433 The long road home

 

Waking up early in Paris, not the good Paris, but the hotel next to the airport kind with a quick complimentary buffet breakfast and a rush to get up and go. Getting out of France proved to be much harder than you'd imagine. Going by what the Air France ticket person told us, traveling to Montreal then home would be our best best. Not sure if that was true or she just wanted us to become Canada's problem? We boarded our flight out of Paris filled with optimism that we'd make it home in time for my class reunion. The plane was once again delayed our once optimistic outlook turned a bit more dim. Landing in Montreal we rushed to the Air Canada ticket counter to retrieve our boarding passes, only to be told we weren't booked on ANY Air Canada flights, they also told us to grab our luggage and that we'd have to go out through customs then back in to the ticket counter. Our original booking was through United so they sent us to that counter who quickly sent u to the Delta counter, saying our return was booked through Delta. Of course Delta didn't want to see us so we were sent back to Air France. Each time we were sent to a new counter meant a new line, usually of great length. Once back at Air France we finally found someone who wanted to help us. She said she could see where the ticket person in Paris had started to book our flights on Air Canada but must have never clicked the confirm button. She worked on our tickets, calling one coworker and another over to help, going to her superiors and trying her best to make things right for us. If it hadn't been for that one employee taking almost two hours to work out our situation, we might have had to become Canadian Citizens. Fortunately, she was finally able to book us seats on the next flight, although that one too had been delayed by at least four hours so we weren't getting out anytime soon. Long story somewhat shorter, we finally flew home to Boston, leaving Canada after 7pm, us being still on European time felt like 1am. Tims brother was waiting for us in Boston, our bags miraculously arrived with us so all was well in the end. We arrived home before midnight and crawled into our bed exhausted beyond belief. I felt like a lab rat that was in some crazy scientific experiment to see how little sleep a person can get and still appear to function. Both Tim and I had caught a few cat naps here and there, I had even laid down on an airport bench to sleep for 15 minutes, not caring how crazy I looked. There's no replacing a good night sleep and after two days and countless hours of travel, our bodies were beginning to rebel. I shouldn't complain, we had an amazing vacation filled with adventures and if you put it into perspective, we were fed, got to visit Paris and Montreal airports and ended up arriving home safe and sound. I even had one of my high school classmates arrive at my house minutes after we got home to stay the night. Originally she and I were planning on attending our reunion together, with plans for her to stay over. I had messaged her my front door code in case she arrived at my house first, at that point not knowing if I'd make it home at all. I'll be getting all the reunion stories from her in the morning and a look at all her photos! Although I missed the reunion, I might look so much more mysterious this way. I can hear my classmates now, Oh, Rachel is stuck in Paris after a two week Mediterranean vacation, paired with photos of me looking fabulous, I'm sure it appeared so glamorous. Not the reality of me wearing the same clothes for two days, the Air France white t-shirt and sneakers, sleeping on an airport bench with no makeup and bags under my eyes. I'll have to plan a mini 45th year reunion and rest up for weeks prior to it, at least I have a few years to burn off all the calories consumed on my cruise. Happy to be home, in my very own bed, unpacking and laundry in my future, ahh, the good life!