Magellan Trip : Long Anticipation and Long Flights

Hopefully my time here is more entertaining than my trip getting here. My first and only flight preceding this arduous journey had been a two-hour flight from Pittsburgh to Orlando. Now I had over twenty hours of flights and layovers ahead of me, and this time all by myself. I would be lying if I claimed I was not scared that I would miss a flight, go to the wrong gate, or get stopped by the TSA for just looking too nervous. Step one of the trip was a short half hour flight from Pittsburgh to Washington D.C. which was comfortable and it also helped lower my initial fears- I had already gotten one step right! Then came the worst of the three in getting here: the flight from D.C. to Frankfurt. The first indication that this was going to be much more uncomfortable was the change from two seats a row to three (like most planes) and the fact I initially sat behind my assigned seat.
Luckily, I rectified the situation by noticing myself and avoiding the yelling the man behind me received for attempting to snag a window seat. The worst issue I had on that flight was being two people deep and suffering from a combination of over politeness and apprehension to speak to my neighbors to ask to be let out to stretch and use the lavatory. I also realized that sleeping on a plane was more difficult than I originally conceived, and after a valiant effort- I merely resigned to watch the inflight selection of stand-up comedy. Arriving in Frankfurt, I felt relieved that the longest leg of the ordeal was behind me (for now anyways) and I was close to my final destination; I was only a two hours flight from Malta.