Day 14: The Continuing Voyage

The flight home was pretty good, but I was completely jet-lagged and almost incoherent by the time I got back, so I tried to type a few notes to remind me about how things went.  Here goes:

The plane ride went well.  This time my seat was further up, in the section where there are 3 seats together.  I was at the window, an Indian lady was in the middle, and an American lady was in the aisle.  We lucked out, though.  Apparently the Indian lady was traveling with her family, but they weren't able to get seats together.  Just before takeoff, the seat next to her husband was empty, so she moved.  So there was a free middle seat next to me.  Hallelujah!  I hate being crammed into those tiny seats.

Food was another awesome adventure.  First they gave us drinks and mini-breadsticks in a bag (kind of like pretzels).  Then they handed out the dinner menu.  Seriously.  There's a little folding card that shows the menu.  Here's what they offered:
Main course was Chicken with lemon sauce, bulgur wheat, and vegetables OR Florentine 4-cheese tortellini, goat cheese, and tomato.  The rest of the meal was tomatoes and zucchini, Camembert cheese, cherry tomatoes, bread, and chocolate mousse.  And, of course, your choice of alcohol, gratis.  The biggest excitement was when they ran out of chicken, right as they got to me.  I have low blood sugar, so I need protein. And I'm not that fond of cheese.  I think the flight attendant recognized the look of panic on my face, when I asked if the other side of the plane had chicken.  She checked there and then up front, and finally found one.

After dinner, you had the choice of coffee or tea.  Or brandy or cognac.  I love foreign airlines!  Later on they brought by ice cream bars.  They looked kind of like mini-Magnum bars on a stick.

The final meal was another snack/supper.  There was what appeared to be a square piece of pizza, folded over, like a hot pocket.  It came with some good stuff, but I can't remember what that was.  I want to say there was some kind of salady dish, like cucumbers.  Or maybe some fruit.

I watched another 3 movies along the way:  Saving Mr. Banks, The Millers, and something else.  As we were landing, my row-mate struck up a conversation.  Turns out she's a semi-retired history professor at a college in Georgia.  So we had a good talk.

Once we arrived in Atlanta, mom and I set off for Chick-fil-a and then to her gate.  I swear, that woman has the worst luck with gates!  I usually have decent luck.  My gates are generally in the middle of the terminal, and okay, sometimes they're right next to the gate I've just arrived at.  Not mom.  She has a bad knee.  And literally every gate on her trip, was at the complete opposite end of the terminal.  Which meant that once we were traveling together, every gate on my trip was at the complete opposite end of the terminal.  And some of these terminals are freaking big!  I was glad to leave, just so I could go back to my normal gate-luck!

I was feeling a big "laggy" by the time we got to Atlanta.  I tried to sleep on the plane home, and mostly succeeded.  I woke up just enough to get a drink and some cookies.  By the time we landed, I really felt like crap.  My brain was totally fuzzy.  The plane landed around 6 pm and then I hiked up front to the baggage claim.  This is a small airport, so there's only 2 baggage claims.  And there was only 1 other plane that had landed about the same time we did.  It took over 30 minutes before my plane's luggage started going around the claim.  Luckily, my suitcase was one of the first, so I was outta there!

Thus concludes our story.

Day 14: The Voyage Home

The day started off dreary and rainy.  Mom and I went down to eat breakfast, if it was included in the price of the hotel. Which wasn't likely.  We went to the restaurant area, and a lady told us it was 11 euros and asked our room number.  We asked if there was a free breakfast, and she led us down the hall to another room, with food in it.  Turns out, it still cost 11 euros.  But the restaurant area was for tour groups, and the room down the hall was for everyone else.

We caught the 7:20 shuttle to the airport, because we weren't sure where it dropped you off.  The shuttle was a full size bus.  It dropped us off at the Terminal 2 bus drop off, where you caught an elevator down to the terminal, then walked a long ways to wherever you were going.  We finally found an information desk and were told to go to Terminal 2E.

We trek down to 2E on some moving walkways and escalators.  Once there, we see Air France at #3, so we go there.  He tells us to go to #4.  We go to the line at #4.  She tells us to use the check in kiosk next to #4.  We stand in line and do that.  I check in, but mom has an error.  We go back to the #4 line, and get separated.  She tells mom to get in line behind her, but she tells me to go to #3 to finish checking in with my luggage.  

I get down to #3 and I get to stand in line for the auto-luggage check in.  Except my boarding pass, that printed from the Air France kiosk, does not have one of those fuzzy bar codes on it.  I call an agent and she goes to a desk and prints me a new one, with the bar code.  I continue on,  but my luggage has an error.  Apparently, it's too big.  Not too heavy, too big.  So I have to go to a desk and finish checking in that way.

Finally, I'm done.  I hit the toilets, customs, and security, and I'm through to the gates!  Still no mom.  She had said something about duty-free wine, so I keep walking towards our gate until I find a wine shop.  That's where I'm sitting right now.  If I don't see her soon, I'll continue on to our gate.

Edit: While I was waiting, mom was in huge lines. She didn't show up until 9:30! Almost an hour after me.