6/27 Worst. Travel. Day. Ever.

Getting up at 4 AM after sleeping only about 1.5 hours was terrible. But I was packed and ready. Tom drove us to the pier and got me a free ride on the ferry into Manhattan so I could go get my passport made.

The ferry left at 5:45 and got into Manhattan at 6:45. I said a quick goodbye to Tom and ran to get a cab. About 10 mins. later I was at the passport office on Hudson St. behind about 40 people in line. At 7:45, they let people with appointments go to the front of the line. I dragged all my luggage with me to the lady who was checking paperwork. She obviously hated her job and unenthusiastically sent me upstairs to get my work processed.

I had to wait 15 mins. to be called up where I was lectured for not keeping track of my passport. Thanks, lady, because I didn't already feel like crap. She told me it would be ready by about 10 AM. That meant I had about 2 hours to wait. I tried to sleep but was too nervous my name would be called and I would miss it.

By 11:30, tons of people who had come in already had their passports. By 11:45, a Rosie Perez wannabe with a bad attitude called my name. I grabbed my passport, got downstairs, hailed a cab, and made it to Penn station.

I then had to buy my ticket to get on the train back to the Newark airport. After a 30 min. ride, I was at the airport and checked in. I had about 5 hours to kill before my 6:35 flight. Thank God for Netflix on my phone!

At about 5:50, I was finally walking on the plane, passport in hand. I made it to my seat and gave a big sigh of relief. After 4 days, I was finally on my way to Europe!!!