I had come as far as my friends and family could come in the airport. I had kept them close as much as I could because I had no idea what I was doing. I had never flown before so how could I possibly know? My mother had flown before, but that was nearly ten years ago, and it was a domestic flight. Can you imagine how nervous I was.
My bag was checked so at least I wasn’t having to fumble around with quite so many things. My backpack was to be my carry on and I had a rather large purse functioning as my personal item. I got through security no issue, though I was a little frazzled because I had more tubs than anyone else, but the TSA officials were completely unfazed. Some might have found them cold but I personally appreciated the way in which my blushing, stumbling, and general first time traveler problems didn’t seem to give them any cause for concern.
The first thing I learned: You do want to get there nice and early, but you don’t want to come without plenty of things to occupy yourself. I was waiting by the gate for a very long time, and I was so bulky with the amount of stuff I had on my person that I didn’t exactly feel comfortable trying to go into the stores or restaurants.
The next thing I was shocked about was the amount of stores and restaurants back there. Also, everything was super expensive. I mean like movie theater expensive. Also, I have never seen and actual designer store before, and I have been to some of the very nice parts of Atlanta, but there was a store for Michael Kors, and several other big name designers.
Ok, so I’m on the plane. I knew they were uncomfortable but holy cow! The seats were tiny and the person in front of me reclined back so far she was basically in my lap. There was no room to breath it felt like at times. They did have tablet like devices in the seat in front of you that were full of music, movies, and games, which was definitely helpful.
The travel pillow everyone insist I bring… not really that helpful. At all. I’m not actually sure why everyone else said it was so helpful. I also brought gum to help with the change in pressure, and that helped tremendously. I would definitely recommend it. I brought way more snack than I needed though which took up quite a bit of room. I am glad that I had some though because the snacks provided by the airline did not look particularly appetizing. I drank water as much as possible because I was warned it is easy to get dehydrated on long flights like that and I think I was right to do that as some of the others in the group I was flying with did not look so good upon landing.
Speaking of landing, that was the worst part, that and take off. Once I was in the air, you could hardly feel the movement. I found that the chewing gum helped with that as well. I am shocked it wasn’t worse though because I get motion sickness very easily and it wasn’t too bad. I was only queasy for a very short period.
I was instructed I should try to sleep on the plane, and I will straight up say I should have taken a PM medication. There was no way I could have fallen asleep at all on that plane, and I didn’t. I haven’t a clue how anyone else did for that matter either, but I’m glad that some could.
