Transit, Part 2

Lessons from a couple of hours in a German airport: (I’m not sure if these are Europe-wide, related to Russia, or uniquely German, but they’re worth noting anyway.)
-Honestly, the airport is VERY lightly trafficked compared to what I was expecting. There are maybe fifteen people in the waiting area for the St. Petersburg flight, and that’s fairly populated for the waiting areas here. (And of those fifteen, I appear to be the only English-speaking young person. Maybe it will just be me from CIEE on this flight…I was kind of hoping to meet a compatriot or two. Oh well.) Maybe Germans just don’t rush as much. Either that, or I’m just at a rather obscure end of the airport…this is exclusively the Connecting Flights section, so that may be.
-Germany is more efficient about scheduling their planes than the US is. Planes are taking off at the same gate within two hours of each other; novel idea, that one. (This also means that there’s nobody at the desk an hour before the flight, but, if it works for them, awesome. The employees sort of moseyed in about twenty minutes before the intended start of boarding.)
-There seems to be a conspicuous lack of drinking fountains around here. In St. Petersburg I could understand that, ‘cause drinking the water will make you ill, but not in Germany. On another note, German faucets don’t mess around.
-German whipped cream is unsweetened. Not sure whether that makes me like it any better. (In retrospect, sachertorte was probably not the wisest choice for breakfast. But, (a), I wasn’t exactly sure what it was when I ordered it; (b), chocolate cake is delicious any time of day; (c), it was justifiably inexpensive; and (d), my body is so thrown off at this point that a little extra sugar can’t hurt anything.)

11 am, German time. Hooray! I’m not alone! Confused-looking college women with large carryons attract each other, apparently. We’ve managed to identify seven CIEE girls so far (counting me), so we’re all far less nervous about the whole endeavor. :D Two are on the Russian Language program, so we’ve appointed Sasha and Lou to translate for us when we get there. As for the rest…we’re three hours away from the most fascinating semester of our lives! I can’t wait!!!

This flight is reasonably packed up front, but near the back where I’m sitting, it’s surprisingly spacious. I actually have a whole row to myself, which is very nice after eight hours of trying not to elbow Leon or trip the flight attendants. (Also, I wasn’t expecting to be fed on the Lufthansa flight, which is a pleasant surprise. I suppose airlines like to serve cheese tortellini because it makes an easy MRE and won’t offend or cause danger to anyone except lactose-intolerant people. And, no offense to anyone with milk troubles, but I don’t think Europe does lactose intolerance.)

Note to self: no cheese tortellini in Russia.