For the first time in days I’m finally feeling not only relaxed but actually excited about my trip to Europe. With all the stress from finding a job, finding a place to live and family stresses, I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. My trip started with very little sleep and a late morning flight to Las Vegas. Always a nut for being early, I caught a flight that would get me to Vegas six hours before my flight to London. Of course, this is the day that my bag is one of the first at baggage claim and I make it to the international terminal an hour before MaxJet even opened for check in. Luckily, the free Wi-Fi had me on the Internet and able to kill time.

At 4:30 p.m., my flight finally boarded and my stress for the day hit a crescendo, leaving me calling Matt practically in tears because I was so stressed about the 10-hour flight. I don’t know what I was thinking because the flight was wonderful, though I think if I were in coach on any other airline I would’ve still be freaking. But within an hour of take off, I had completely forgotten I was in an airplane and was actually enjoying myself.

The flight began with champagne and appetizers before take off. Once we were in the air, I was able to put ou the footrest, kick back and relax as the flight attendants passed out portable in-flight entertainment devices loaded with movies, TV and music. They also brought around little travel kits with toiletries, sleep shades and slippers. Very fun. Once all that was taken care of, dinner service began, starting with beverages and a bowl of mixed nuts. Like a real ceramic bowl with a real glass for my Diet Coke (a theme which continued with the rest of the food service). Before the salad portion, flight attendants came around with hot towels to clean up for dinner, which was pretty nice. The salad was your average balsamic salad with sliced apples and caramelized walnuts and garlic bread on the side. Before they brought out the salads, they even covered the tray table with a tablecloth to make it look like a real table and with the salad came a salt and pepper shaker shaped like a plane. Dinner was just amazing, especially considering it is airplane food. I had the veal t-bone, something that I was pleasantly surprised to see on the menu. The meal potion of the flight ended with dessert of mocha surprise, a pudding like thing that I enjoyed while watching The Queen on my little entertainment device.

Since it was a pretty long flight, and I was exhausted, I ended up crashing as soon as the movie was over. Usually I don’t even attempt to sleep on planes because it’s just not comfortable, but this was an exception. The seat reclines kinda like a dentist chair, leaving me almost completely laying down and able to curl up and pass out. Amazingly enough, I was actually able to sleep for about 4 hours, waking up just in time for breakfast service, which included fresh fruit and an english muffin, and still having time to spare to watch another movie, this time The Fountain. My movie finished just in time for initial descent, which was a little bumpy going into Stansted, but not awful. Customs and immigration was a bit of a pain in the ass when I got off the plane, but as soon as I made it through immigration, my bag was ready and Andrew was already there to pick me up, complete with welcome sign. And with that, my European vacation begins.