Leaving On a Jet Plane

Maybe it was the coffee, maybe it was the fact that I was getting on a plane to Copenhagen in just a few short hours, either way I was a jitter bug and couldn't seem to sit still. Although 5:20pm is a relatively late flight, there is still an enormous amount of thought and preparation that goes into planning an international flight, especially when departing from an unfamiliar city. At the airport, it is important to leave yourself enough time to get checked in, go through security, and make it to your gate with plenty of time to relax and prepare to board. Not only did I have to arrive at the Newark airport with enough time to get settled in, I also had to navigate the trains and bus system again. There's nothing like a half hour late bus to send your anxiety through the roof. Once again, thank goodness for extra time and preparation.

Lucky me, I had a middle-middle seat. There were three sections of seats: left, right, and middle. The left and right sides each had three seats in the section, and the middle section had 4 across. I was one of those two people who were sandwiched into the very middle, which for me happened to be between two big guys. Needless to say, I didn't get up very often during the flight. From the time you sit down until takeoff feels like hours, but my frantic last minute texting made the time appear to fly by. Excited, anxious, scared, nervous, jumping for joy were just some of the feelings racing through my mind, which unfortunately made sleeping very difficult. After reading 50 pages, eating dinner, watching a movie, reading some more, and tossing and turning in my seat, I decided the best sleeping position was leaned over onto my lowered tray table. Even then I couldn't find a way to equally distribute the weight of my head onto my hands causing my fingers to slowly get pins and needles one at a time. My spine felt like rocks piled onto one another, my eyes were like spikes poking at my brain, but overall I would have to say that the 8 hour flight went by fairly quickly. We were soon landing in Stockholm, and no, I did not follow my friend's recommendation to join the mile high club.

After an 8 hour flight, chances are you are tired, stiff, sore, smelly, and the first thing you want to do is take an hour long shower. On the other hand, probably the last thing you want to do is shop at Victoria's Secret. I don't know who was in charge of permit approvals for the Stockholm airport, but the airport is no place for this type of leisure shopping. With this relaxed state of mind, maybe this is why the Nordic countries are the happiest places on Earth.