Monday morning came fast. Karen and I had train tickets back to Ramstein at 8:30 in the morning. Mike walked with us to the airport (his flight wasn't until early afternoon) and waited until our train came. Knowing that it would be a month before we saw each other made this goodbye a little tearful.
We had to take three different trains and a quick taxi ride to get back on base. Our first train was delayed fifteen minutes and we knew that it would be a rush to catch our second train, even without a delay. As we rode along, I was tracking our progress on my phone. As we approached, Karen and I had about five minutes to get from one platform to the next. We got our stuff ready and, along with about five other people, made the mad dash. Luckily, we made it, but it wasn't without a struggle. I only had my huge travel backpack, but Karen had a duffel and rolling backpack and I think her lungs took a hit during the dash.
We weren't so lucky with our second connection, but luckily, that was a train that came pretty regularly and we were able to catch another one within fifteen minutes. We made it back to Ramstein in time for Karen to work at three and I ran some errands and unpacked.
Tuesday and Wednesday we just hung out at the apartment. I gave Karen a full tour of the base, got a library card and slept a lot! It was so nice to not really have a schedule (besides Karen working) and to be able to catch up on all of the lost sleep. While Karen was working, I planned out the day trips we could do over the course of the rest of Karen's stay. It was nice and a much needed rest after a crazy couple of weeks!
Also, side note, CNN did a little video about life on a nuclear submarine! How cool! The video is of a Virginia Class submarine, which is the same as the submarine that Mike was on in Hawaii. I would say the video is pretty close to life on the sub, at least as Mike has described it to me. If you want to watch the video, click HERE.
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