We disembarked the ship in Bremerhaven, Germany for the last time. The final bing bong came at 5am to wake up the shipboard community. Leaving the ship was very emotional. In the moments right before disembarking, all the student stood in the union hugging, crying, and saying our final goodbyes. I scanned my SAS ID for the last time and sadly disembarked the MV World Odyssey.
Unfortunately, Semester at Sea did not plan very well as I think this small city in Germany only had 10 total taxi drivers. After waiting 3 hours for our luggage to get taken off the ship via crane and another 2 hours for a taxi, we started walking (many of us with 3-4 large suitcases). After walking 2 miles (in the wrong direction), we were all exhausted and frustrated. We just needed to get to the train station a few miles away. I saw a taxi on a street corner and begged, begged the driver to take us to the train station. He said he had another call but would come back to get us. And he actually came back!
Finally at the train station in Bremerhaven, we board a train to Bremen, the closest airport. Once we arrived in Bremen, we then took a taxi to the airport because the metro with three large bags of luggage did not seem like a good option at this point. While we waited to check our bags for flights that were later in the evening, many of the SAS students played a card game called Cabo in the airport.
While my parents and sister arrived in Amsterdam from Denmark/Sweden in the afternoon, my flight from Bremer was not until 6pm. When I landed in Amsterdam, I again opted for a taxi to the hotel (instead of the metro) given my many suitcases, where we all had a late-night snack and drink in the hotel bar.
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