the story of lost baggage, kept receipts & openly crying in public.

I had majority of this post written with an open ending because, well, the story had not finished yet. I had hope that somehow someone would swoop in and my luggage would arrive on my doorstep…you know…like how it should. But I was losing hope that my bag would ever come.

But by some miracle,

This story has a happy ending.

When I first arrived in Munich, I was met with the absence of one of my checked bags.

The one containing all of my clothes.

So, I left the airport with the one checked bag which thankfully contained all of my toiletries, shoes, shorts and underwear but that was about it.

We had to stay in the airport for way too long after my flight to get it figured out but ended up reporting the missing bag and went on my way. Hoping to see it arrive on my doorstep in a speedy 48 hours max.

At this point it is like 2-3 days out with no bag. I had been living off little clothes I had brought, combined with the clothes I wore on the plane which was working for the time being. I was making do—I wore an exercise dress to a club because I had to do what I had to do.

But I had to start going to work.

At an alternative German radio station.

I packed so many cute work clothes.

But no bag had arrived at my bungalow doorstep, so thankfully Hailey let me borrow clothes my first week of work (she really came through! Shoutout Hailey <3).

Long story short:

My bag never came.

United live chat and I had become way too familiar with each other

&

I had my lost baggage file number memorized.

Eventually United stopped saying “Sorry it wasn’t delivered! It will probably come tomorrow!”

And then said the dreaded,

Yeah, we have no idea where your bag is.

Oh, did I mention that my bag never left Columbus? Yeah you can track your bags and it literally never left Columbus EVEN THOUGH they put both of my checked bags on the conveyor belt at the same time. Boggles my mind to even understand how that happened but I digress.

So they put my bag on another flight to Munich after I reported it and it got delivered to the Munich airport.

But never delivered to my place. But my bag was in fact at the Munich airport at some point. So United said,

Yeah…sorry! We don’t know where your bag went after it got to the airport. Fill out this form and we will let you know where it is in 6-8 weeks if we find it :)

6-8 WEEKS?!?

Yeah I wasn’t happy to say the least. All of my good clothes. All of my Abercrombie jeans. Gone. Possibly forever.

Really looking on the bright side, this meant I could have a little shopping montage moment and go on a shopping spree which is so fun but again there was a part of me that felt like I couldn’t move in because I didn’t have all my stuff.

And at the end of the say I knew that these are privileged problems to have.

The, “Oh no I don’t have clothes during my trip abroad in Europe and now I have to get new clothes” is pretty low on the list of things that are terrible in life.

But, I couldn’t make my space my home yet because I was still showering with a t-shirt since I didn't have a towel.

So once I went through all the stages of grief and arrived at acceptance: I went shopping.

Flash forward to today.

July 18th.

17 days after I have arrived, I found myself at the Munich Airport and saw an opportunity.

I was flying back from London (will do a whole post on this later because it was such a blast) and new I needed to talk to someone because my bag was literally at the airport. At least at one point in time. I just needed someone to find it.

I was walking through the airport—trying to figure out where to even go and ended up talking to the lost baggage people. Who weren’t very nice. And kinda scary. I needed a tracking number I didn’t have.

Went to talk to United. The lady there was already working overtime and said she couldn’t help me because it is a lost cost because there’s so many lost bags.

This is where I kinda lost it. Maybe it was sleep deprivation, overall frustration or just not knowing what to do: I just started crying.

But, something is very freeing about openly crying in a different country’s airport because it’s not like you are going to see anyone you know. No one is going to remember you.

And absolutely no German would ask if you are okay. And that was perfect.

The worst thing in the world is when you are crying and someone asks if you are okay…

Obviously, I am not!

People always say you know you’ve finally become a New Yorker if you openly cry on the subway and not care so I see this as a coming of age moment.

I honestly didn’t care who saw me, or what they thought. I was just having my moment.

So, as I was walking around openly crying I found a Starbucks. And that was perfect.

I recharged on a Salted Caramel Cold Foam Cold Brew that came IN A GLASS! And a falafel flatbread—which was amazing.

The Starbucks gave me the confidence to try again, even though it felt like a lost cause.

I went back to the United desk and a different guy was there and he helped me out, after making calls and lots of typing he said that the airline handed my bag off to the delivery service and it is in their hands now.

Okay sweet! This is getting somewhere!

But then I had to go back to the scary lost baggage people. They still said I needed a tracking number I didn't have.

Back to the United desk.

More typing and calling…by some miracle this man got a hold of my tracking number!!!

Back to the lost baggage people.

More typing, calling and file searching. I heard the best words in the entire world.

We found your bag! It is in storage. My colleague will be here in 10 minutes.

I didn’t even know what to say. I just sat outside, trying to not get my hopes up.

And then there it was.

A woman came up and was like is this it? And I said, yes!

And that was that. I had my luggage.

It was honestly anticlimactic.

But in the best way. I have my luggage! Who cares about anything else! Who cares that I landed at noon and it was 3pm!

Now let’s train home with a 47 pound suitcase. I forgot that I packed a lot.

So, instead of packing because I woke up today in London and then was at the airport for who knows how long: I sit here writing this.

Thankfully finishing this draft,

With a happy f****ng ending.