Plucky Survivors See Europe Day 1: Savannah to Berlin

Over the last few months I have had taken planning and preparedness to ridiculous new heights when it came to this trip. I thought of everything, had backups for backups, and researched solutions for scenarios so unlikely to happen that Cassandra herself would’ve said, “Dude, chill.”

Yep, I was ready for any eventuality.

Insert ominous foreshadowing music here.

Day 1 dawned long before dawn as I had been trying to get a jump on the jet lag of the six hour time difference by adjusting my sleep schedule, going to bed early and getting up equally so. I didn’t mean wake up at 1am Savannah time but there it was so I got up and started the day of last packs, last cleans, and last minute details.

My bestie Maureen drove me to the airport and the day went smoothly. They were playing Duran Duran over the sound system, which I took as a good sign.

The plane from Savannah to JFK left on time and got there early. I had several hours worth of layover so plenty of time to sneak outside and back through security. I got to visit the Delta One Lounge, a sprawling facility with a restaurant, buffet, spa, showers, and more. Had a great burger dripping with cheese and loaded with crispy bacon. Yum.

Got to the gate and the plane to Berlin was on time.

A side note. They made the announcement like 15 times that your US passport needed to be signed before you left the US. If you got to Berlin and it wasn’t signed, they would turn you around and put you on the next plane back. You can’t sign it there. I double checked. Mine was.

The Delta One seats are quite nice, lie flat dealies with lots of thoughtful touches like noise cancelling head phone, bedding, a mini spa kit, and more.

I settled in and got ready for the 8 hour flight to Berlin.

That’s when I thought, “you know, maybe I’ll take out my laptop and put it in this handy pocket by the seat seemingly designed for just such a thing.”

It wasn’t there.

I knew what had happened almost immediately. When I came back through security at JFK, they made everyone take out laptops even though we were in the TSA pre check line. That was ingredient one in the crappy cake mix that was my day.

Ingredient two was that when I passed through the metal detector I was randomly chosen for additional screening, which involved going back through, taking off my shoes, and going through the bigger scanner.

Most of you know I have issues with my feet. I can’t feel them because of peripheral neuropathy and that had led to some injuries that I often don’t know about until later. The great staple incident of 2022 comes to mind.

So, I was justifiably, I think, distracted by watching every step I took to make sure I wasn’t stepping on an errant ear ring stud or, I don’t know, bear trap that someone had mistakenly dropped.

I’m not sure if someone took my lap top, I forgot it in the bin, or I set it down on the bench while putting my shoes on and somehow left it there, but it was gone and they were getting ready to close the doors of the plane so it was too late to do anything about.

I spent an hour trying to use the Windows find my device or remote security lock feature but the computer has to be on and connected for that to work. It clearly wasn’t.

I also spent that same hour beating myself up and believing this to be a terrible omen for the start of the trip. Then I calmed down. Xanax may have helped

I filed missing item reports with TSA, JFK, and Delta. I had the make model and serial number stored on my phone. If it gets found and turned in, theoretically they’ll ship it to my home.

I can buy a new laptop in Berlin. It’ll take some time away from sightseeing to find what I want and get it set up, but other than the unexpected cost it’s really not that big of a deal. I store things on the hard drive but everything is backed up to the cloud so I didn’t lose work or precious memories.

I am concerned about security. If someone is able to get past the login screen they would have access to a lot of personal information. I spent the next few hours of the flight erasing saved data in Chrome, locking down access to as much data as possible, and changing a bunch of passwords. I’ll be doing more when I get a new laptop.

So, yeah, not a great start but I am determined not to let myself ruin the trip because of it.

Xanax will help.

Off to what I’m sure will be a very peaceful slumber (I can’t sleep on planes) and when I wake up it’ll be a whole new continent.