Day 13: The Long Road Home

I've just finished the longest stint of continuous travel I've ever been on in my life. I mean, if you add it up, I've been in transit for more than a day. First there was the car ride to Bremen, for which we left about 10:00 PM or so. Frieta's daughter and her husband and Grandpa went with me. They apparently know the road to Bremen a lot better than Grandpa, which after Monday's visit, I'm willing to believe. We got to the station plenty early, so we all had cups of hot chocolate. And then we waited around for the train for forever. It was about half an hour late. And it was cold and rainy outside as we waited on the platform. Once the train arrived, about 12:30, I got on board. It wasn't your normal train as far as seating goes. There were booths for first class customers, and then there were very spacious seats for everyone else in the middle of the car. Even so, I wasn't able to find a really comfortable seat for sleeping. So I sat down with my laptop and played Civ3 until the batteries died. By then, there was a row of seats clear, so I decided to go to sleep. This was probably about 2:30 or so. Somewhere in between this all, a guy came to me and started begging in German. I pretended to be a dumb American which really frustrated him, especially when I pretended not to know what he meant by "Euuurrrooo." If only getting rid of beggars were always this easy.

A funny thing happened the next time I woke up. It was about 5:45 and I was waking from some really deep REM sleep. I was just plain old out of it. And I notice its daylight outside and that there's a sign that reads "Mainz." For some reason, in my tired mind, this equated to Frankfurt am Mainz, so I rushed to pick up my suitcase and get off the train. Only, and some of you already may guess where this is going, it was the city of Mainz. Nothing to do with Frankfurt. And my mind finally straightened this out as the doors closed behind me. The train started moving and I tried to get the conductor to stop and let me back in, but I guess the trains must run on time. So anyways, funny story. Ha ha. I had to go upstairs and get a new ticket on a much less comfortable and speedy train to Frankfurt. And I had to wait around in the cold morning air for about an hour. When the next train finally did come, it was crowded and everyone was smoking and having their morning coffee. Smoking on a crowded public train at 7:00 in the morning! That's just wrong. So it was a good thing I decided to take the midnight train to Frankfurt, even though it would have gotten me there 4 hours early. Because had I accidentally left the other train early, I would have missed my flight.

As it was, I still had plenty of time at the Franfurt airport. The ticket counter didn't open until about 9:00, since American Airline only has two flights out of there anyways. And my flight didn't leave until 10:55. So I tried to get a little more sleep. When I woke up there was a horrendously long line snaking through the terminal for the American ticket counter. So I thought, what the heck. Might as well join them. But to make a long story short, the plane successfully took off with me on it, albeit on a much more crowded flight than the one I took in London. No extra seats for laying out. I had an aisle seat on the right side of the plane, which I suppose is better than most seats, but man I still felt cramped.

I watched a couple of really bizarre movies in my opinion. There's "About Schmidt," which was really long and so totally not the comedy the commercials advertise. It was typical Jack Nicholson, mostly dark and depressing. Good acting, but inevitably tedious. While the movie had a few good moments, I don't think I'd see it again. Then there was George Clooney's "Solaris." I had high hopes for this one too—a sci-fi piece that was more philosophical than sci-fi. But while it was interesting, it was too bizarre. I mean, like 2001 bizarre, but with a much more artificial and fake philosophical dilemma. And I didn't have enough of a stake in the characters, especially George Clooney's, to really care what happened to him. Could have used a lot more character development. In summary, too artificial, too melodramatic, too choppy, too 2001.

And, of course, I played games. For like 11 hours. Because I couldn't fall asleep.

Then we got to DFW. I took a while to get through customs and stuff. But after that, I still had a three hour wait for my 6:11 departure time. So much waiting. I changed my euros back to dollars. Man, that whole process was a rip-off. I probably spent like 15 dollars in transaction fees from dollars to pounds to euros to dollars, yet I only purchased stuff with cash like twice. I met this missionary guy going home from Tenessee, I believe it was. Had a bit of a conversation with him, mostly about the transition to normal life. I asked him about how 9/11 and Iraq and stuff had impacted him on his mission, and man, it was less of an impact than I was expecting. He really was kind of clueless of news and current events for the last two years. I guess that was kind of like me, as well, but there seemed to be much fewer things going on back then. I bought him some food from McDonalds, 'cause he didn't have any cash. It's kind of amazing. It was like nothing to me. An afterthought, really. But to him it was a huge favor. I'm just used to having money, now, I guess.

I checked my voicemail in DFW, as well. Not too many messages. Apparently RJ from the Elder's Quorum didn't know I was going to be gone. I called up Mike about the campout that was supposed to be this weekend, but he's wigging out on it. Something about it being a holiday and too crowded. And I really wanted to go.

Then we finally got on the plane, and as luck would have it, I couldn't sleep the entire flight. Not a very entertaining flight either, as I was tired of reading and playing games and just about anything else you could do while sitting.

Chris and Katie were there to pick me up, albeit pretty late. And I couldn't reach them or anything. They were visiting Sharla, I gather. I told them my flight was going to arrive early—it always does from DFW, but they didn't believe me. Oh well, it's good they were visiting Sharla. I called her up to find out where they were, and I felt guilty because I realized how infrequently I call her up or stop by. But anyways, as soon as we got back to Provo, Chris and I went over to play basketball. I can't believe I did that. I should have been unpacking or sleeping or something. But it was fun, despite the fact played like crap—a combination of the jet-lag and lack of sleep and the endless day of transport and the two weeks of no exercise.

And then I came home, took a shower, and finished up this entry. And now it's time to sleep.

Posted May 21, 2003 (10:45 PM) | Comments (1)