Sunday, July 27, 2014

Munich

It's been a busy few days since I arrived back home on Friday. Thursday evening, my sisters and I left Malaga and headed to Munich, Germany.


We had a fantastic flight with Lufthansa, and were shocked that they provided so many drinks and a meal while on board for only 2.5 hours! The crew consisted of tall blond hair blue eyed flight attendants- very German. Once we landed in Munich, we were quickly escorted off the plane (within minutes) and shuttled by bus over to the terminal. I was so impressed with the German airport, it was so incredibly organized. 



We waited no longer than 5 minutes for our checked luggage- this is unheard of in North America! The airport was also very tidy, and was just superior in every way. 



We were unable to find a cheap hotel in Munich, so we opted to stay over night at the airport until our 12 pm flight the next day. Now, I've stayed overnight in airports before, but this was way too long. Looking back, we definitely should have booked a hotel, but I'm glad we chose to save money and sleep on a bench in the noisy airport instead haha. Made for an adventure and resulted in me having the best sleep of my life on Friday night.


Inside the airport, there was a ton of ways to entertain ourselves. They had a few bars and restaurants open, as well as a live band. The mcdonalds was open 24 hours, as well as a supermarket with everything imaginable inside. The Germans are so efficient, why waste time and space having to go to multiple stores when you can just get everything you need from one!?


After changing into comfy clothes, we spent time wandering around the airport, grabbed some food, and enjoyed the live music. We were able to store away our bags for 4 euros, so luckily we did not have much to lug around with us all night. Unfortunately, neither of us got much rest, as the airport was constantly being cleaned in some way, so we were always asked to move. Soon enough it was morning and we were ready to check in for our flight. 

To make a long story short, this was one of the most stressful situations I've ever been in. We checked in but were not given a seat on the plane. Although we were flying standby, I found this odd, as last time I checked the load was showing a green happy face (meaning we should have no problem getting on). However, our ticket now proved otherwise. We went to the baggage counter and the man refused to check our luggage. He said the flight was oversold by 20 seats and that we should go to the gate as soon as possible and ask for a jump seat. As you can imagine, I was panicking (tried to appear calm so as to not stress out my sisters, but inside I was losing it!!) How on earth am I going to let my 16 year old sister sit in a jump seat for 9 hours?? I frantically started looking up flights elsewhere, but I kid you not, everything was full. We were not going anywhere anytime soon.

I was finally able to find a flight to London, England. From there I had no idea what we would do, but I thought atleast it's a place I'm more familiar with, everyone speaks English, and there are many flights to Toronto that we could try to get on. All of the flights of course were also oversold from London to Toronto, but I figured it was worth a shot. I checked us in for the London flight, and what do you know, it gave us seats. Thank The Lord. So now we had a backup plan. The only problem being that our so-called backup plan was scheduled to depart at the exact same time as our original flight. Well... Wouldn't this be interesting. 

We hurried through security and then rushed to the gate for our original flight. Luckily, the two gates were nearby, so I was able to quickly run back and forth. After such a terrible night and an awful morning, we were so blessed to have such nice Lufthansa crew members working at the gate. Upon hearing that our mother works for Air Canada and that we were thinking of connecting through London if there were no alternatives, they seemed very eager to help. It was an oversold flight with other standbys listed, but these ladies were determined to get everyone on board. Alas, we were able to squeeze on the flight just minutes before departure. We were all scattered apart on the plane but none of us cared as long as we made it on. 

The flight itself was fantastic. Lufthansa is by far the best airline I've ever flown with. The crew was so nice, and the service was impeccable. We received 2 meals and a snack, with many rounds of drinks being offered as well. Unfortunately I was seated right at the middle exit, so it was freezing. This also happens to be where the baby bassinets are located, so I was stuck beside a crying baby the whole flight. Now, normally this would not bother me, as I love babies, but having been up for 24 hours, I was definitely a little irritable and that crying baby was putting me over the edge haha. I managed to tune the baby out, it wasn't his fault after all, and watched a few movies. 

To my surprise, Storm showed up to meet me after my flight. This was incredibly sweet of him, although he didn't end up making it in time hahahaha. I hate to laugh because I'm sure it was very frustrating for him but it's such a typical guy thing to do. I really appreciated him coming all the way down to surprise me though, it was really cute. We headed straight home, and have had a very low key weekend, as I am still exhausted from the trip. Looking forward to getting back into routine tomorrow though!! That's it for now, my European adventure is over, but hopefully there will be plenty more ahead in the future!

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