Note: Friends, family, and anyone else reading this. Sorry for the delay in posts, there wasn't any Wi-Fi in the rooms so I had to figure out how to hard-connect to the hotel's network, hence the delay.
Bulgaria: Day 1
Finally time for our long-awaited trip to the far side of the world. Yesterday (well, technically two days ago since I'm typing this up in Bulgaria and the time change basically ate another day) saw us off to the airport, where we rendezvoused with Allison and the other cellos/horns/bassoons/trombones. Then, we got to wait for the rest of our group to arrive, killing the time with some Rat Slap, 13, and Pictionary. A couple hours later, we had our entire group through security and waiting at the gate. We had somewhere around an hour or two before our flight left, so several people found wonderfully overpriced airport food, while others watched Unknown (Liam Neeson) on Mr. Austin's laptop. When the wait was finally over, we boarded the plane and prepped ourselves for the twelve hour flight.
All I can say about my initial impressions of the plane is “wow”. Being my first time on a 747, it was quite exciting to both myself and Meri and see two columns of seats, as well as the staircase leading to the lower deck. Each seat had a touchpad screen which could be used to browse through dozens of movies, hundreds of CD's, and a bevy of TV channels, all included with the flight price. As if the entertainment wasn't enough to keep our little minds amazed the entire trip, the food that we received was equally impressive, or at least dinner. Dinner was a selection between a pasta or chicken entree, a roll, fruit cup, some salad, and a brownie. Meri and I both got the pasta and were immensely impressed. The rest of the meal was just as good, the salad was crisp, the brownie was fresh, and the fruit was very sweet. The majority of the flight felt pretty much the same: some people were sleeping, others were incredible still not sleeping, a handful of lights in the darkened cabin were lit, and the constant drone of the engines annoyed me to no end. During the flight, I invested two hours into The Adjustment Bureau, a movie released last year if you haven't heard of it. The movie delves (lightly) into the issue of free will (versus Predestination...) and perhaps how those set along a predestined path can “overwrite” that path with our free will, or something like that. It was a very interesting movie that provided a little more meat to the thinking watcher than your average hack and slash flick. I also got through about three quarters of Rango which, despite the slightly negative things I heard about it, I found quite entertaining and funny.
Well, time shift ahead half a day +ten hours for the time zone and we're in Munich. Our legs rejoiced as we walked down the jetway and into the German terminal. We checked out some very expensive gift shops, saw an Asian cuisine, and laughed as my cousin got ripped off by the horrible airport currency exchange rates. The next flight was considerably shorter and less lavish, though it was still fairly enjoyable. Finally, after around thirteen hours of air time and twenty-five (I think) hours later, we arrived in Bulgaria. After claiming our baggage, checking to make sure none of the cellos were damaged, and exiting the airport (while being filmed for TV broadcast), we met our Bulgarian couriers who drove us to the hotel where this blog post is being typed. We checked in, got our keys, and promptly went to sleep.
-Philip
Finally time for our long-awaited trip to the far side of the world. Yesterday (well, technically two days ago since I'm typing this up in Bulgaria and the time change basically ate another day) saw us off to the airport, where we rendezvoused with Allison and the other cellos/horns/bassoons/trombones. Then, we got to wait for the rest of our group to arrive, killing the time with some Rat Slap, 13, and Pictionary. A couple hours later, we had our entire group through security and waiting at the gate. We had somewhere around an hour or two before our flight left, so several people found wonderfully overpriced airport food, while others watched Unknown (Liam Neeson) on Mr. Austin's laptop. When the wait was finally over, we boarded the plane and prepped ourselves for the twelve hour flight.
