Recording breaking weekend

During my wonderful weekend in Berlin I managed to break a few personal records:

Record – not falling for 4 straight weeks, if you exclude the bike debacle Ellen & I had it has been almost 8 weeks with no falls. However, on Sunday as I was walking down the steps of the subway station in Berlin my foot slipped and down I went – gracefully of course! I slid down about 8 steps and finally stopped with my right leg curled up under my bum and bags scattered about. A woman (with a very smelly, gross looking dog) tried to help me up but the sight/smell of the dog made me gag so I had to push her away. A bit bruised on the wrists and ankle, but thankfully no kankle was developing, I gathered up my things and went on my way. Note: pride was not bruised, being in a foreign country where no one knows you really helps!

Record – not having to catch a Monday morning flight for 18 weeks (that’s more than 4 months!!). But alas this record came to a screeching halt as my Sunday evening flight was cancelled due to a crew shortage. I was re-booked on the first flight out Monday morning which left at the un-godly time of 6:40am. This meant I had to be at the airport by 5:45am. Since I was staying at solid 30 minutes from the airport I had the privilege of having my wake up call at 4:30am. Seriously that is just WAY TOO EARLY!

Record – not having a connecting flight for 9 weeks. Yep, this one goes hand in hand with the one above. That glorious 6:40am flight went to Frankfurt NOT Amsterdam which meant I had to connect in Frankfurt. After being shaken awake by the flight attendant as we were landing, I was still a bit out of it when I entered the terminal. I did notice I was at gate A2 and managed to read the board to discover my next flight was departing out of A42. Now for those of you who have not had the pleasure of connecting in Frankfurt’s airport let me explain to you how it is set up… it is one LONG terminal in where there are no trams, limited people movers for only short distances at a time, and very scarce luggage carts (due primarily because it is holiday season in Europe I presume). In desperate need of coffee and a second breakfast, I stopped for nourishment about halfway through my journey to the gate. I also manage to snag a luggage cart which meant I was now pushing rather than pulling my crap, I mean luggage.