Alright! The first day of my stay in Berlin for the summer is in full effect. I just got back from meeting Chris at the airport and showing him around his (our) neighborhood a bit. He got tired from the jet lag so he went home and I went home and now I’m sitting here, fresh pot of tea sitting to my right, almonds sitting in a little bowl ahead and my finger flitting across the keys to send you this letter. I want to give you a quick recap of the past 48 hours since I left The Farm in Soho to make way for Newark airport. Nothing crazy, just a few thoughts on this particular voyage that I think you’ll enjoy and find useful. **_Transfer to Newark_** Newark is really far out there. Getting to Newark from Manhattan isn’t that easy and it takes roughly 40 minutes to an hour. I first aimed to simply get a cab but when I researched online it turns out that that would cost up to $80 and more. Well, next up was the NJ Transit that someone recommended to me. Turns out that particular train isn’t running for the month of May! (Thank you, internet, for helping me learn this before I got to the station.) Well, finally I found a bunch of buses that pick you up in Manhattan and shuttle you to the airport for only $16 on average. Bingo. Taking the express shuttle bus for $16 from Port Authority might have been the easiest, most hassle-free way I’ve gotten to any airport in New York City. From Soho, I took the N/R up to 42nd Street, got out and onto 8th Avenue and 41st and hopped onto the first shuttle bus that was already waiting there. Paid my $16, got a nice seat by the window, and arrived at Terminal C only 40 minutes later completely stress-free. **Your key take-away: If you have to get to Newark airport from Manhattan quickly and stress-free, take the Newark Airport Express shuttle service that leaves from 41st Street between 8th and 9th Avenue. You’ll save money, time and it’ll get you there worry-free. Good stuff.** **_Flight_** Little did I know how bad United Airlines is. I arrived happily at Terminal C for check-in on my transcontinental United Airlines flight from Newark to Berlin. Upon arriving at the check-in hall I could not find a single counter for plain old economy class travelers like myself. They had counters for business class, first class, silver class, premier access class, platinum member class, super traveller class but not one for economy. I got very confused. It turns out that, as a mere economy class traveler you have to haul your luggage 2 floors lower to a dungeon-like area that checks in us mortals. That’s not cool. Then you were left to your own devices by checking in only using self-serve terminals. And then, I learned that if you had more than one bag (which I didn’t luckily) you had to pay $100 extra. Unheard of. I felt as if consultants from McKinsey had optimized every single part of my check-in process to save $4 per 1,000 customers but in the process ruin any respect I had for United Airlines. The actual flight was a-okay but again, I felt as if United was saving and eking out the tiniest of things such as an inch here and an inch there in the cabin to get just one more row of passengers in at the back. I usually sleep well on any plane but this time I felt so crammed and uncomfortable that I swore to myself to never ever again take United Airlines for my travels. **Your key take-away: Do not travel from the US to Berlin with United Airlines because they are trying to be so cheap and save anything they can not caring about how it affects you the traveller (hint: badly.) Instead, get an Air Berlin flight (as I learned from Chris, his experience was excellent) or, if it makes sense to fly to Frankfurt first, take Singapore airlines.**