September 13

Day 2: September 13 

Travel

The Journey Continues...

As the plane took off, we all popped our eyes open so fast because the plane had hit some minor turbulence while lifting off into the air. After about twenty minutes of intense shaking and bumps, we had made it above the clouds. Ella looked out the window trying to see the pretty view, only she had forgotten that it was about 12 A.M. and absolutely dark outside. Looking around the plane we could see that everyone had fallen back asleep, and we decided to join them. It felt as though we had slept for hours, but when I checked my watch we had only slept for forty-five minutes. I looked to see if anyone was waking up and noticed that Laurel was no longer sleeping. I pulled out my UNO cards and started a game with her. After Laurel had beaten me five times, I decided to pick another game that I might have had a chance at winning. I bent over to pull another game out of my bag, but noticed Laurel had already fallen asleep. I don’t even remember falling back asleep, but I guess I did because I woke up to the sound of a flight attendant tapping my arm and asking if I would like a beverage. Grace woke up extremely quickly when she heard they were offering snacks. We all received a snack, which was gone pretty fast. Looking back at Ellie I could see the disappointment on her face because she was in the back, where they had run out of snacks. We all laughed and fell back asleep. We slept for a long time, but eventually Ella opened a window to light and a beautiful view. The plane landed, and we were the last five to get off the plane because I couldn’t get my huge bag off the plane. As we slowly emerged from our plane gate, we realized we had to wait another layover in the Istanbul airport before arriving at our final destination in Berlin, Germany.

Istanbul Airport

Needing desperately to stretch our legs, use the bathroom, and charge our phones we all headed to our final gate, prepared to wait it out again. Due to the language barrier, navigating the airport took longer than expected. I'm pretty sure we walked past the same gate at least four times before we decided to explore the airport and go into some of the adorable shops that are offered. We walked past a small boutique and a chocolate store. Laurel, Grace and I kept walking, it took us a while before we noticed that Ellie and Ella had stopped a while back. We went back to find Ellie and Ella trying on matching bracelets at the store.

Atasay Jewelry Store 

 Before I knew it, we were all trying on bracelets and buying matching ones as a souvenir. We must have spent a long time trying on bracelets because we had only one hour left before the plane took off, and we still needed to eat.
We stopped at the Ibis kitchen to grab a little breakfast. We were all freaking out because it took our food so long to come. By the time we were provided our food, we had to eat really fast and sprint to our gate.  We made it to the gate at final call and loaded the plane in order to make it to the final destination of Berlin. We were so excited on this flight that we couldn't sleep. I'm pretty sure that Grace got up to the bathroom about seven times, and Ella couldn't stop moving. I began to grow tired, but it was hard to nap because I couldn't wait to arrive in Germany. The plane began to land, and we were all bursting with joy.  We didn't even stop to go to the bathroom; rather, we sprinted right to get a taxi. We all crammed into a taxi similar to a clown car. No one talked the entire way to the Air BNB because we were taking in all the beautiful attractions.

Ibis Kitchen

We arrived at an Air BNB in the Boxhagener Platz. We were all starving so we went out in to town to explore, finding a cute place to eat called Chaupenga Checkpoint Charlie. The restaurant served some Mexican, American food, which was delicious. We had to stop and at the grocery store so we had some basic necessity.  After going to the grocery store, we were all too tired and trudged back to our apartment. It was cute, simple, spacious and quaint. We all curled up in any place in the apartment that was comfortable and fell asleep, all dreaming of the adventure we would go on tomorrow.

Air BNB