leaving deutschland.

while i was dreading it's arrival, all things must come to an end, and i eventually had to say "tschuss" to deutschland. i woke up early (by my standards) on saturday morning and got ready and ate breakfast. around 9am, johannes and i ventured out to take care of my last-minute shopping, which included buying two loaves of rye bread (one for me and one for richard), as much kölsch as my suitcase could fit, and about 20 euros worth of candy for my friends. then it was back to pack up my belongings (which took some negotiation between my suitcase and myself) and johannes the hero carried my excessively-heavy suitcase down the winding flights of stairs to the ground level. and before long, we were off!

we caught a train to the central station, and then had to find our platform to catch another train to head out to the airport. we made record time, and johannes was quite impressed with his planning, as he made all the connections with more than enough time. and then suddenly we found ourselves at the köln/bonn airport. once at the ticket counter, the kind lady working upgraded my flights, giving me window seats and (unbeknownst to me) putting me in business class for my united flight from boston to san francisco. seriously, how rad. for the record, i love lufthansa (excepting the temporarily-missing suitcase incident). once checked in, we met up with björn, who has been my last.fm friend for quite some time and lives in düsseldorf. previous attempts to hang out during my stay were unsuccessful, so he drove all the way to the airport to meet me - how sweet! at this point, johannes and i said our goodbyes, as he was heading off to the suburbs to take care of things. i still had nearly two hours before my flight left, so björn bought me coffee and we sat and chatted for awhile, until the time came when he had to walk me to the security checkpoint. we said our goodbyes, and i was on my own for a long journey home.

my flight to munich was quick and painless, but i did find myself crying a bit as we landed at the airport. i had such a great time in germany, but i was also emotionally exhausted because of all it took for me to get there and what it meant for me - the years of friendship building up to it, the courage i had to muster to instigate such a trip, the fantastic time i had, the accomplishment of doing the whole thing on my own and for myself, and the sadness of leaving behind such a good friend, as well as a country that i kind of fell in love with. and not only that, but i had most of my trip back ahead of me - a nearly-nine-hour-flight to boston, a 12-hour layover, and a six-hour-flight back to california, followed by a whole day of activities and bbqs once i arrived. but that part of the journey is a story all unto itself...