February 18 & 19, 2022
I was finally doing it. Just one month shy of my two year anniversary of fleeing Albania and flying to Chicago (f#ck!ng covid) I was LEAVING. THE. COUNTRY. Gina and I had booked tickets to Germany (with a layover in Denmark) for February break and the departure date was finally upon us. We left school and headed to urgent care where we got our covid tests- both negative- and then headed back to my place for some tacos and guac from Mr. Salsa. Mark was nice enough to offer to drive us to the airport so we took him up on it (and I thought he wouldn't be appearing in this blog anymore🙉😅)
When we arrived at the airport we got to our gate with over two hours to spare, so we wandered this way and that way searching for a celebratory drink to kickstart our adventure. Unfortunately it seemed everything was closing even though we were just getting started. Luckily, Hub 51 hooked us up with cocktails to go. Our gate was insanely crowded so we sat on a stoop near the automatic walkway and enjoyed our bevvys. PROST to our first drink of the trip.
Getting ready to board the plane- YAY!
When we finally boarded I thought I was living large because I had an aisle seat but then I started getting frantic texts from Gina alerting me to the fact that she was in an exit row and window seat (her preferred seat-- I won't judge 😂) and that I needed to come join her ASAP. Unfortunately, even though we bought our tickets together she was West Germany and I was East and we were not to be reunited, at least not yet. The flight attendant giggled when I told her where I was sitting, 20 rows behind Gina, and told me to come find Gina after takeoff. That I sure did.
We ate a dinner of German Chocolate Cake (how appropo) and settled in for a 6 hour sleep. Prior to touchdown we were served breakfast. A few minutes after breakfast I awoke to two taps on my shoulder. "I lost my phone" a masked Gina whispered. "Huh?" "When the flight attendant took my breakfast tray I think my phone was on it. I think the flight attendant threw my phone in the garbage when she took our trays." 😱
WOOF.
Surely that didn't happen so we searched under the seats, in the seats, on top of the seats and through the seats before finally, begrudgingly pushing the call button. The flight attendant arrived and Gina explained the situation. My aisle seat 20 rows back was looking pretty great right about now. Of course the flight attendant suggested looking again and at this point all of the surrounding patrons had noticed something was going on as we crawled on all fours searching under the surrounding seats. After coming up empty handed the flight attendant agreed to go through the garbage. She commented that usually people lose teeth or glasses on their trays, not phones. Let's hope she doesn't come back with either one of those things for us.
After going through the garbage she returned empty handed. (I was secretly happy there were no teeth but Gina did not find this funny) We continued to search, this time moving even farther back, almost to East Germany. All of a sudden a tap and another whisper from masked Gina. "I found it." "What?" "I unfolded the tray table and it fell out so I must have shoved it in there when she took our trays." 😱
We better not tell the flight attendant.
We landed in Denmark (Gina got her first passport stamp!)
and Central Station immediately become our best friend. We took the train from the airport to this stop (with the help of a lovely young woman), ate for a quick sammy and juice, paid to use the toilet (Really?! This was one thing I did not miss about Europe) and then looked out to a MONSOON of blowing rain. The radar showed rain for the rest of the night so we did what any good travelers would do: headed back to the hostel for indoor games. Gina however had a deodorant snafu on the plane (much less exciting than her phone snafu) so had to walk BACK to Central Station AGAIN to buy some DEO for her B.O.
While we haven't seen much of Copenhagen (yet), we can tell you that Central Station is a true gem and shouldn't be missed when visiting Denmark 😉
Gina and I ventured out into the mist for Vietnamese Pho. Unfortunately the place we walked to had 3 tables all of which were occupied. We decided to walk around for a bit and circle back. We wandered by tons of tiny underground shops lining the cobblestoned streets and by the time we circled back the Pho place was still fully occupied so we opted for shawarma instead. The seasonings were absolutely delightful and the hummus was so fresh. We enjoyed the brisk night air and all the city lights on the walk back to our hostel. Gina headed to bed while I went downstairs to enjoy a pint and Nomadic Matt's new travel book.
Cheers to our first night traveling!
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