Traveling to Germany
Hi everyone!
I wanted to make a post about my personal experience about traveling to Germany alone (with two animals and being 34 weeks pregnant).
My entire itinerary was put together by the Travel department at the last post my husband was at in Arizona.
Why did I travel alone? Well, as you can assume I did not volunteer to travel alone with two animals and extremely pregnant. Due to having two animals and getting a seat that had space for both animals I had to wait a month after my husbands flight. Though later we found out on his flight there was more than enough space for our animals.
I stayed with our household goods for that month in Arizona alone which wasn't bad. I ended up talking to myself and my animals a lot. But I had never had movers before so that was something that stressed me out when the day came but it wasn't as bad as I thought. The worst part was waiting those weeks with none of my stuff packed because the movers were going to do it.
After our household goods were packed I stayed one night at the on post hotel and made a 3 hour drive north to my mother in laws place because she is taking care of one of our cats for us while we are overseas. I miss him a lot.
Then I flew from Tuscon to Dallas/Fort Worth and then Dallas/Fort Worth to Baltimore. Luckily I have friends living in Baltimore that were able to pick me up and hang out with me when I was there. That took a huge chunk of stress off for me.
I don't think a lot of people know the stress that comes with flying with two animals, two bags of luggage and a backpack. It's a lot to carry and move around.
I stayed one night in Baltimore and my friends took me to the airport and helped me get to AMC (military plane, Space A, etc) I got there 2 hours early like I was informed to do because there is a supposed "cut off" time. On my flight at least that "cut off" time did not exist. Because most people showed up at the cut off time. Our flight was completely full and they were determined to get everyone on that flight. Civilians included. Which awesome for AMC to do that but it kinda sucked getting there so early and staying there so late. My poor cat had a very hard time by the end of all of this.
Our flight left 3-4 hours late.
The flight itself wasn't bad. I wasn't able to sleep much due to needing to stretch my legs and standing up to get the blood moving. The AMC flight fed us twice. Once at the beginning of the flight and again at the end. The food was much better than I thought it would be. Then again that was the longest flight I had been on before. There was two option and I can't remember what they were but I do know that everyone got a piece of carrot cake (my favorite).
The plane is huge. It's a double-decker plane. To me, that's mind blowing how something that big caring as many people plus stuff in cargo can take off and stay in the air.
When we landed it was 4pm Germany time and it was cloudy. It was an easy process to go through customs and getting my dog (she was in cargo). Then I just had to pick up my bags and again that was easy. My husband picked me up so I just had to hand off my animals paperwork to a guy near the door and I was allowed to head off to my home for the next 3 years.
At the time my travels was extremely stressful. 0/10 would not do it alone again.
But as I look back, it was doable. Just not ideal.
If you have any questions on SpaceA, AMC travel please don't hesitate to ask. I know there is a lot of information out there but I felt that a lot of that information was either out dated or did not apply to my circumstances.
I wanted to make a post about my personal experience about traveling to Germany alone (with two animals and being 34 weeks pregnant).
My entire itinerary was put together by the Travel department at the last post my husband was at in Arizona.
Why did I travel alone? Well, as you can assume I did not volunteer to travel alone with two animals and extremely pregnant. Due to having two animals and getting a seat that had space for both animals I had to wait a month after my husbands flight. Though later we found out on his flight there was more than enough space for our animals.
I stayed with our household goods for that month in Arizona alone which wasn't bad. I ended up talking to myself and my animals a lot. But I had never had movers before so that was something that stressed me out when the day came but it wasn't as bad as I thought. The worst part was waiting those weeks with none of my stuff packed because the movers were going to do it.
After our household goods were packed I stayed one night at the on post hotel and made a 3 hour drive north to my mother in laws place because she is taking care of one of our cats for us while we are overseas. I miss him a lot.
Then I flew from Tuscon to Dallas/Fort Worth and then Dallas/Fort Worth to Baltimore. Luckily I have friends living in Baltimore that were able to pick me up and hang out with me when I was there. That took a huge chunk of stress off for me.
I don't think a lot of people know the stress that comes with flying with two animals, two bags of luggage and a backpack. It's a lot to carry and move around.
I stayed one night in Baltimore and my friends took me to the airport and helped me get to AMC (military plane, Space A, etc) I got there 2 hours early like I was informed to do because there is a supposed "cut off" time. On my flight at least that "cut off" time did not exist. Because most people showed up at the cut off time. Our flight was completely full and they were determined to get everyone on that flight. Civilians included. Which awesome for AMC to do that but it kinda sucked getting there so early and staying there so late. My poor cat had a very hard time by the end of all of this.
Our flight left 3-4 hours late.
The flight itself wasn't bad. I wasn't able to sleep much due to needing to stretch my legs and standing up to get the blood moving. The AMC flight fed us twice. Once at the beginning of the flight and again at the end. The food was much better than I thought it would be. Then again that was the longest flight I had been on before. There was two option and I can't remember what they were but I do know that everyone got a piece of carrot cake (my favorite).
The plane is huge. It's a double-decker plane. To me, that's mind blowing how something that big caring as many people plus stuff in cargo can take off and stay in the air.
When we landed it was 4pm Germany time and it was cloudy. It was an easy process to go through customs and getting my dog (she was in cargo). Then I just had to pick up my bags and again that was easy. My husband picked me up so I just had to hand off my animals paperwork to a guy near the door and I was allowed to head off to my home for the next 3 years.
At the time my travels was extremely stressful. 0/10 would not do it alone again.
But as I look back, it was doable. Just not ideal.
If you have any questions on SpaceA, AMC travel please don't hesitate to ask. I know there is a lot of information out there but I felt that a lot of that information was either out dated or did not apply to my circumstances.
Comments
Post a Comment