Zero Hour

The night before departure, i wasn't able to sleep, and used my time to watch some episodes of an old British sitcom called " Allo, Allo ". My friend Mitko drove me to the airport around 3:30am. I usually love our airport, since its quite new and shiny, but to my amazement some areas of the parking lot and entrance to the building were quite neglected and were falling apart.

  I checked in, chose a seat near the window, said my goodbye's to my Family and Mitko and headed for the security check. Everything was in order, and after putting my belt back on, i went for gate B8. I waited calmly and listened to some music, which gave me the opportunity to try the new headphones i had bought. They had a bit of noise cancelling in them, and i was separated from all the commotion around me.

  After boarding the plane i found myself the only passenger on a three seat row, "perfect," i said to myself. The pilot then kindly informed us that there will be a delay of around 50minutes...

It was a good thing that i had 2 hours to change flights in Frankfurt. On another note, the plane was quite spacious and clean, Lufthansa=Quality. Since i had some time on my hands, i started browsing through my ticket, and i spotted that i will be landing in an airport called "EWR", i hoped that this was "New Ark".

The delay turned out to be only 15 minutes, and we were on our way to Frankfurt International Airport. I felt like Kevin McCallister , from the movie Home Alone 2. Like him i was alone and heading to NY, the difference is that i wanted to go there, and he ended up there by mistake, either way i was hoping to have a great time there!

What awaits me in Frankfurt? The biggest airport in Europe, but before that-a meal! The last thing i ate were some pickles and a meat roll 4 hours ago^^. I wondered when the sun was going to rise, it was 6:40am, and pitch dark. After seeing it though, i came to the conclusion, and not for the first time, that it is one of the most spectacular things you can see.

The food looked something like a cross between a croissant and "banitza" (which is traditional Bulgarian food), i waited for my orange juice before i ventured in the unknown that is the food served by the airlines.

We landed around 8:00 CET, i wasn't able to find my flight number and gate on the big screen, and asked a guy from Lufthansa, he was nice enough to point me in the right direction. I took a train towards my terminal and ended up behind a huge line of people waiting to go through security. I passed with no delays and headed straight for gate A62, bought a magazine about classic motorbikes, which was a total rip off for the price of 17$, but i had coins left from previous trips and used those. The wi-fi wasn't free, so i had to use a kiosk to post an update on twitter.

  Meanwhile i saw that people changing flights should contact the information desk. They asked me a ton of questions, "did you pack your bags?", "where are you going?", "address?", and all sorts of other stuff, after that they issued me a new boarding pass.

The plane was a Boeing 777, huge plane, at least the biggest i have ever seen. In front of each seat there was a monitor with free movies, games and music, to fill in the long flight. The pilot said that the trip will take us around 8 hours and 10 minutes.

A band of drunk Norwegians were sat in front of me, and they had their seats in the lowest position possible which resulted in some serious cramping in my legs...

The pilot called from the speakers and asked if there was a doctor on board, I hoped that this doesn't turn into an Agatha Christie novel! After that announcement, i turned my attention to one of the Norwegians which was now hitting on one of the stewardesses...that was as funny as it was tragic.

I watched "Casino Royale" and "The Magnificent Seven", then slept a little. I filled in the customs papers as we approached NY, and we landed at about 14:00pm local time.