A Girl Named Tennessee: Always Have Copies of Your Travel Documents

Confession: while we were planning our trip, I went a little nuts. I made a document folder. I photocopied all of our passports (even Nathaniel's and Jonathan's). I printed all of our confirmation emails. I printed directions for each city of how to get from the airport to our hostel/hotel. I made an insane excel spreadsheet with all of our flight information, hostel/hotel information and address, etc. I tried to think of everything we would need to look up on our phones, because we will not have international phone service throughout our trip. Well, today, that document folder paid off.

This morning, Mary Margaret woke me at 3:45am. We took a taxi to our airport shuttle bus stop. Then, we elbowed our way onto a shuttle bus for our 45 minute commute to London Stansted Airport. Upon arrival at the airport, the airline attendant complemented our skills in being exactly under the weight limit for the airline. That's right. I bought a travel luggage scale. You would too if you had to pay $96.00 for going over the weight limit by less than 2kg (about 4lb).

Flight went fine, except they charge for in-flight drinks. My goodness, I just wanted a coffee. Then we made it to Munich and waited in line at customs. In London, they asked a ton of questions, but it was not a big deal. Not in Munich evidently. When I got to the customs agent, I gave him my passport. He asked the common questions. "How long are you here? Why are you here?" etc. And then he asked for a copy of my plane ticket for my departing flight. "Well, I can not check into my flight until 24 hours before the flight departs." Wrong thing to say. He made me get out of line until I could find a copy of my departing plane ticket. Little known fact about me: I panic at the drop of a hat. That's why Mary Margaret and I are best friends. She is the voice of reason. After calming down, I remembered I had made copies of our travel itinerary that our school travel agent emailed us. Success! See you later mister man.

After being shoved and growled at in line to get a S-bahn (the train) ticket, we made it on the train and to our hotel. And it was worth it! Our Munich hotel is 100 times nicer than the London hostel. Aaaah... sweet luxury.

Unfortunately, Munich shuts down on Good Friday. We went to do some sight-seeing, and found that every exhibit/church/cathedral/store and most restaurants were closed. So we walked around, took some pictures, and called it a day!