I woke up this morning a ball of nervous energy unable to sleep even one more minute, even though I didn't get to sleep till almost 4am and was running on only 2 and a half hours of sleep. At 7am MST we left the house for the airport. We arrived just after 8am but I wasn't ready to say goodbye and not see everyone for 2 whole months. I got myself all checked in (probably the first time I've done that for myself) and tickets printed and I headed down to the security check point. Well apparently we beat the terrorists because all of the security measures I remember from the last time I flew (3 years ago) are gone. They don't make you take anything out of your bag and I didn't even have to remove my shoes. Security was a breeze and I got threw and to my gate by 8:30am. My plane didn't leave till 10am so I went in search of the only Starbucks in all of DIA which is located on the very far end of Terminal B across the glass bridge to nowhere. I got breakfast and went back to wait for my the plane to start boarding.
The plane was running a bit behind and we didn't take off till 10:20am but the flight took less time then expected and we landed in Newark, NJ about 15mins early at 3:45pm EST. The plane docked 5 gates down from my next gate so it was very easy to find my next flight. I decided to get some food and ran across a gem of a store (sarcasm) simply entitled "America!" I got some airport Chinese food and waited again for my plane to start boarding.We started boarding the plane at 5:20pm and I was seated next to a wonderful gentleman whom I talked with the whole flight. A native Parisian but he's been living in the states for 30 years. I enjoyed hearing about how Paris used to be and we discussed food and flights and more. They offered dinner about 2 hours into the flight and their choices were spinach lasagna (which they ran out of halfway down the plane) or chicken with gravy and vegetables. Both shared strong resemblances to microwave dinners and I got to hear the vegetarians at the back of the flight complain about how they didn't offer a vegetarian meal (well the did but they had run out and no they didn't offer meals for special diets). They dimmed the cabin lights and I tried to sleep but I was on the aisle with nowhere to get even slightly comfortable. I maybe managed 2 hours of sleep and was awake again with 2 and a half hours left in the flight. I did lots of reading and have gotten 12% of the way threw my book. As the plane landed, around 8am local time, in Paris I got to see the Eiffel Tower way off in the distance.De-boarding the plane we went down a very white, sterile looking hallway that led us to customs where they barely glanced at my passport before stamping it and letting me threw. Then I took a weird moving walkway/escalator which crossed over and under several other walkways reminding me a lot of the staircases at Hogwarts and where about as confusing. Then I made it to my baggage claim where I waited for my bag with the big red strap to come around. It did eventually and I was on my way.
Getting to my apartment by train was an interesting experience. They guy whose apartment I'm staying in sent me instructions for getting to the place but I still had to find my way to the station the trains all left from which meant riding the airport tram over to 'Terminal 3' which meant finding the airport tram and buying a ticket (which I didn't need for that train and couldn't purchase at the airport) I did manage to make it on all 3 trains and got to my apartment around 10am.As you can tell my internet works and I got a SIM card for my phone so I can use it here (only 10euro). All in all a very eventful (half) day and now I'm ready for some much needed sleep (perhaps just a small cat nap)
No comments:
Post a Comment