I wanted to write a bit of my landing and how I came to meet up with Jonas. Now that I look back on it, it was all part of the adventure but little did I know in that moment what was about to happen.
I managed to sleep like 4 hrs on the airplane. I woke up just in time to watch "To Rome with Love" which was quite funny. Then the sun started to come out. Finally. I saw below me the earth covered in snow. Snow was everywhere and it was quite a contrast to my experience last year. I saw little gray boxes from afar, boxes that were the small towns below me. Then some patches of gray. It must have taken me 10 solid minutes to figure out they were actually trees. ha. Perhaps I had started to lose my mind at that moment.
As I was landing, I didn't feel nervous or excited. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. It felt so familiar, so homely... it felt like going home. I guess this will sound religious and whatever but you are here to read me so deal with it. I also out of nowhere saw a rainbow. It wasn't even raining. But it did remind me of God's promises and I felt secure that I was under his protection.
When I finally get out of the airplane and I started walking around the airport to reach customs, I felt happy. I was anonymous, independent... I didn't have to wait for anybody. I knew what I had to do and did it. I didn't have to look behind my back. Nobody knew me and I didn't know anybody. And it felt good.
In contrast to how things work at the airport in Puerto Rico, I didn't have to make a big line at customs and when I arrived to the baggage claim, my bag was already there. I missed the German efficiency. I moved to the next destination: the train station. I had to walk there a lot and I was really glad that I had downsized on my luggage and only brought a small bag with me on the plane. I arrived to what I believed was the right track because it said "Frankfurt City". I looked at the time table and saw that I had just missed the train but there would be another opportunity soon. I looked at the next track and in the display it said clearly "Frankfurt Hbf" (central station), where I was supposed to go. I take my bags and move to the next track and look closely only to see that this train was not coming, so I had to look for another option. The next train would leave in 15 min but I had failed to check which track I was supposed to go on.
As I am walking around the track, I see someone approach me and think "Great, here comes somebody to ask me for money" but those were not the words that came out of his mouth. He spoke English. "Excuse me!" he said in a thick accent "Do you know when the next train to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof is?" I smiled and explained to him when the next train would come but as I did so, I went back to the time table and now he asked "Which track is it?" Then it hit me. I would have stayed on this track and miss my train. An angel.
When I arrived to the main station I had two options: north or south, left or right. So I decide to go north but as I was going to go up the stairs, these two men carrying a huge metal train part were going up those stairs and blocking my way so I decide to go south instead. Turns out that south was the right choice. I finally found my next train.
But as I am there in the next train I realized I had not been able to call Mr.J and tell him when I would be arriving because if I had done that I would have missed my train to Berlin. The next 4 hours were perhaps even longer than the 8 hrs I had spent inside the airplane. I tried desperately to find a hotspot in the train but everything failed. So now I was praying that Mr.J had the intuition of coming to the train station before he thought I would get there. And as I sat in the train, I must have pictured in my head a thousand times the moment we would be reunited. Little did I know that I would not have the Nicholas Sparks moment I wished for but more of a Murphy's Law sort of thing.
During the time in the train, I was able to admire safe inside the train, the cold weather outside. There was snow everywhere and I smiled because I felt I finally could have my white Christmas. If not I guess I would be able to enjoy the winter wonderland for a while. The skies were white... the skies fused with the snow on the ground. I saw little sleepy towns, trees covered in snow. I loved every minute of it. I wanted to take pictures of everything but then I came to the conclusion that I would have a lot of very similar pictures. My dad would certainly complain.
I am then arriving to the train station Ostbahnhof. I feel my heart racing, finally excited at the prospect of seeing the man I love after all this time away from him. I get off the train, looked everywhere and was hit with the painful reality that I would not have my Nicholas Sparks moment, that reality is not as we want it to be. So I then go to try to find a public phone. I tried calling Mr.J... nothing. I was reminded later than in order to call here you have to click on 00 before you dial the phone number. So my attempts were for nothing. I tried getting internet, that didn't seem to work either. Every time I had to put on the password I had for the T-Mobile network, and had to look for it in another app, the certification page would drop and I had to restart the whole thing again.
I was now on the very verge of tears. I didn't know if I should just grab a taxi and just get to the apartment. But what if he wasn't home? I would have to wait outside in the snow and the cold and wait until he realized I was not in the train station. I found a phone with a screen and I was able to send him a text message saying I was in the Ostbahnhof. I was so upset I failed to specify exactly where in the Ostbahnhof I was. But I tried to calm down, sat down somewhere and wrote down the password in a paper so I wouldn't have to open the app. It finally worked. I tried contacting Mr.J and a few minutes later... we were reunited. No Nicholas Sparks moment at all. And how was I supposed to explain to Mr.J that I was not immediately happy after "el malrato" that I had been through?
After said marathon, after finally getting a proper shower, I went for dinner. Last meal I had was in the airplane like a million hours ago. Then the real adventure began.
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