54 Hours

54 Hours

Fifty four hours it took to get from L.A. to Berlin. Yikes! Starting with a 3 hour delay on the first leg of the trip due to weather in Newark, New Jersey. By the time Jess and I got to Newark, our connection to Berlin was long gone, so Continental re-routed us on a later flight through London. However, by the time we got to London's Heathrow International, many flights were cancelled due to extreme weather conditions, including our flight to Berlin. 

We began scrambling on Facebook to find a place to stay for the evening after being told by an airline representative that they wouldn't put us up in a hotel. We waited in the slowest moving line on earth with another 150 people. The line took 3 hours or so and we got our flight booked for the following afternoon. 

Ten minutes into the wait I realized how long this was going to take and I could see the misery and frustration on everyone's face around me. I felt the same, so I figured there's only one way I can personally cope with this situation and make light of it. I busted out my miniature guitar. I started playing and singing whatever I felt like- covers, a lot of improvisation, and a few blues tunes with lyrics I made up on the spot about waiting in a stupid line. A few people tapped their toes quietly, some pretended I wasn't there at all (which is funny because there was nothing else happening), while others seemed to be playing an instrument in their head jamming along with me. I got a few gestures of appreciation. One guy said "you're all we got" which was nice. Considering how miserable everyone in that line was, it was amazing I got any recognition. But that wasn't what was important. It was nice to help ease the pain for others with some grooves and humor. That's a magical thing about music. However, at the end of the day, I admit, I just needed to keep myself sane and that was the only way I knew how to. 

It was a great outlet turning frustration into flowing positive energy. It taught me that just about any situation can become funny if you are honest about what's going on, and turn it into a song. Somehow hearing the situation you're in, in that moment the feeling transforms into an understanding and acceptance- I suppose because it makes it feel less personal and more communal. When people are in it together and they can relate to others about what they're feeling, hear others say what's on your mind, it distributes the energy and diminishes the perceived size of the issue. I'm glad I could play a role in opening that up. 

A funny thing that happened in line (LOL) - I heard a guy behind me talking on his cell phone, and thought to myself "what language is he speaking? it's so strange." I've spent quite a bit of time in Europe and can recognize a lot of languages, so it's rare I hear something I've never heard before. The closest thing I could relate it to was Norwegian, which has certain characteristics that are very distinct like uniquely contorted vowels and a punchy consonant rhythm that seems to interrupt themselves or frolic around a grassy hill top. It was so strange that I couldn't recognize any grammatical structure, or words that would have reminded me of German or Italian, or French, or Spanish, or Dutch. Then I heard the word "snow". Soon thereafter came almost a full sentence I understood like "it's snowing a lot up there", followed by more gibberish to my ears. After the third phrase I recognized I began to wonder what was going on here. Was this guy mixing in a few English phrases or was I imagining things in my travel delirium? After some very acute listening, I began to develop "Spidey ears" and was able to decipher the code as yes indeed…an incredibly fascinating breed of English. 

I know there are some thick dialects in Ireland and Scotland, and I would normally recognize those accents, but this one was deep bayou style Irish as it turned out. It reminded me of Brad Pitt in the movie "Snatch". Anyway, it was really funny. 

So, at that point we were totally exhausted and hungry! Still in the airport, we went upstairs to a restaurant where we were cheerfully greeted by a table of fellow stranded travelers who we had chatted with a bit in line. A Super friendly threesome- a girl from Ireland, a guy from Scotland (he's actually Chinese with a Scottish dialect! awesomeness), and an very tall Slovich guy. We had a nice dinner and chat. The Irish girl, Pamela, was kind enough to give us a little package with a toothbrush and red socks. Yay! Before going separate ways, the Slovich guy, Peter, told us that he was able to get a hotel because he was in transit, so Jess and I went to a counter and asked another representative if we could get a hotel for the night. We explained the situation and that we had been traveling already for over 30 hours. Thankfully, the nice rep from Bmi airlines hooked it up. We stayed the night near the airport and flew out the following afternoon. 

When we arrived in Berlin, my luggage came through, but not Jess's, so we spent a few more hours trying to track that down (at which point I pulled out my guitar again and sang Christmas songs. I tried to get some strangers who were also waiting for lost baggage to sing along with me, but they declined with a smile and a laugh but requested I keep going, so I did.

We hopped on a bus with our awesome friend Sebastian and walked a few blocks in the snow to his apartment. The three of us took a stroll down the street to a cozy, warm, little restaurant where we ate a delicious dinner. Pork and rosemary potatoes doused in mushroom sauce to end a fifty four hour trip from Los Angeles. We finally made it!