25-28 January 2011 - The journey to Germany

28 January 2011


I’m not sure what day of the week it is, or even the time for that matter....I'm pretty sure it's Friday, because my birthday falls on a Saturday this year, and today is the 28th.

I started this journey about 1400 on Tuesday, the 25th of January, from NKC in Kabul... I left there and headed to ISAF, where I awaited a helo ride to Bagram. I sat there for about an hour and a half when I was finally picked up.

After a short ride in a helo, I arrived at Bagram with a young marine, enroute to redeploy. We arrived at the helo terminal and fortunately Jessica came and picked us up to take us to the passenger terminal for our outbound flights.

Once checking in at Bagram Counter for my trip, at about 1600, I was told to be back at midnight for a brief. I went to the USO and sat and watched TV and waited for Trisha to come in.  (She was coming in as I was leaving!)  At midnight Trisha came in, from her trip so my brief was delayed...now it was set to 0100..

So we caught up a little and then I went to my brief...by the time it was over we were told to be back for roll call at 0500 to palletize our bags, we were headed to Kuwait on a 0700 flight...

So I stayed in the terminal waiting...0600 came and, we palletized our bags, now we were ready; there about 150 of us...unfortunately our flight was delayed for hours; we really didn't leave till about 1200 noon time but we had been on lock down, so we were all a bit tired and hungry. The plane we were on was big...very big...and fortunately they put seats up and we weren't just on the nets..

We did ride to Kuwait with human remains, so once we arrived at our location, we all had to disembark and pay tribute doing a ramp ceremony. Then we all re-boarded and continued on for another 20 minutes or so to Kuwait military side. This flight as a whole, was so long, we were so tired. Most of us slept the whole time

We arrived in Kuwait about 1600, where we had to attend 3 more briefs, processing our paperwork.. Finally at 2100 we were released, with tents to sleep in...and told to check back the next day after 1000...

It seems thats what the military is good at..brief after brief..and causing a lack of sleep for us..

After stuffing. Myself with McDonalds for the first time in 8 months, I called home and then got some much needed sleep.

I woke up and started tossing and turning about 4 and finally gave up about 7. You would figure that after the lack of sleep..I would have slept for like 12 hours..

I left Kuwait about 1730 on a bus to international airport. I transferred to another bus a while later, which then brought me (and about 6 other personnel flying overseas) to the Kuwait international airport. We arrived about 1900, and check-in wasn’t until 2130. We wouldn’t even board until about 0045, so we sat at a coffee shop, and killed time. We all arrived in Frankfort about 0600, where I then transferred to a flight to Innsbrook, Austria.

Once I arrived in Innsbrook, I had to take the train (The Europe Train System is an Awesome thing, but sooo very confusing at first). Because I was unfamiliar with the train system, Isat on the train and passed my stop. Which then led me to going all the way to Munich and then back tracking to Garmisch. In all, I spent an extra 2-3 hours on the train… great learning experience.. but miserable after traveling for 4 days with 2 big suit cases in tote. The good thing is, I was really in no hurry per se. So, knowing I was lost, had a dead cell phone battery and NO internet reception – I just sat back, and enjoyed the view, knowing I would eventually get there.

Today it was a little cold..The scenery was that out of a book, postcards you would buy and send home of snow covered alps, and beautiful quaint little towns..

I passed thru Austria in to Germany and finally arrived in Garmisch. I took a taxi from the Train station to Eidelweiss, and was definitely ready for this journey to continue!

More to follow...