14 Hours and Many Delays Later

My 14-hour odyssey to Hamburg: Starting my journey from Tbilisi to Hamburg at 3 am, I arrived in the Free and Hanseatic City by 5 pm, tired of long layovers and seemingly endless flight delays.

On top of it all, I ended up waiting for my luggage for about an hour. Finally, in front of the Café Treff at Hamburg Airport, where I was told someone would be waiting for me holding an Interlink Academy Sign, seeing Tamara Nehls was the happiest moment of my long and complicated day.

Ana (center) and her fellow participants at the beginning of the program
Ana (center) and her fellow participants at the beginning of the program

She said I was the last person who had arrived and everybody was already at a welcome meeting, so we wouldn’t have time to go to the hotel but would have to rush straight to the meeting.
“Do you prefer to wait 10 minutes or should we run to catch the earlier train?” Tamara asked me. I immediately chose to run, and happily we made the train. After 30 minutes we entered the room where the welcome meeting was taking place. Here I first met the course instructors Werner Eggert and Joachim Vögele, as well as the other 13 participants from Eastern European countries eager to develop their digital journalism skills.
“There will be lot to learn”, Werner said to us and then, before starting course from the next morning we all went to have a delicious dinner at Italian restaurant. Don’t ask me why Italian and not German food because I don’t know, but the Italian food was great, especially after such a long and complicated journey.