living like it’s 1972

Apparently, we have a pattern of tumultuous beginnings to our international trips. This one is no different. To begin our travel day, I had a few hours of work in the morning so I woke up to head to the office and decided to check my passport quickly. In my sleepy daze, I thought I read that my passport expired in 2022 and went into full-blown panic and woke Conner up from his peaceful slumber to remedy the situation. You may be asking yourself, “Mer, how would you have gone to Japan if your passport was expired, and even if it was expired what the hell is Conner going to do about it.” Conner helped me wake up and read that my passport was renewed in 2022, not expired. Safe to say I needed a large coffee to get me through the morning.

Conner was tasked with getting everything ready for us to head to JFK before our 5:45 pm flight to Copenhagen. JFK was in typical fashion with disastrous line organization, slow security, and long lines, but we made it through with plenty of time to spare. Our device’s batteries were low, but spirits were high and it was setting in that we were heading to Europe!!!! The airline we were on was a full flight of kids going for their study abroad. It was like a frat and sorority formal on Scandinavian Airlines with lots of airport bar cocktails flowing and grafting on potential suitors in the boarding line/ waiting for the plane restrooms. One line that gave Conner and I a particularly sinister shiver down our spines was when a drunk girl with her friend met up with a group of boys who they met in security and yelled, “is this like our Copenhagen friend group” to which no one responded and so she opted to repeat herself louder to meet yet another lull of silence.

The flight was overall very smooth other than the fact that there were no outlets on the plane, none of my shows downloaded, and then my phone died before takeoff. Also, my headphones are broken and won’t turn on so Conner and I had to take turns using his which meant I mainly just used his. that’s love. After listening to NYT The Daily for the first hour of the flight, I watched Wonka and slept for the rest of it :) Conner read for the first 4 hours of the flight and is now almost halfway done with Assiassian’s blade!!! After landing in Copenhagen we went through customs and waltzed to our connecting flight. If there’s one thing we learned from our flight to Salzberg it’s that the community here is strong. We have never witnessed so many people talking at the airport/on the plane before. It was like we were sitting in a busy NYC coffee shop and it continued for the whole flight. The person sitting next to Conner was a particularly popular guy. We are theorizing that it was his first time flying because his buddies kept coming by and taking pictures and sending him drinks (which Conner had to wake him up and hand to him). Overall not a bad experience though and the view included above gave us a lot of hope for these next two weeks.

After navigating our way out of the airport and into a taxi the rollercoaster of hope and anguish began. Let’s just say not all of Salzburg is that cute. But once we got closer to the city center things really started turning around. Even through the gloomy weather, Salzburg’s charm is prevalent. The architecture is old, whimsical, and nordic which helped stabilize our earlier woes. The picture above is the landing of our hotel building, which feels more like an Airbnb. It was here that our story took a turn for the worse. We had been traveling for a little under 24 hours with no opportunities to charge our phones. Like I said above mine had been dead most of the trip and Conners was at 7%. Conner grabbed the adapter he got from his summer Ireland trip and went to plug our phones in finally. Now some of you might already recognize our mistake but Ireland and Austria don’t have the same outlets… Here we are sitting in our hotel 6% phone battery to our name frantically trying to find a place to buy an adapter. Conner was of course calm and composed as we began our hunt. As it was a Saturday a lot of shops weren’t open and we ended up having to use the map the hotel provided us to walk about 20 minutes to a cell phone repair store in the hope that they had an adapter. Conner kept telling me “I think this is right” and “Don’t worry I know this place by the back of my hand” which was not inspiring confidence. But we did make it and fortunately, they had an adapter for us! We debated stopping at the McDanks across the street as we were basically starved but decided to head back to a pasta and vino place we passed near our hotel. To add to our unlucky day the restaurant closed briefly from 14:30-17:30. It was 14:32. So we settled on a fusion restaurant about 10 minutes away.

We both got a bulgogi beef bowl and a drink which were both really good. I hit a wall in this restaurant and became non-verbal which was perfect because I was sat with my back towards the restaurant and didn’t need to interact with anyone. Guys, you might not believe this but he did it again, and with more confidence than the last time. Conner finally got a waiter’s attention for the check and he said something to him in German which we assumed had to do with the tab because Conner was holding his credit card in his hand. The simple answer to this is “yes” but as we know Conner’s brain works in mysterious ways. Instincts kicked in and he almost said “hai” which is yes in Japanese but managed to stop himself and instead loudly said “Si”. Then he proceeded to hit the biggest face palm I think in the history of the universe. I had tears streaming down my face from laughter. Overall 8/10

mer on the verge of falling asleep drinking a spritz

goodnight all! talk soon xx