleared away, the flight attendants came by asking if we would like to follow our meal with brandy or Bailey's... Umm, yes, please! Bailey's on ice tastes like a very rich chocolate milk. Delicious. Plus Steve sneakily got two! Our plane had two seats next to each window, and three seats together in the middle, which is where Steve and I sat, and for most of the flight, I would get served from the attendants going down the right aisle (I sat in the middle of the three seats) and Steve would get served by the attendants on the left (he sat on the left side). Well, when the digestif service came by, the attendant on the right served our whole row (all three of us) and by the time the left-side attendants came by, Steve had finished his Bailey's, so he hid it and asked for another. The attendants were none the wiser.

- Sleep. Or lack thereof. I was amazed at how much easier it is for me to sleep on any mode of transportation other than an airplane. I think between both Steve and I, we got maybe four hours of sleep in. Ugh.

- Baby alarm clock: a baby started crying REALLY loud just in time to wake us all for breakfast. At least that was really the only time a baby cried other than when the plane landed, and breakfast was delicious.


When we got off the plane, we had a moment of OMG HOW DO WE GET TO THE APARTMENT FROM HERE??? and then Steve's level-headedness took over. We had very good instructions from the apartment owner to get us from the airport to the apartment, and we managed to navigate from the airport to the apartment via bus and subway. By the time we reached our accommodations, it was almost 6pm Central European Time (CET), which was crazy to think about, since that was what time we had left Los Angeles. More on our first night in Berlin later...!