Day One: Travel (05-22-14)

            My travel day started at 7:30 a.m. with my alarm blaring in my ear. Between telling my friends and family “see you later” and the pre-travel jitters, I only slept about 6 hours. Mom and Dad dropped me off at the airport at 9:00 a.m. after an easy drive down 31W and missing the early morning interstate traffic in Nashville. Our group of about 20 students made it through security with no issues and we boarded our first flight to Newark, New Jersey without delay.

            On the flight from Newark to Frankfurt, Germany I sat between two older women who did not speak English. In fact, they spoke a different language from each other. It was apparent when they pointed and fussed over their boarding cards and one being in the wrong seat. After watching nearly half of Monuments Men, we were in the air and headed across the Atlantic on our 7-hour flight!

            The Frankfurt, Germany airport was the most commuter friendly airport that I have ever been in. The seats were cushioned with no armrests to jab into your side, outlets were everywhere to charge personal electronics and there was even an area with reclining seats for people to nap. Fortunately our layover was short and we boarded our last flight for Prague, Czech Republic at 10:00 a.m.

            It is now 12:00 p.m. and I am typing from the bus that will taxi us around throughout our trip. There are plenty of seats and most of us are sitting alone, and many are trying to catch an hour or so of sleep. I am going to try and stay up as long as I can this afternoon without napping because I do not want jet lag to hit me hard tomorrow.

            There is not much on our agenda today except to stop and eat before we make our way to Cesky Krumlov.