We have arrived!

Well, we arrived in Vienna, after quite the trek.

My dad dropped me off at the airport at home at 5:45 am. I promptly called him, blabbering on about how I was going to miss my flight (the line to check in was longer than the Indiana Jones ride on a Saturday!). I eventually pulled myself together and went through the self-check in.
I met O in Chicago and we had a marvie time at the Field Museum. We then ran around shopping and picked up Giordano's for the train back to the airport. Once there, I panicked and started looking for some hotel rooms for the trip (I was not sure how the parentals would react if I told them we were just going to get there and 'see what's available'). I worked myself into such a frenzy over the whole event that I did not really register that everyone around me had left. We had made it to the airport hours early and yet barely made the flight. Fortunately, I did hear "this is the final boarding call for Frankfurt" over the intercom, jumped up, scrambled around, grabbing stuff and yelling frantically to everyone around-no one bothered to reply, they just stared at me-found O on the phone somewhere, and ran to the gate. The minute we got on, they closed the doors and took off. It was as nice a flight as could be for those in coach. It was nearly empty and so O and I took our own rows. Unfortunately, we did not notice until we tried laying down to go to sleep, that we should have grabbed the empty middle rows, as the side rows were not quite long enough. However, if that is all one has to complain about, things are not too terrible.

Frankfurt, the land without garbage cans. We get off the airplane and O says, "wow, I feel like we are at home". I, on the other hand think "wow, Hanz and Franz (those German speaking car sales people on the radio) are not exaggerating one tiny bit"! Yes, it is true, the German-speaking men really sound that dramatic, it is great! In fact, since I arrived, though I have avoided saying anything out loud (other than Ja Ja) all my thoughts have been coming in a German-Franzish sort of accent, no lie.
Germany was lovely, though they don't create a lot of waste here. We looked forever for a garbage can to put our pizza box (a small one) in and finally found a tiny little cup for trash. It was extremely puzzling. After some staring, we just left the box on top and scurried off, a little embarrassed.
We walked out of the train station and were greeted by the most amazing sight-everywhere I looked there were giant pretzels. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. What more could a person want? I promptly bought one, and have had one every day since. We had a few hours so we took a bus tour around town, then walked to the city center. All in all, a great layover. As an aside-I had originally planned this whole layover as a chance to load up on smurffs, these Haribo blue-rasberry gummies that are just divine and impossible to find. I pictured myself literally buying $100 dollars worth of them. Well, we looked high and low but there was not a smurff to be found (which is odd, seeing as how the movie is coming out so soon). Depressingly enough, I am coming away empty-handed. I have found some comfort in telling myself that I can spend that money on stock in Neldon and LaGrande's company.
We got back to the airport in Frankfurt a few hours before our flight (we could not figure out what time it was in Germany so we thought we better get back in early). O promptly fell asleep on the bench like a regular homeless person. Meanwhile, I ran up and down the terminal looking for hot chocolate and an internet cafe-no luck on either, the cafes served only coffe and had no wifi, Finally, 15 minutes before boarding, O woke up and found that Lufthansa (whish has won my loyatly completely) has a free hot chocolate machine at each gate. To think, I could have been drinking that stuff for 3 hours! I had to make do with 2 cups before boarding the bus to the plane (which, oddly enough, drove around the parking lot for a full 30 minutes! I thought maybe they were just going to drive us to Vienna). I boarded and went to pull out my book only to discover I had left it on the bench in the terminal! This was a dismal discovery but I told myself it could have been much much worse. After all, I could have left my passport. They did have some decent pasta salad once we sat down-which mollified me slightly. We took off and the whole flight I sat and contemplated the hot chocolate machines awaiting us at the gate. We arrived and I suddenly remember we had no hotel, it was midnight, the train had stopped running for the night, etc. I became a bit panicky. In the end, we found a decent hotel, took a cab to it, and had a good night. I awoke to a terrible sadness. I sat up and thought, what have I lost out on. It suddenly came to me-I had forgotten about the hot chocolate! O made up for it. He had been out running around in the wee hours of the morning and brought back rolls and cheese, and, of course, a pretzel. Vienna really is a lovely place!

Well, I took some Ambien before starting this and I hear that if you do not go straight to bed after taking it, you will wake up with amnesia. Hopefully, that will not happen as I have much to tell about meeting Lauren and the Parentals and all our adventures in Vienna. Additionally, I think Mom may have taken some too, I hope that I'm not awoken by wild war cries from next door.
-Until tomorrow