Well, our plan to get back to Lyon didn’t quite work out as planned. We left LAX at 11:05pm Friday night, hoping to connect in Montreal, and move right along to Athens, where we would then get a plane to Lyon…connecting in Munich first though of course. Where did things go wrong? Stop number one: Montreal. Long story short, our flight was delayed/canceled, meaning that we would missed all following flights. We tried to sweet way our talk into getting onto the next boarding flight, which was conveniently destined for Paris, yet apparently the baggage guys couldn’t get our bags off of our original flight fast enough, so now we have a security hazard – aka, we couldn’t board the flight. Instead, we ended up waiting in the airport for a grand total of thirteen hours before getting vouchers to head over to the Quality Inn – just three long lines, a crowded van, and a semi-heated argument with the waiter who said the kitchen was already closed, just as we sat down to redeem our free $10 meal, later.
On the up side, we DID get to sleep in until 2pm the next day, and we DID avoid having to take two extra flights by going directly to Paris instead. So, now that I am comfortably flying over the Atlantic Ocean with many-a-movie at my disposal and a cute French-English man next to me, I decided to reflect on our big day the Montreal airport and begin writing my first blog post!
I suppose in many ways, we both got a taste of what lies ahead… being in a situation that you have absolutely no control over. For the moment, we’re both still working on the whole “power of positive thinking” thing to get us through the next “Montreal airport” disaster. I’m guessing it will come in handy this next year. Must keep practicing.
While it’s easy for anyone these days to complain about airline services, let’s face it – for an economy traveler, it sux…. As Will and I prepared our angry rant, nearing the front of the line to get our vouchers, I became impressed by the very people I wanted to attack. Looking to my left and right as an extremely unhelpful woman told us to call an 888 number, I heard the dozens of people next to me full on yelling at the airline people. Now when I say “full on yelling,” imagine a 3 year old screaming-crying for a cookie…ok now put that high-pitched noise into a 50 year old, 60 year old, etc. body, change the cookie to a flight, and you basically have an idea of what was happening. It was pretty embarrassing.
Hopefully, by seeing that play-pin up close, we were able to handle ourselves with a bit more class – though I can’t say for sure, as the last few hours at that airport are a bit hazy from the Burger King intake and lack of sleep. My point probably makes sense to anyone who has ever been a waiter/waitress and gotten yelled at because the chef accidentally added pickles to the wrong burger. You just gotta smile, apologize, and try to help the evil person who is basically telling you you don’t have a brain…for something that wasn’t even your fault. So while I know that you, me, everyone that has a delayed or canceled flight has the right to complain…be outraged…ask for “YOUR supervisor!”, I do hope that no one reading this blog will ever completely loose it over a pickled burger.
Before I say au’revoir, I’d just like to say thank you to all our friends and family that have supported our trip, our project, and us!! I feel very lucky to have so much love and encouragement surrounding me as we take off for this crazy adventure! Thank you to everyone who has read this…for reading it, and I can’t wait to fill these virtual pages with more stories from the countries we’ll be visiting! Big hugs and kisses to everyone! First stop: Mauritius. Xx Emily
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