8/19/01

Europe 2001: Going Home

This morning started off roughly.  I awoke, 20 minutes before our train would be arriving in Paris.  I had to use the bathroom, so I went down the car to get to the toilet.  There was shit, literally shit, all over the floor from someone's accident.  I gave up and went back to my compartment.  When the train arrived in Paris and we were collecting our things, I asked Amber where her bag of calendars, posters, and other stuff she had bought was.  She had left it at the train station in Nice.  It was not a good moment for either of us.  I still had to pee.  In our efforts to go to Notre Dame once more, we found that we had almost no cash, the change places were all closed, and we were walking entirely the wrong way.  I suggested that we abort and just head for the airport.  Along the way, we found probably the only change place in Paris that was open and got some cash.  Then, we found a McDonald's, where we had breakfast and I finally go to use a bathroom.  When we were rested and in better spirits, we took the half-hour metro and shuttle to the airport, a full 2 1/2 hours before our plane was to depart.  After an easy check-in, we boarded.

The flight went by surprisingly fast.  And, we arrived almost an hour ahead of time.  The in-flight meals were pretty yucky, but I was starving and didn't care.  I snoozed a little, but forced myself to stay awake so that my system wouldn't be all messed up by the time I got home.  I kept busy by writing additional details for this travel log.  We arrived in Detroit and went through customs without too much trouble.  I made a phone call home and we waited to board our last and final (7 hour) flight to Anchorage.  I dozed and dozed, barely woke up in time for the in-flight "meal" service and watched the movie to stay awake during the last of the flight.

I can’t believe I’m going into work tomorrow.

*In the aftermath of Amber’s luggage being stolen, she never received word that it had been recovered, and the London police never got her message about her train pass being stolen.  So, unfortunately, she ended up paying for two Eurail passes and could not be reimbursed for the lost one.  To this day I’m fairly upset by the way the staff at St. Christopher’s handled the situation (and their luggage policy in general) but I was impressed with Amber’s insistence that we continue our trip even though I would have completely understood if she wanted to pull the plug at the time.

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