Today I arrived in Luxembourg for my month-long sojourn in which I will also be very stressed and take tests and classes. There aren’t many photos because today was just a travel day, so unless you want to hear about how my transportation related adventures, you can skip to the end and see some delicious food photos. If you aren’t into that, I’m not sure I can help.
I started off at home, frantically deciding to repack my suitcase. I packed 2 weekends ago, then re-packed this past weekend. But last night, I went out to dinner with Joe and it was *cold*. But it was the temperature that Luxembourg is supposed to be for the next month. I totally panicked, thinking ‘oh no what if I didn’t bring warm enough clothes’ and took myself out to the garage in search of thermal underlayers. I know I can stay warm with my Siberian underoos.
I packed, snuggled with Pooka, and then booked myself an Uber to the airport. When I checked, it said the wait would be 20 minutes. So I clicked confirm, thinking I’d have some time. But then it said ‘arriving in 3 minutes’. So I left the house in a flurry of panic. This is not how I wanted the day to start. We got about 3 blocks away before I was certain that I hadn’t only not locked the door, but that I may have left my house keys in the lock. The Uber driver U-turned (I tipped him well in the end), but I found my keys before we got back home. So we re-U-turned and I was off to the airport.
SFO was a bit chaotic today, and it took almost half an hour to get through security. But I was there with plenty of time to spare and so I made my way to the bar near the gate and had a weird scotch old-fashioned. This helped me relax a bit before flying, because I was just a ball of stress.
The plane was fine, normal plane. The lady seated next to me seemed normal enough. Our flight took off at 3 p.m. and she was asleep at 5. She missed the first meal they served. She slept leaning to the left, leaning to the right, slumped forward (this becomes relevant, I promise). She’s all over the place. I’m like, whatever. I write my next theme in Luxembourgish, my Uertschaft, and watch the movie Isle of Dogs while I enjoy my airline cheese-pasta. Then, just as it’s around 11 p.m. local time, the pilot shuts off all the lights and the TV that shows the map of where we are because it is sleeping time. You can probably guess what happens next.
This lady wakes tf up, turns on her reading light and starts reading a book. She can’t stay in her spot while she’s awake either, as she’s balancing her book on my elbow while I try to sleep, laughing out loud at her book, just generally making it hard to sleep. I’m also not a good plane sleeper.
Finally, she starts rummaging around, so I move to let her out of her seat, thinking she’s gotta go to the restroom. But no. She has lost her apple watch. She’s in the window seat and I’m in the aisle. She *knows* she lost it while she was sleeping. Had to be. It’s never fallen off before. She even has long sleeves on over it. I get up with her, and we pull out our seat cushions, we use our flashlights on our camera phones to look under the seats. I’m making sure it didn’t fall on me or in my seat because of the aforementioned leaning on my side. But nothing. The she starts pondering whether she remembered to put it on this morning. I’m so tired. I’m really trying to help her. I’m pretty sure she thinks I have taken her watch despite the fact that I’m all ride-or-die for my Pixel. So after all this, we give up, deciding that, when we land, she can use the ‘find my watch’ thing to make it buzz or whatever those things do and then she’ll know if it’s on the plane or at home.
After 11 hours of very restless sleep and a series of unfortunate annoyances, we finally landed in Paris. As I was getting up to collect my things, I saw something that I thought was my headphones, little black rubbery thing in the bottom of the little magazine pouch in front of my chair. I picked it up and was like, OH, here’s an apple watch! And now I think she thinks that I somehow took it, hacked it and installed some malicious software on it, and then gave it back to her. At least that’s what I’d think because I work in security and any device that’s out of your possession is now compromised. Go get that watch wiped.
Anyway, my flight from Paris to Luxembourg was in the zombie-apocolypse terminal hidden very far from the rest of the airport, where the very very local flights depart from. We had to exit security, go through security again, take a shuttle bus, to the terminal, and go through passport control there. It was quite an ordeal for a short flight. The plane itself was a propeller plane and we had to walk out on the tarmac and climb it’s wittle tiny stairs. It was super turbulent, which I know because I was hard asleep and kept having my head whipped around. This flight was operated by Lux-Air, and it was actually the first time I’ve heard people speak Luxembourgish in real life.
Finally, Luxembourg…. we finally land in Luxembourg, and I’m ready to get this day started. It’s 3p.m., and I need to get myself to the store before it closes because nothing is open on Sundays. I stop at the atm in the airport, of course the one inside the security area, how could that possibly go wrong? I put in a card, and ask my machine overlord for €€€, and it says denied and spits my card out. Assuming my bank just doesn’t remember that I’m in a foreign country, I try a second card. Same thing. It says “ne pas” and then…. doesn’t spit my card out? It makes a constant whirring sound, but never releases my card. There’s no phone number. There’s no attendant. I am like What TF do I do? A lady is in line behind her and I warn her not to put her card in, but she does it anyway, and it refuses to give her any money either. At least it gave her her card back. I asked the lady at the wine shop across the hallway… She says ‘Oh yeah, they’ve been having problems with that lately’. She looks up the Airport’s information/help number, but all it tells you is the extension. So she looks up the number to the bank and I call it and it says call back Monday-Friday. Ok, I just need to cancel this card, since it was my back-up one anyway…. and not lose or damage or get my other one stolen for the next month. No stress here.
I no longer had the energy to figure out the bus system, so I took a cab to my home away from home. It’s an old 3-story house and the guy who owns it retired and just rents it out as Air B’n’B rentals now. He is very talkative, wanting to tell me things about the city, wanting to constantly shit-talk AirBn’B and how much money he gets from doing this and how much he pays in taxes and … you get it. Grumpy old retired guy. Also, totally American. Not a person I can practice my Luxembourgish with. Bummer.
I walked about a mile into the center of town to the Sephora, where I had intended to buy this aerosol spray foundation that I love but you’re not allowed to fly with pressurized aerosol cans. But they don’t carry it here. I had to settle for a normal liquid foundation that I have to smear onto my own face like a loser. I don’t generally wear make-up, but when traveling, I end up taking a lot of photos, and being in a lot of photos, so I try to put in the effort.
After that, I strolled around checking out the local restaurants until I found one that just seemed too good to resist. It was called L’entracte, and had a ton of logos of a kid or cherub peeing into a beer mug. And it had an entire section of the menu dedicated to melted cheese.
I ordered the Mont d’Oro platter, which was the best thing ever. It’s just a combination of everything that is already my favorite thing. It’s charcuterie with pickled vegetables and boiled baby potatoes, but served with gooey melted cheese. They also serve Fondue and Raclette, but those require 2 people to order…. so if I meet a cheese-loving friend in the next few weeks, I know where we’re going. I had the “Christmas” beer, and then I had a regular pilsner, both from Battin brewrey. The beers were ok. The Christmas one was dark, but flavorless, which was disappointing. The pilsner was almost colorless and was flavorless, which was to be expected.
And now, after a 15 minute walk in the rain, I’m trying to stay awake past 8 p.m. and fend off my jet lag. Wish me luckzzzzzzzzzz
