So I thought I'd share some of our wacky adventures with you, because we have yet to travel by train or plane without chaos following us and wreaking havoc on our sanity.
Plane 1, Pittsburg to Paris: We arrive at the airport and are all very nervous. We say our goodbyes and hop in the security line right as i realize that my liquids are not in a plastic baggie. To give you some background here, I have packed 1 full size suitcase and 2 carry ons to last me an ENTIRE semester, which is 4 months, or 128 days. So that was difficult enough, but then to realize that the ONE thing I forgot was an item that could prevent us from even getting to France was terrible. Thankfully, Dad was still there and he found me a bag, disaster avoided. So then, I'm still so frazzled about the bag that when I take out my laptop and liquids, I forget that I am wearing a belt, BZZZZZ! Oops, I take off the belt (and my watch, just for good measure). BZZZZZZZZZZZ (the airplane guy looks mad) It was my cell phone :o and i finally make it through. I look over and Mom is being frisked cuz she keeps beeping and they can't figure out why! They searched her for like 10 minutes, poor mom. The rest of the trip went ok, we caught our connection and slept kinda ok on the plane, and 8 hrs later, we were in France :)
Plane 2, Paris to Pau: We make sure to not make any of the same dumb security mistakes as the first time so we don't irritate the airport workers again. All goes well until Mom discovers that in France you can only bring 100ml of liquid in a carry on, so her 4 Oz bottles of Hair gel, wrinkle release spray and Victoria secret hair product are not allowed to go. Mom was extremely distraught and pleaded with the airplane guy to find a way to let her keep these liquids because these are things we couldn't live without (and the Victoria Secret stuff was BRAND NEW and not cheap). So the airport security guy (who was actually very nice) told us that if we had checked a bag that was under the weight limit we could add a carry on and it would not cost extra. Nana's bag had weighed the least, it was 19kg and the limit was 24kg. So we had to make her carry on weigh 5kg or less. We took out a bunch of stuff and put mom's liquids in and sure enough, it weighed only 4 kg :) We were thrilled, until we went to check it and found out that this was not true and if we wanted to check an extra bag it would cost 55 EUROS!!! Yikes. We explained the problem and practically the whole French airplane service team was making phone calls and having discussions trying to figure out how to help us. Finally, they decided to pull Nana's suitcase off the plane and let us put the liquids inside and recheck it. This all occurred 20 minutes before boarding time on the plane. Need list to say, we were very stressed waiting for that bag to come back. But sure enough, it came back and we saved the liquids!!!
Plane 3 Pau to Nice: We were determined to have a good flight this time, because the others had not gone well at all. My host mom was coming to pick us up at the hotel at 7:15 to take us to the airport, and we wanted to make sure we were really ready so i set the first alarm for 5:15 on my new french phone. Before going to sleep I noticed that the time on my cell was wrong (I had just got the thing a few hrs before) and I figured out how to change it. It was 10:13 and the French read military time, so I smartly changed the phone to 20:13, and didn't think about it again. We were so tired, we slept and slept, I was finally getting used to the fact that French hotels do not have clocks in them. The hotel phone rang right next to my head and I rolled over, out of my dreams, and picked it up and slammed it back down, assuming that my mom had ordered a wake up call. Then it rang again, but before I had a chance to hang up, I heard a voice on the other end. It was a man saying "Cecile is waiting for you in the lobby" in a French accent. I jumped out of bed, it was 7:15, and my phone alarm went off. I obviously can't read military time very well and I had set the clock wrong. In 20 minutes we were packed, dressed, and in the car on the way to the airport. We made it just in time, and all was well.
Train 1, Nice to City in Italy: All this brings me to today. We went off itinerary to explore a little town in Italy, it was only a 45 minute train ride away! Of course, once we got to the train station, we realized that none of us had taken a train before, ever. We stood in line to get our EuRail passes validated, then stood in a line to get tickets, but we didn't need to be in that line. We went to one platform to catch a train that was delayed, but it was already gone. Then we stood at another to try to find another train going to the same place. The schedule was hard to read, and in French, and we had to catch a connecting train, but we finally made it. The way back was even worse, we got on the train but there were so many people that every seat was taken and people were standing in the aisles WAY to close for comfort. It was hot and smelly and awful, and we stood for almost the whole 45 minute trip. Finally we arrived and dashed off the plane to breath the fresh air!
But the whole time no one had ever asked to see our passes, very strange, the train runs on the honor system. Its like "The Honesty Train" or something. And we never had to show our passports, it was so weird.
But in between all the stress, and the mistakes, and the chaos, we have seen some WONDERFUL places, and had SO much fun! And every time we screw up we learn something new, and try not to make the same mistake twice and not panic when things seem bad. So we are enjoying ourselves very much :) and learning a lot too :) Sorry this was so long, I guess I like the read of my writing too much haha!
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