First full day in Hamburg!

Just spent the afternoon eating Thai food, grocery shopping (I actually found peanut butter!!!), and sitting in downtown traffic with Kenneth & Andre. Then I walked into the hostel lobby and "Fireflies" by Owl City was playing...apparently Hamburg life is not nearly as different from L.A. life as I would have expected it to be :)

Yay! I made it!

Finally in Hamburg...it was a lot of hours on planes and in terminals, but here I am! It was actually a really great trip.

So since I wasn't able to get wifi for a lot of the travel time, this is basically what happened:

Wednesday the 26th, 3 pm - got dropped off at the LAX terminal by Mom, my sisters, and our friend Myles.

4 pm - made it through security pretty quick. Beautiful day at the airport. My gate was right by the entrance, so I just went right in and hung out until boarding time.

5:30 pm - we boarded and I could NOT believe it! Flight was only half full and we all had room to spread way out. I had window seat and 2 empty seats next to me! Seriously, I started singing "Glory glory hallelujah" right there in the plane.

6:15 pm - takeoff. I was so excited...think Bilbo in The Hobbit: "I'm going on an ADVENTURE!"

7:30ish - dinner. Not exactly gourmet, but I was hungry so it tasted good to me!

8:00ish - watched Frozen on the back-of-seat screen. After that, times were all a blur. Tried to sleep; watched part of The Book Thief; ate breakfast at 3 am California time and 11 am London time. Weird.

12:30 pm London time - flew over English countryside and did a loop over London before landing at Heathrow. I was freaking out: "OHMYGOSH I'm actually LOOKING AT LONDON!!!" Weather was pretty: clouds and sun, temps in the 50s.

1:30 pm London time - started a 4-hour wait in the airport terminal trying not to fall asleep. Ate snacks and a sandwich...not sure whether it was second breakfast, lunch, or an extra meal. Body clock was so confused.

5:30 pm London time - finally got called to board connecting flight. Had to walk to the other end of the terminal to get there. Heathrow is weird...like South Coast Plaza in an airport. Gucci, Burberry, Prada...they have it all!

6 pm London time - boarded for Hamburg. Flight was jam-packed but somehow I still ended up on window with an empty seat next to me. If God didn't work that out, I don't know who did.

9 pm German time - landed in Hamburg! Airport was small and so quiet and empty after LAX and Heathrow. Kenneth, my assigned buddy from the university, and his roommate had no trouble at all finding me! They came by car to pick me up, so we were able to go directly to my hostel. They were super nice and helped me get checked in and take my luggage upstairs. Weather here is nice so far: cool and breezy, which feels AWESOME after who knows how many hours in airports and planes!!!

It's a Beautiful Day in the City of London...

Well...here I am at Heathrow Airport! Made it this far!  Just a couple more hours till my connecting flight leaves. Hamburg, here I come!!!

Meet My Traveling Buddy!