July 3, 2016 - My first 'real' flight 🛩

Now the time has finally come. I have flown many times before, but never longer than 3-4 hours. Now I am flying almost 11. I find flying quite exciting and therefore I am super happy that I don't 'have' to sleep on my flight, but have enough time - precisely 10:50 - to explore everything possible.

Right now I have been sitting on the plane for a little while, which means I only have 4:28 left to fly and have already explored quite a bit.

First of all, we went from the gate to the bus, because the plane was assigned only an east seat 🚍. We then took the bus to the aircraft, a 'Star Alliance' of Lufthansa. The plane is nice and when I board, I let the steward know that I would like to sit in the front 😉.

Unfortunately, there are over 40 seats available in the back, Premium Economy and Business Class are fully booked. But later I will get to experience other amazing impressions 😍💫....

First of all, I check the onboard computer. It is a touch display with all kinds of movies, music, audiobooks, radio, live TV and and and.... pretty cool 😊.

Then, after takeoff, the first round of drinks comes. I get a water and a tomato juice 🍅🍸.

Around 15:30 German time, the lunch service begins. The selection is - in my opinion - pretty good for an economy meal. There is a bowl of salad 🌱 with dressing on the side, a small rye roll 🍞 with butter and cream cheese 🧀 , a chocolate 🍫 , a small piece of apricot cake 🍰 and as a hot meal, either chicken 🍗 with spinach and roasted potatoes 🍲 or noodles 🍝 .

I decide to go for the noodles, but personally I don't like them. Fortunately, later I can get another roll from my seat neighbor, which I can eat almost like a roll with tomato soup because I haven't finished the juice yet 🍅😋. As 'dessert', I had a delicious fennel tea 🍵.

Only after that did I open the wonderful 'farewell package' from my parents, which honestly touched me a lot and for which I would like to thank them once again 😻☺️🙈.

After that, I played around with the onboard computer for a bit, but somehow I didn't find anything I really felt like watching. After a while, I walked around a bit and went to the restroom... this and that 🍍... eventually I got tired, so I took a little nap. Then I wanted to watch tennis on live TV, but there was no sound and the match was quite unexciting, so I switched channels again 🎾.

When I was looking for something to do again, I started watching the movie 'Alice in Wonderland', which appealed to me a lot because of the inspiring colors of the Wonderland, but I never started it because I'm not a fan of fantasy. I was so surprised when I finally watched it, the movie really inspired me 🌺.

After 30 minutes of the movie, I got thirsty and I was cold. So I went to the front and asked the steward to turn up the heating a bit, and he told me that there were problems with it. At the front, in the Business and Premium Economy area, it was very hot and at the back it was very cold. But he offered me to sit on the fold-out chair in the crew area 💺 , because it was really pleasantly warm there. Although I couldn't continue watching the movie, I accepted the offer.

That's how we started talking and talked about where we were going, how all the meals on the flights are refrigerated, stored, loaded, and heated, that he originally studied sports education and and and... The steward was very friendly and open-minded and told me, for example, that Lufthansa has developed to the disadvantage of the crew in recent years, as the company is naturally interested in making as much money as possible and spending as little as possible 💷💰💶. In the past, when he started here about twenty years ago, everything was much more relaxed and during long-haul flights, you always had a lot of time in each individual place.

Then we got to the topic of snack distribution 🍬🍮 and dinner 🍽. Because it was supposed to be the same as for lunch, I asked him if I could have a few more rolls instead of the hot meal so that I would have eaten something decent at least.

So he sent me to his colleague, who was in charge of the Business Class, which I initially couldn't believe at all, so I just casually walked through the Business Class and told the also very nice colleague that I was sent and if he had a few rolls left. He looked briefly and then gave me a bread basket, from which I could serve myself, because everything would otherwise end up in the trash 🗑.

So I had various types of rolls and once again I was amazed at how cheerful and polite the staff here is. Even though it was just a very short walk through the Business Class, it was a tiny little adventure for me 🌬✨.

So here I am now, sitting at my seat with lots of rolls 🍞😂 and writing this blog.

By now, there are still 3:53 hours until landing. It is currently 14:15 in Bradenton and 20:15 in Germany, evening program begins 🙃📺. Since the meal comes only 1 1/2 to 2 hours before landing, I will now continue watching the movie and later stop by the crew again... 👮🏽.