The sun is coming up way too soon. It has only been about six hours since the sun set. I hardly slept at all—maybe an hour or two. I am so listless. When is this plane going to land? I try sleeping some more, read my book, or watch whatever is on the over-aisle TV—Fraiser. Nothing seems to satisfy my boredom. I have traveled 14 hours in a car, but 9 hours in a plane is so much harder. There is nothing to make you feel like you are making progress when you are flying. There are no passing trees, no license plates to look at, and wonder why they are so far from home. There are only clouds, more clouds, and…more clouds. Once in a while I look out the window and look at the patterns that the clouds make. I play the game of finding shapes in the clouds like I have done so many times before on the ground. The view of clouds above seems so much more different, a sea of bumpy, puffy white.
The smell of coffee wafts from the back of the plane. Breakfast is coming soon; good, a diversion. The captain had visited us at the back of the plane before we took off from Atlanta. He had told us we would have breakfast over Ireland. We are much closer to our destination than I thought we would be. Breakfast is a tray with a bagel, a Nature Valley granola bar, a package with two wheat crackers, a banana, cheese spread, jelly, and orange juice. I was hungry, but not enough to eat everything. I did eat most of what was on the tray anyway, as I did not know what to expect after the plane ride.
I went back to my patterned listless behavior: read a chapter or two of my book, watch the TV for a few minutes, look out the window, repeat. Before I knew it we were instructed to buckle ourselves in; put our tables and seats in the forward and upright position. We descended slowly, too slowly for my aching body. The window and the book have traded positions now. I look out the window more often, and glance at my book on occasion. We finally descend into the clouds, gray and wispy. We remain there for about 10 minutes. The plane finally breaks out into the sunny atmosphere below. The farm country outside of Munich can be seen. I strain to see in front of the plane in search of the city. As far as I can see there are only fields with groups of housing peppered across patches of green and brown. An occasional tree line stood sentry over fields, but there was not city. We started getting closer and closer to the ground. Where was Munich? It looked as if we were landing in a field. We were landing in a field, a few strips of asphalt stretched across it.
In the airport there seemed to be only one gate for people entering the country. Two planes had just landed so we crowded into the small area between the end of the gate and the check point to enter the country. I finally found myself going through the counter gate and on to wait for my luggage. I stood staring at the passing luggage waiting to see the fluorescent green tag on my black canvas duffle bag. Many black canvas duffle bags passed by me, but none that looked like mine. I must have stood there for 20 minutes; the baggage became sparse. I started feeling a little worried I would have to survive a month on my little daypack with a change of clothing and a shampoo/conditioner set I had gotten from Boone Tavern my first night in Berea. Images of me in a worn black t-shirt and shaggy jeans flashed through my mind. Not in Europe, of all places! I thought. I was standing apart from the KIIS group, but now everyone had shifted away and there was a gap between us. I walked towards them, keeping a sharp eye on the conveyor belt for my bag. I expressed my worry in a single look with Abby. I looked back at the luggage spinning and thought I saw my bag. I squeezed my eyes tight, as if it would give me supervision. As it came closer I began to recognize it, but still looked for the fluorescent green tag. YES! It was there. I walked joyously to my bag and heaved it off the belt. Ahh…I began to wish once more I had wheels on this bag. Even though it was much less than the 50 pounds allowed, it was still too heavy to carry long distances. I managed, however, and got to the bus along with everyone else. Soon we were speeding down the highway on our way to Salzburg. At this point I figured staying awake would be in my best interest, but I could not keep my eyes open. Now that I felt the ground passing beneath me I felt a sudden urge to sleep. I tried recording some video of the passing countryside for my Digital Media class. All of the video was not satisfying enough for me. A horrible reflection on the window, and my shaky hands from the lack of sleep were contributions to a very “beginner-looking” movie. I fell asleep despite my efforts to stay awake. I am glad I slept, for the trip to Salzburg seemed a lot shorter than it could have been if I stayed awake.
We arrived in Salzburg in the early afternoon. OH, how I wanted to just fall in bed! There was no time to do so. We were all given enough time to get our stuff into our rooms, freshen up a bit, and sit and relax before we were made to walk the city. I had already felt like I was going to collapse, and now we were trekking all over the place. I was happy to be in a new place and recording my visit with video and pictures. I hoped to use the video I made for my digital media class. I got wonderful footage of a man playing one of those long Tibetan horns I had seen at a convo earlier in the year. His horn was much smaller though, and not telescopic. I tried getting some footage of a man playing a guitar in the middle of one of the wide-open squares, but there were too many people around me talking or walking in front of the camera. I was completely exhausted by the time we were done walking everywhere.
We were given enough time to freshen up again before walking to dinner. Dr. Anne told us there was a “milk festival” down the road from where we would be eating. Those who wished to attend would need to wear white to get into the festival. Despite my exhaustion, I donned a white shirt in case I decided to go. We had a traditional Austrian meal of Wiener schnitzel and shoe string fries. The restaurant was cute, but we sat outside in the shade of a few trees at little café-style tables. Conversation was tremendously minimal. We were all too tired to talk. A few of us started to nod, our sleepy heads almost falling onto our plates. After dinner, we all started to head back home. I decided I was way too tired to go do anything else. A small group of us took the scenic route back to the school: a road next to the lake which was filmed in the movie “The Sound of Music.” We looked across the lake at the large mansion that had also been in a few clips of the movie as well.
As soon as I arrived back to the school I climbed the 3 flights of stairs to my bedroom, put on some pajamas, and got in bed. My head barely settled onto the pillow before I was completely asleep. A few people came in and out of the room while I was sleeping. Almost everyone was up and running around looking at Salzburg. How on earth did they manage? I wanted to join them, but my weary body wouldn’t let me up. Sleep.
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