Day 2: Arrival

Oh, how I hate having to sit in a plane for 8 hours… especially when that 8 hours becomes about 12 after the time change kicks in. The flight from DC to Copenhagen wasn’t incredibly uncomfortable, but I still cannot stand to sit still for longer than about ten minutes.

It was a rather amusing flight, I must say… I forget that Europeans do not have the same regard for “personal space” as Americans do. Although I was lucky enough to have a window seat, the Swedish man next to me took to taking pictures by leaning over me out of the window frequently, and had no problems leaning against me and moving about the entire flight. This may not have bothered me had he not have been an avid smoker… oh well. :)

I decided not to explore Copenhagen upon arrival after having to go through passport and security screening that took far longer than I anticipated just from changing flights. It was also raining outside, so I figured… why not catch up on the sleep I didn’t get on the red eye flight. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me my scheduled flight to Luxembourg City ended up being delayed about three hours due to a plane malfunction, which would have given me ample time to explore via the train from the airport. Oh well… you live and learn.

Upon reaching Luxembourg, I honestly had no idea what to do; unfortunately, I never got around to planning my next moves after the family emergency earlier in the week. Actually, it likely would have done no good to plan due to the plane delay, as I understand several youth hostels (the board of choice due to the low price) do not accept arrivals too late.

Luxembourg’s airport is quite strange by my standards; the plane parked in the middle of a random lot, and everyone was loaded into busses to reach the terminal. Once there, it took forever to find an ATM to get a few Euros; it was about 7:30pm by this point, and for whatever reason those ATMs in easy-to-find places were closed. No bank exchange locations were available either, so I was forced to get raped by my US bank to use the ATM exchange.

After trying unsuccessfully to figure out the train schedule (this is where knowing a touch of French would come in handy), I took a taxi to the Luxembourg train station. It’s quite beautiful! Downtown Luxembourg City has a lovely aged look, complete with a castle-resembling train station.

A ticket from Luxembourg City to Trier cost only e8.50, or about $12… not bad for a roughly hour-long trek! Not to my surprise, all of the announcements on the train were in French, but luckily the Trier station was the last on the line for the evening. Otherwise, I likely would not have known where to get off; the stations were not clearly marked as to what stop they were.

It then occurred to me that I had reached Trier, but had no idea of where to lug myself and my heavy luggage to for the evening. After waiting uselessly on a bus at the stop just outside Trier’s train station, I noticed a sign for a random hotel just across the street. I figured, it’s not like I know where I’m going anyway… why not give it a try. Alas! Only e54 per night, breakfast included… that’s something I can afford for one night until I get my bearings.

Tomorrow’s goals: explore the bus stations in the daylight, find Universitat Trier, and look into buying a prepaid cell phone. We’ll see how it goes from there!