Made it to Barcelona!
My plane was leaving at 9:20pm from Dulles. It had been pouring rain on and off all day, so we tried to make a run for it between rainstorms around 4:30pm. Unfortunately, so did everyone else in town, so we sat in traffic for an hour just to get out to the Tyson's area. [The traffic was made worse by the Presidential motorcade, which came out just as we hit 18th & Pennsylvania Ave. I made sure to blow some raspberries in his general direction. I might have also waved a few select fingers...]
It was about the time that we got to Tyson's that I realized that I had left my medication (and the handy little cold-pack travel case I bought for it) in the fridge at the house. ARGH. Mom said, "Want to go back for it?" HA. Even with four hours to spare before my flight, I wasn't about to sit through all that crap again.
Mom dropped me off and we cried a little 💗. I went to check in at Delta, but my flight was code-shared with Air France, so I had to lug my stuff down there instead. Lucky for me, I had Sky Priority and there was nobody else in line. And the nice guy at the desk checked my third bag as "carry-on" so I didn't have to pay the extra $300. That made up for the traffic, I'd say!
Took the little tram over to Terminal A - okay, the trains are nice, but I miss the old people-movers! By this point I was already tired of lugging my carry-on bag. [Lesson learned: NEVER bring a carry-on without wheels that's not a backpack!] Full flight, no upgrades available. Sigh.
On one hand, leaving at 9pm means you arrive a little later in the day (arrived 11am instead of the usual 7am), which is nice. OTOH, they leave the lights on until after the dinner service, and I felt like they turned them on again around 3:30am (9:30 CEDT), so there wasn't much chance for sleep. (My watch registered exactly zero sleep on Weds night.) Before/during dinner I watched a short documentary called "Brother Orange" - a BuzzFeed writer's phone got stolen and it ended up in China, and he befriended the guy who had his phone.. it's cute.
And just like that, we landed in Paris. Remember I said no carry-ons without wheels? Just getting from the plane to the customs hall in CDG felt like a 2 mile hike, and my tote bag was HEAVY. But I just went straight through customs (even got a stamp!), and my checked bags didn't have to be picked up and rechecked, so there's that. Then I recognized the terminal at CDG where we waited for our flight to Marseilles 6 years ago - the windows on the roof make it bake like a greenhouse. Bleh. I took my chicken-mozzarella-pesto sandwich and found a spot where I could feel the tiny bit of A/C blowing. And just as I finally gave up and paid $3 for a bottle of water, I turned around to see the bottle-refill spot. Le sigh.
Finally boarded for Barcelona. My seatmate coughed, sniffled, sneezed, and generally exuded germs the whole time. I pretty much passed out as soon as we took off. The snack choice was "chicken or cucumber with cream cheese" -- I didn't realize the cream cheese came with both options, but I didn't mind because the sweet brioche bun was lovely, and that's what lactaid is for. :)
Just as we were about to land in Barcelona - literally, our wheels touched down - the pilot gunned it and we were up in the air again. Hunh? In a very calm, heavily French-accented voice, he informed us that there had been another plane on the runway, so we were going around again. YIKES.
Eventually we landed, and I got all my bags (see pic above). John scheduled a car service to come get me, which was so nice! But my phone was back to only working on wifi, so I had to borrow the driver's phone to call John when we arrived at the apartment. And of course there's no elevator, so we dragged my two 50lb bags up to the first floor.
But here we are, together (finally!) in our tiny little apartment for the next two weeks, while we find a long term rental. It's a nice neighborhood. Very international. John had already found the supermarket (there's an ALDI a block away), as well as some small local shops, and one that's pretty close to a Target or Dollar-store type, with just about everything non-food that you can think of.
Once I get over the jetlag and get some more sleep, I'm sure I'll be able to think straight. Next week: apartment hunting in earnest!
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