Adventures of a Muppet: Adventures of a Muppet meets Black Girl in Bucharest! Part 1

I'm writing many of the following posts on the plane home, mainly because this trip was so insanely full of amazing things that I just didn't have time to write in real time. It's giving me lots of things to do on the flight back, however, since it's not an overnight and the likelihood of me sleeping any is null. So, without further ado...Let's head over the pond!

Thursday, July 10th.

I hated that my flight departed so late in the day, because it gave me hours upon hours of being insanely jittery before getting to the airport. I was running over things multiple times and driving myself nuts trying to remember if I had actually packed my passport.

I had. Seven times I checked...each time in the same place. Seven. Times.

Oddly enough, even with all of my thought preparation, I still forgot a few things, so the next time I decide to travel alone I will make a To-do list..and use it. Though I’m not sure where exactly the hair dryer would have fit in my bag now that I know exactly how much stuff I purchased, seeing as how my poor rolling duffel bag is stuffed to the gills somewhere underneath me. I hope my Raphael tag makes it back..

Mom drove me to the airport at 3:00 because I remember security for our California trip being slow, long, and obnoxious, and I needed enough time to get that taken care of.

Once I realized my fabulous carryon bag (that you see my darling little sister hauling behind her in this picture) was actually too big for a carryon, I felt a small pang of anxiety as I would not, as I had hoped, have my bag with me at all times. As I watched it roll away I thought bitterly that with my luck, they’d lose it, and I would be stuck in Bucharest with one lonely, dirty outfit.

(Side note, I didn't realize how hardcore I was repping UMD on my departure day. T-shirt and a Sweatshirt. Woowoo. MARYLAND UNIVERSITY REPRESENT! I’d realize later just how badly I would stand out in Bucharest, but I’ll get to that later.)

I said goodbye to Mom and Andi, and panicked briefly at the thought that this was it. My first trip overseas, and my first solo flight with no one to steer me in the right direction when I inevitably got lost in the airport. It was a confusing mix of terror and excitement.

Security was a breeze. So much so that I thought I had magically side stepped Dulles Security and wondered if I would get arrested. They didn’t make me strip off my shoes, or check the laptops, even if they had earlier in the week warned that if you couldn’t turn on your cellphone at the airport you’d be liable for a search. Yes, arrested was impending, I had figured out their loophole.

Turns out, it was just that lax.

With the flight being on time, I didn’t have too long to wait and before I knew it I was stepping into the tin can that would whisk me away over the ocean. My first impressions of Austrian Airlines, a small branch of Lufthansa- nice! Much bigger than Southwest, less claustrophobic. Not that I have a claustrophobia problem, but I admit, Southwest is a little tight.

I was greeted with a smile, a sea of red, and a ton of Austrian accents. I was happy already. It made me want to go to Biergarten immediately.

I sat near the window and wrung my hands a bit, noting that the plane actually had a fantastic amount of leg room, and a personal screen in front of me with an abundance of movies for me to watch. Movies I had already seen, but good ones- Captain America and Divergent to name a few. It also had a fantastic selection of music- Including the soundtrack for Wicked. >:)

Text Message from AJ: Thunder and Lightning outside. The world must know we're about to be on the same continent again.

I played Defying Gravity a whopping 7 times while waiting for our flight to depart. A magic word chant, if you will. As we sat, I noticed out my window an insane amount of lightning and thunder, and a shit ton of rain beginning to happen. A bit creepy considering AJ’s text a few minutes earlier. We were in the middle of a Virginia thunderstorm. Maybe the planet really was aligning.

When we started to move on the runway I started to feel slightly uncomfortable- We weren’t taking off in this, were we? ARE WE? GAH! WHY ARE WE STILL MOVING!

Babies on the plane were crying furiously since the thunder was really very loud and we were sitting sans engine noise. I felt bad for the mommies, we hadn’t even gotten in the air yet and it was a choir of screaming infants.

We took off after the storm, a little bumpy with the left over air turbulence, and I'm pretty sure I scared the hell out of my seat mate while I giggled hysterically at the fact that we were in the air, and I was by myself, and I was going to Romania. I threw my face into my sweatshirt because although it was a liberating feeling, I was terrified and my stomach dropped as if I was on the Tower of Terror in Disney World. I never thought myself a nervous flier, but, I guess I am. I think that's why I like sitting near the window- so I know that the ground is steady under us.

The plane ride was, without a doubt, very comfortable, even given the fact that I was barricaded in. Even the food was pretty solid. Watching the sky change was awesome.

Oh Hai, Boston!

Captain America movie- also awesome.

Sunrise over Ireland

Watching the sun rise at midnight- beautiful, exciting and awkward. My body had no clue what to do with it’s self.

Almost to Vienna!

When I landed in Vienna, I was welcomed with overcast and cloudy weather and I wondered if it would be the same in Bucharest. Spoiler alert- it isn’t.