Berlin to Las Vegas

Berlin to Las Vegas

Well, this is the last dated blog entry. It is sad trying to write something that will close the trip, but now thinking about it, the trip continues on, and is never done. The trip and travel are always with you. As I write this, and having spent a day in Vegas already, this thing will never leave me.

The travel back to the USA was great and fairly smooth. We woke up and bounced out of bed to see that our 3 French girl roommates were still out on the town. Good for them. We could use the room. The lights were turned on and we could be as loud as we wanted. Everything got stowed away in the packs and we checked out and headed to the metro. This time we were going to use the metro, then walk to the bus stop to take the bus to the airport. Cool, with one ticket you can use a subway and a bus. The Germans have this down! Tegel Airport is to the NW of Berlin and with the rising sun, we could see a nice view of the city to the east. Of course, we were there early for an international flight, so we got a bite to eat for breakfast and a few cappuccinos. I found a machine that gives you a super huge on for 2€. Check in was easy and we were asked a few security questions. I always think it is funny that they have to ask those things. Like, who the hell let's someone else pack their bag for them? They took the bags and we entered right next to the check in desk. Kind of weird, but we were in Germany. The flight staff was really nice and they were Americans. I ordered a drink and imagine this. It came with ice. The airplanes have ice but nowhere in Europe was there any ice. Good for them. I told the attendant that we had not seen this strange thing in 2.5 months. The 9 hour flight to Newark was a breeze since we were used to awkward travel on the trains. The seats were horrible on the 737 which seemed to be small for an international flight between 2 huge cities. But, you could watch whatever movies you wanted. The same plane for domestic travel, you have to pay extra. This was no Qantas Airlines. After watching a few movies and dozing off a bit we touched down in Newark, New Jersey.

Here in Newark we met with Sheila and Richard, Katherine and Andrew's parents. They came to the airport to meet up with us for our long delay as we waited for the flight to Las Vegas. We sat down for a bit to eat at Chili's. Man, it was weird in a full blown American restaurant! There was ice in the cokes. They gave you refills. The portions were huge. We got fries without paying extra. The service was odd is a brash way. But there was Sam Adam's beer. Let me tell you. Contrary to many people's beliefs, after sampling about 30 different beers on the trip, I would like to state that America has some darn good beers. The German group sitting behind us had Bud Lights on the table, which I unfortunately cannot put into the category of darn good beer. I felt for them. I hope that they try something else for a better impression of American beer. That's stuff for people that don't really like the taste of beer anyway, and for alcoholics, right? Someone has to agree with me. It was great talking to our first people face to face getting back in the country. They were really interested in what we had to say about the travels and were happy that we made it with all of our kidneys. We hadn't been robbed, attacked, or spit on. That will just have to wait for another trip. A couple of hours passed quickly. We said goodbye to Andrew, and Katherine and I headed back through security to our gate. We had not seen Andrew for a few years but only on a few choice occasions, and now we had spent a solid 2.5 months with him. Who knows when we will, or if we will ever spend time like that again. Good luck out there you little chump!

The flight to Vegas was typical hell. The plane was full of party people heading into town on a Thursday night. There were groups of girls getting their stuff together to hit the town as soon as the plane landed. Some people were drinking heavily and talking back to the flight attendants. They see that stuff all the time and put them in their places. Fools. I was able to witness 3 girls next to me during the entire flight talk about nails, purses, makeup, men, style, shoes, hair highlights, etc. Spectacular. Go to Vegas, lose you money, wind up in a hotel room with some ugly dude with a popped collar and love it. Thanks for your tourist revenue. We took off late from Newark and when the plane landed in Vegas people were pretty much fighting to get off the plane. Animals. Welcome back.

We grabbed our bags and headed out to passenger pick up. Alan, our pal that plays trumpet in the brass quintet, was there at the end of the walkway. Man, we were glad to see him! He took us back to the house and was happy to see us too. Now that we were back, he wanted know when the quintet was meeting again. So were we. We missed playing the horns and that will be something we have to get back on top of.

The house was in great shape. The AC worked. It was not broken into. The power was not shut off. But, there was no food for us to eat. Being too tired, we just took a shower and crashed. We made it!

Now as I write this, we have been in town for a day and the culture shock is setting in. The next entries will be about how weird we have it here as Americans. Yeah, it's weird.