Easter in the Air

Sorry for the delay, Wifi is only available in the lobby, so I couldn't get this post up until this morning.

Here we are at the start of another epic adventure, but one not too dissimilar from the others. After checking into LAX and making sure TSA agents didn't completely wreck my cello, I tagged along with several other arriving families and got through security with setting off any alarms (checkpoint-friendly laptop backpack worked like a charm!). We arrived at our gate and, with three hours to kill, wandered back to security looking for friends, ate a bagel with garlic-tainted cream cheese, and heard some terribly terrible lame jokes. The time passed surprisingly quickly, and soon enough we were on board, ready for another long, trans-Atlantic flight. Fortunately, the plane was a newer model, meaning it had built in TV screen for each seat pre-loaded with a dozen movies, TV shows, music, and other such forms of mind-numbing, time-passing entertainment. Like in Bulgaria, the flight food was excellent, though we didn't get any of the special “folding forks”. Despite being an eleven hour flight, the time passed quickly and we soon found ourselves touching down at the International Airport of Munich. Traditional post-flight rituals commenced, and everyone was able to get past security and find their baggage in a timely manner. The two checked cellos (mine and Nathan Le's) were both intact. After leaving the terminal, we packed our luggage into what apparently is the largest bus in all of Austria, a double-decker which seats eighty people. The bus took us past vast snow-covered fields and mountains and past the German/Austrian border to our dinner destination, where we received a hearty meal of spaghetti bolognese, salad, and a mound of gelato (a welcome contrast to the vegetable-heavy cuisine of Bulgaria!). Good conversation and food made our first meal in Austria an extremely positive experience. After another brief bus ride, we reached the hotel, where we checked in, battered down the hatches, and prepared for our first day in Austria.

-Philip

Pictures! Labels should hopefully be up soon:
 https://picasaweb.google.com/109511667393649244721/Austria48