Day #1 Flying to the Desert

After waking up stiff like a log after 4,5 hours of sleep on the stone floor of the airport, I needed coffee. The machine swallowed my coins without serving coffee. The airport cops just shrugged their shoulders when I told them about it, so I went to town with the tweezer of my first aid kid – how well prepared he he – and retrieved lots of euros stuck in the slot which paid for a coffee and lunch later 🙃

I thought a lot about budgeting and although I‘m no math-brain I made an overview of how much I‘m allowed to spend every week – if you do a longer trip far away I advise you do the same – just try to pin down some weekly and monthly numbers, so you know your limits and any surpluses after spending your daily/weekly budget.

After weighing and repacking (the monster is at 14 kg after all… not too bad!), standing in five (!) different security and/or check-in queues and making last calls to close friends, I made it into the plane.

The flight went by fast and as usual, I had the window seat at the wing which creates the coolest photos IMO! Almost all the other seats were taken by an international assembly of Jehovas‘ Witnesses with „Love can’t fail“ badges on their chests and big smiles plastered on.

We passed dark seas, glaciers, endless ice fields and rocky deserts. I could watch the landscape forever without getting bored. As soon as the plane descended, the Captain warned us: it has 45 (celsius) degrees in Phoenix… but in the end I had two minutes of unfiltered desert air between going from one climatized building to a climatized car to the hotel with an air conditioned room.

I always have this paranoid feeling that my luggage will end up somewhere else, but it all worked out fine, border control was a breeze and quite the opposite of what I expected. In general everyone is super friendly and helpful!

Why am I still awake? Pleased about today and wired about the next adventures tomorrow I guess…