Kassel - Incheon

Ben's first report:

This is definitely going to be a long trip... And it certainly was!
We got up at 4:00 a.m. on Monday morning because we wanted—and had to—be at the airport a little early. That worked out better for some than for others, since we’d been cleaning up, packing, and testing things late into the night. As a result, Moritz, Samed, and I had to be woken up with the traditional song “Guten Morgen Sonnenschein.” [Oops. Editor’s note]
Once we were awake, we headed to the Frankfurt airport. During the trip, we worked diligently on the classification model we use to detect balls in the “Rescue Zone.” This caused the computers to run very hot, and at some point, the car started to feel like a hot-air fryer. All of this, combined with a very unusual music selection, made for a great start to the day.
The flight departed at 10:55 a.m.; we were supposed to arrive roughly 3 hours early, since the walk to the gate would apparently be quite long—we were sitting at the gate by 8:30 a.m.…
Three seats next to each other on the plane—not bad!
The first leg of the flight was 6 hours. A photo of the ships waiting in the Strait of Hormuz is in the photo gallery below.
A 2-hour layover in Abu Dhabi. Enough time to grab a bite to eat. But security screening ended up starting earlier than expected. Suddenly on our phones: Please proceed to the gate. After that, though, we still had some time left.
Abu Dhabi–Incheon: 8.5 hours—finally, some sleep. No three seats next to each other—too bad.
South Korea—the first communication problems. Our driver wanted to chat with us, but unfortunately we didn’t understand a word. Was he messing with us? The map app was messing with us too—we got out of the taxi way too early. It got really hot with all that luggage. We finally found the hotel lobby at some point.
The hotel room is a bit cramped in places, but stylish, and most importantly: air-conditioned!
After unpacking, Samed and Moritz started building a practice track; Samed got some cardboard and paper from the mall below us.
As the coach, I’m also in charge of meals. That’s what Andreas always does, too. The only problem: there are no supermarkets nearby, just “late-night shops.”
We ended up getting something at a pizzeria across the street that wasn’t even open yet, but the owner thought we were pretty cool, so he let us eat there anyway.
Afterward, we got ready for the next day, but we’d already gone 35 hours without proper sleep, so we went to bed pretty early on Tuesday.

As usual, I’ve put everything together in a video: https://youtu.be/7QyY93oaBMI