My Departure

In case some of you didn’t get the chance to go and check out my blogspot website; let me give you a little insight into what my blog posts will entail so you have idea what to expect. My blog entries are aimed at keeping you informed on my time in Germany, my travels in Europe, the football experience in Europe as well as some cultural happenings and the cultural changes you can experience coming from North America moving to Europe for an extended period of time.

Here is the link to the blogspot: http://www.erik.galas.blogspot.com/

Airports are a place where people can see many different emotions in their purest forms; joy, happiness and sadness are clearly visible on the faces of the people around you. When I was dropped off at the airport, my thought process and the emotions that I was experiencing were not quite what I was expecting. In my mind, I had already played out this event and I would have left my family all happy and excited about all the uncertainty of the adventure ahead. Instead I was thinking of the people I was leaving behind and whether I was abandoning them. It was a little depressing but I guess those thoughts are in my nature; I am a big brother and I deeply care for my friends and family. When I reflect back to the situation, this may have been my way of coping with my own fears, instead of focusing on the doubt and uncertainty that lay ahead I was thinking of others.

The first few minutes of my adventure were not going as easily as I expected but my mood quickly changed when I received some great news; I had been upgraded to first class for my flight from Ottawa to London, England. Thanks to some fantastic friends who were able to help in this regard, I was able to relax and enjoy the 7-hour flight in the privacy of one of the first class pods.

Anyone who has flown economy knows that when you board a plane and take that walk back to economy seating it is like rolling dice at a craps table. You have no idea how it will turn out.

Who will be sitting next to you? …
There are so many possibilities that could make your 7-hour stay in a tiny seat memorable so to speak.

I generally end up being one of the people you don’t want sitting beside you. You may ask why but the same reasons that made me a good football player make me not your most desirable neighbour on a plane. That 6’3”, 225lbs frame that I mentioned earlier doesn’t fit too well into those economy seats. Unfortunately, my long legs end up in the back of someone’s seat, in the aisle for everyone to trip over, my head may block the TV screen and if that’s not enough my shoulders are usually overlapping into the aisle and into the seat next to me. Comfortable flight for everyone involved.

It goes without saying that sleeping in that scenario is pretty hard but since this time I was in first class, it was a possibility. Well I thought.

In case you didn’t catch it in the previous post, I asked you to suggest meals and different foods to try while I am in Europe since I am a big eater and a food aficionado. Food in economy is generally expensive and terrible, or complementary and terrible but they put together a pretty nice spread behind those mysterious curtains.

The first couple hours of the flight were spent eating and drinking; champagne, salmon appetizer, mixed greens salad, a glass of wine, choice of main course (I had the AAA Beef Tenderloin with Yukon gold mashed potatoes but there were three other choices, Black Cod with fennel, Butter Chicken or Eggplant Lasagna), a cheese platter followed by a dessert of sliced fruit as well as ice cream and to end the flight just before landing I was also given a continental breakfast with croissants and yogurt.

As you can see most of my flight was spent eating and I think I may have ended up only sleeping for about 45 minutes. Rough start since I left Ottawa at night and I landed in London at 9 in the morning or so. It was a long first day in Europe.

Once I landed in London, I had to transfer Terminals but fortunately I had plenty of time and even though I stood in the wrong line for about 20 minutes I still had 2 hours to kill until my gate would be announced for my flight to Dusseldorf.

I spent the rest of my waiting time walking around the terminal window shopping the overpriced boutiques and reading some magazines I had brought along. I boarded my plane to Dusseldorf on time and it took off without any delays. The flight to Dusseldorf was spent in economy, but that flight was only about an hour long; no problem my new friends and I just had to “play nice”.

Check back soon to find out how it went at the German customs and immigration. Did I need to break out my terrible German? Did my luggage show up? So many things could go wrong in that last part of travel. Was there anything that I didn’t mention that you want to know about? Drop a comment below.