Traveling

Friday, May 4th, 12:40 pm
I arrive at Dulles Airport, make it through security and to my gate without a hitch and with 2 hours until boarding to Toronto. I fall asleep at the gate for approximately an hour, and wake up to find that while I was sleeping the gate for my flight had moved. Slight freak out, but a quick glance at a clock tells me I'm not late and I am able to find the correct gate and settle down again. We leave about an hour late, but knowing I have a 5 hour layover in Toronto, I am not worried.

6:25 PM
Sitting at a juice bar in the Toronto airport drinking a delicious strawberry smoothie. I am very glad for my long layover here because I have taken pretty much every wrong turn since I've been here.
I was not supposed to go through customs, but I did. In my defense, I didn't think that I was supposed to, but the employee I asked at the entrance to the customs line told me that I was.
So then I find myself turned around at baggage claim trying to explain to a french speaking employee that I don't need to get my bags because they're automatically going to my next flight.
I am now relaxing at this juice bar after going to the domestic security line instead of international. Next step: international security and wait for my flight to Frankfurt.
     Sleep in the last 33 hours: 2.5 hours.

1:30 PM (Frankfurt Time)
I am now sitting at a bar in Frankfurt airport. A real bar this time, not juice. I went through customs again, but this time I was supposed to. I don't have a boarding pass for my flight to Colombo because I'm switching from Air Canada to Sri Lankan Airlines. So I needed to exit and then go check in with Sri Lankan to go back through secuirty. I think I confused the customs guy a bit:
"So where are you headed?"
"Colombo, Sri Lanka"
"You do know you're in Germany customs right now?"
I explained my situation and he was understanding, if slightly gruff.

The goal was to sleep on the plane to Toronto and in the Toronto airport once I got to my gate, but that didn't really work out too well. I wasn't able to get any sleep in the airport, but I revised my plan slightly and allowed myself to sleep on the plane to Frankfurt. In addition to watching Captain America, talking to my cell mate, and reading, I think I was able to swing 3-4 hours.
The most important is to sleep for the full duration of this next flight: 10 hours long arriving at 10AM.
If I can do that I should arrive fully rested and ready for the full day. It's what we in the biz call beating jetlag like a boss.

Wandering around Frankfurt airport I notice a "Last Minute Tickets" booth. There are 2 signs on the counter, "Tickets to anywhere, last minute" and "Sri Lanka Visa." Random, but fortuitous. I show the woman my electronic travel authorization and she activates it for me. (This will end up making Day 1 easier)

I thought having 9 hours in Frankfurt was going to stress me out or be incredibly boring, but it's actually pretty relaxing. To be able to have a glass of wine and not worry about the fact that my phone has no service here or that I'd like to savor this glass very slowly while reading my kindle and writing in my journal. I am made of time.

7:30 PM (Frankfurt Time)
I am getting very nervous. My flight to Colombo leaves in about an hour. I am sitting in the gate waiting to board. As soon as they start boarding I will take a sleeping pill, then ear plugs and eye shades when we take off. The 10 hour flight will possibly only seem like a few minutes if I can sleep as I hope.
I don't know what to expect, so that's exciting and scary.
I don't know how well I'm going to handle being away from everyone I know for 10 weeks.

8:30 AM (Sri Lanka time)
I am still on the plane. We land in 1.5 hours.
I fell asleep as the plane was taking off. I'm pretty sure my last thought was "it doesn't feel like we're going fast enough to lift off...oh, I guess we were." I put an altoid in my mouth to help my ears pop during take-off. I woke up who knows how much later with it still in my mouth. I woke up a few times, changing positions and falling back to sleep. I am sitting in a window seat with nobody sitting next to me, and only these 2 seats on my side of the aisle. So 2 seats completely to myself. It's a much nicer arrangement with extra space and not worrying about leaning over while I'm sleeping and drolling on some stranger's shoulder. Also I took the pillow and blanket from that seat too and slept like a king!
I slept for about 8 hours, not the soundest of sleep, but a full night's.

9:55 AM
We are approaching the island and I can see thin white beaches and then green. Everything is green. I can see houses now, but they are just a red roof nestled into all the green. They don't raze a whole area, build, and then replant. They just clear enough for the house. Now I can see the airport, and the wheels touch down.