The Gods of Travel Karma are Cruel!

Time Traveled: 11h
Distance Traveled: 4,382 miles

So I'm not exactly sure what I did in Germany to upset the Gods of Travel Karma. As far as I know I managed the Bahn System well, didn't make offensive public gestures (like this kid), and had a great time with my sister in Berlin and Nürnberg (details to come soon). In fact, it seems the Travel Gods are indebted to me after I made a fool of myself at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews and broke my camera! Okay, so maybe that incident played out evenly. Still, I'm not sure what I did to deserve the following:

I got up early Tuesday morning to make it to the S-Bahn in time to get out to the airport before 9:00 to check in since I couldn't check-in online for some reason (booked through Delta, operated by KLM, and check-in through Air France - yeah, figure that one out). While in Germany, I frequently used the Deutche Bahn iPhone App, which would magically update itself even if I wasn't connected to wi-fi. Was very useful, and I suggest anyone going to Germany to check it out! So I had to transfer from the S-Bahn to the TXL Bus Line which worked out fine. There was one stop between where I got on and the airport and a lot of people got off the bus at this stop. Once the bus had nearly emptied, I went to take my iPhone out of my coat pocket, where it lived the entire two weeks I was over there, and didn't feel anything! I checked all of my coat pockets, compartments in my backpack, and the outside pocket of my suitcase. NOTHING! The only thing I can figure is that in the hustle of people getting off the bus, some admittedly savvy pick-pocketer fingered the phone out of my pocket and disappeared into the crowd!

So now without communication for when I got back to the US, and without music or books or games to play on the airplane, I sat there in the airport trying to get on every single wireless network available so I could get in touch with AT&T and with all of the other websites automatically accessible through various Apps on my phone. Nothing was working, though. Since there wasn't anything I could really do at this point, I got on my plane to Amsterdam where I tried their wireless, but with the same result. So I got on my plane to Detroit figuring I could easily find good wireless there.

The plane ride went fine. Very long (8.5 hours), but good. I was able to watch some movies and they served us some cajun chicken with rice and a salad. And I even had AMAZING, crystal clear views of the southern tip of Greenland! The weather was so nice you could see individual icebergs coming off of Greenland and everything was snow-covered and beautiful. What an incredible landscape. And then in the distance, I got my very first view of the Greenland Ice Sheet. It is truly humbling to see all that ice and think that right there is so much fresh water it can change ocean circulations and climates around the world depending on its fluctuations in mass! I am so fortunate to be able to travel there in May!

The last few hours of the plane ride, I started getting really nervous thinking about my phone again and what those criminals were going to do with it. I needed to change all of my passwords as soon as I could. To make matters worse, I started feeling nauseous.

As soon as I got off the plane I darted into the bathrooms at customs (thank God there was one there!), ran into a stall, and just sicked it up in there! I don't get motion sickness or even sick that often. I was even taking vitamin-C so I could avoid getting sick while traveling. I mustered up enough strength to get through customs, and then through the International Arriving Security Personnel, and back through security (twice!). Then, it happened again - sick! I was able to find a secure internet connection at a small café at DTW, but even there I had to ask my waitress to watch my things while I sicked up the bathroom twice more. From that point on, I visited nearly every bathroom between my arrival and departure gates, sicking them up...

Add on top of this the fact that my body was still on German time and wanted to go to sleep soo bad! Lying on the floor at my gate (which changed 3 times...) seemed to help, but every time I got up, I had to drag my things with me into the bathroom. Flight to Burlington was thankfully on time and I told the flight attendant when I got on that I might need to use the bathroom more than a typical passenger and not to worry about me. She then tried telling me that if I was sick I would not be allowed to board the plane! I needed to get back to Burlington; I needed to sleep in my own bed that night! So I told her I was mostly feeling fine, so she gave me a plastic bag in case. I thought I was going to die, seriously. I felt that sick! But I got some shut-eye on the flight and though I still felt like crap when we got in to BTV, I felt much better and was even able to keep some water down.

My friend Joe stayed up a few hours past his bedtime and picked me up from the airport and brought me home where I immediately fell into my bed and crashed. Finally, something that felt good! I can only hope that all of these negative travel experiences mean that my travel to the SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE tomorrow will be amazing. Not holding my breath, though.

Now I need to go get a new phone...and camera... But with all that said, the thing I am most upset about is that I didn't have anything with me that I could take photos of Greenland!