It was hard to believe that our trip to Cyprus was finally starting. After an early morning to catch our bus at 12:00, we arrived at the Pittsburgh airport to take our first connecting flight to Dullus, VA. Leading up to our departure, some of us made a last-minute run to Target to pick up a few things. It was a great chance to get to know each other a little better and prepare ourselves for the flight to leave.

During our flights it was interesting to see the differences between the Pittsburgh, Dullus, and Frankfort airports. Each one was structured differently yet could function as one. In the Pittsburgh airport, each terminal was connected in sequence and we could walk from terminal to terminal across the entire airport. In Dullus, the airport was more spread out and we had to take shuttles to get across certain parts of the airport to access our terminals. Finally, in the Frankfurt airport, it was fascinating to see how the airport was practically fragmented. Shuttles would drive alongside planes that were taking off all of which would be next to a service area or terminal. At one point, our shuttle even had to stop for a passing plane taking off. You would never see that at an airport like Pittsburgh! Even through the differences in the airports, all flights are still coordinated and organized between airports and countries. It seemed as though American airports had stiffer rules to separate the activity going on in the airport while foreign airports seemed to have been more relaxed.

My highlight of the travel day had to have been walking out on the tarmac in Frankfurt right into a shuttle to take us to the main terminals in the airport. It was cool to be so close to the airplane when there aren’t many chances to do that in the U.S. As the connecting flights grew longer, we all grew more tired. Even so, the excitement was building as we finally made it to Cyprus. Flying over the various airports into and over different countries, looking out the window it dawned on me that I had never been this far east in the world and I was about to experience a brand new culture and build plenty of lifelong memories.