10.02.06
Texas by way of Germany
Okay, so my brother pointed out that Jason has us home on his blog, and my blog still has us packing. I guess since I think Jason’g blog is so much more interesting than mine, I get lazy. I do have posts in my drafts folder, but being one that likes to write, I have to learn to edit posts down. :^)
So, here is an update. Our last weekend in Germany was everything we wanted it to be. We spent time with our friends, Carrie and Asuka, ate at some of our favorite hotspots, visited a nearby town (Koenigstein) that was by far one of my favorite places in Germany, and, of course, traveled on no sleep.
We’re just one of those couples who wants to enjoy as much as possible and save the travel preparation for when everyone else has gone to bed. Not the best way to travel, but the movers already packed and moved our bulky things, so how hard could it be to finish up? I had packed my suitcase on Thursday, but I saved the cleaning for last. Then, there was the issue of luggage weight. I felt so badly for Jason have to carry all our luggage down the stairs.
We were both exhausted after only 2 hours of sleep. I immediately got up and started vacuuming and mopping the floor. I don’t know how we got it all done. The funny thing is we made a 2:30 a.m. run to the recycling center. Since recycling is a big thing in Germany, we waited until the last minute to do our run because there is always that last water bottle or food wrapper to recycle, and we didn’t want to leave any garbage for our landlord.
We had some issues at the airport (had to get out of line to pay a change fee that the travel agent forgot to charge to Jason’s work, had to go back and pay for the heavy luggage, security undoing my whole backpack — and this was just Dresden). Then we get to Frankfurt — pretty smooth.
Washington Dulles airport was the craziest part of our journey. There were 3 international flights that landed around the same time, and customs agents were randomly selecting people so the lines were outrageous — only two agents for 3 flights! We had to drag our luggage, re-check them, go through security again and still get boarding passes (Lufthansa was our carrier first/then United). Our outbound flight was at 5:35 p.m., and we were going through security around 5:20! Originally we had a little under 2 hours between flights.
To top it off, tensions were high for people because everyone was in the same situation. I think almost everyone missed their flights.
Jason and I ran like crazy to our gate (with a few travelers rooting for us) only to find out that our seats were given away. There were 4 people ahead of us flying in from Switzerland. There were only two seats left, so we were the lucky ones. So, we made it home to Austin, had our Tex-Mex fix and went to bed.
The week was in full swing on Tuesday as we started our home search. It’s been fun but exhausting.
We are glad to be home in Texas. There’s no place like it, and we are very happy to be closer to family.
