Turbulence Before the Trip Even Began

The day already kicked off on a stressful note. Sure, I was excited about the trip, but there was still so much to get done. First the worry about whether my suitcase would make the weight limit.

Of course, it was totally fine in the end, but you’re always a bit nervous about it, right?
Then the roads were packed, and we kept getting stuck in heavy traffic.

But the chaos didn’t stop there.
At the airport’s “Kiss and Fly” zone—wow, I’ve never seen anything like that before. Nothing was moving, not forward, not backward. In the end, I literally jumped out of the car in the middle of the street, which of course annoyed all the other drivers and triggered a full-on honking concert. So, I grabbed my suitcase, quickly thanked (and apologized to) my brother, who was driving, and dashed into the airport.

My stress level slowly started to drop… until boarding.
It was an older Eurowings plane, super cramped. My knees were already pressing against the seat in front of me—and I’m short! Then the pilot, in really broken English with a Portuguese accent, kept saying we’d be leaving “very soon.” After 50 minutes of waiting, the announcement finally came: it would be another 45 minutes before we’d take off.

Mood: officially tanked.
But suddenly, after just 10 minutes, we were moving.
What just happened? Did we all just misunderstand him?

At that point, I didn’t care anymore—as long as we were in the air. The flight wasn’t exactly comfortable, though. Loud, cramped, and the plane rattled so much it made you a bit uneasy.

But in the end, all the stress was worth it.
First stop: Lisbon!Read more