The flight home

Back on the English keyboard - it's nice to automatically know where all of the keys are.



We made it back to the US in one piece, but are now recovering from jet lag. If you see us and we look like we don't know you, it's because we are operating under a blue haze left over from another time zone. Or it could be a gray haze from the incredibly bad weather we came back to. I don't understand it, but I never seem to have trouble with jet lag going away from home, but I always seem to have a terrible time when I come back. Alex has solved the problem by sleeping the bulk of the time between our return to Netarts on Friday and this morning, when we were both, by neccessity, awake for the entire day for the first time since our return.



Our return trip was, well, a little eventful. Is our life always filled with a little bit of drama or do we always create a little bit of drama? This sequence of flights, however, was in no way as eventful as our trip to Romania, in which we missed every single connection we tried to make (which would be a total of 5), lost 2 bags for a week, and arrived at the Habitat for Humanity site a day late, which wouldn't have mattered so much, except we were the house and team leaders. At any rate, L, B & F dropped us off at the Firenze (aka Florence) airport and said their warm ciaos. We, being used to US security, were extremely early, so we had about an hour to wait before the desk opened for check in. Firenze has a very small airport, so there wasn't much to do, but sit on our luggage and wait, although I did manage to make 1/2 a scarf (finished last evening while Alex was sleeping). When we finally got to check in, we were told that there were high winds, so our plane may not be landing there. "We'll tag your luggage," we were told, "but you need to hold onto it because if the plane doesn't land here, it will land in Bologne and we will bus you there." Well, as it turns out, the plane did land, but it wasn't planning on taking off again. Our worries about our 15 hour overnight layover in Amsterdam vanished when we found out we were being put up in a hotel in Firenze. And what a hotel! (You'll get pictures as soon as our computer is out of the shop and I can download them.) The maximum price listed on the closet door is 520 Euros, but I think the airline was charged somewhere between 100 - 150. We had a lovely dinner and nice evening and morning strolls in Fireze, but we would soon find out that there would be a price to pay.



The next day:

11 AM shuttle back to the airport (Most of the rest of the 35 members of the group stranded the evening before had a 5:30 AM shuttle)

1 PM on the plane to Paris

2 1/2 hours later (Alex had a distant view of the Eiffel Tower), landed in Paris with 1 1/2 hours to change terminals, pass through a security point, and board the plane. At least we had time to visit the toilette.

8+ hours later - landed in New York - JFK Airport, with 50 minutes to go through Immigration, pick up our bags, go through customs, walk to an adjacent building, recheck our bags, pass through security, and board the already full plane. We debated intentionally walking slowly and missing the plane due to the very tight time schedule, but then we weren't sure if Delta would put us up in a hotel. I can't imagine hotel prices at a NYC airport hotel.

Finally, on the plane, we stroll back to our seats, and back, and back...to the last seats on the airplane. Despite my requests to be seated as close to the front of the plane as possible, here we were by the bathrooms for the final 5 1/2 hour flight of what could possibly be the longest day ever (24 hours plus the 9 hour time change extended our daylight hours quite a bit). Shortly after we boarded, they closed the doors and taxied out, and taxied and taxied, then while we were still driving around, one of the flight attendants came back to our area and pulled a personal-sized oxygen tank and mask out from behind our neighbor's seat. We soon realized that had driven out to the runway and were now driving back to the terminal due to a medical emergency of one of the passengers. I thought I had seen it all, but this was a 1st in flying adventures for me. We called our friend Dan with whom we were spending the night to let him know of this additional delay. He, gratefully, agreed to pick us up at the airport since we would now be arriving after midnight and after the Max trains stopped running.

Phew - did I finally sleep? Well, sort of. The big reason I like to sit near the front of the plane is because, as I like to say, the tail wags. Plus, about 1/2 of the people who visit the rear of the plane to use the toilets have trouble keeping their balance or have to pass someone waiting near the toilets. Alex is so kind as to give me the aisle seat so I have a little more leg room, but, on this flight, this meant that I got bumped every 15 - 30 minutes. It left me with the opinion that since the airlines are now charging extra for more premium seating (reserving seats early, exit rows), they should charge less for the less than premium seats for us passengers desperate for sleep, but instead smelling the bathrooms, listening to the flight attendents preparing snacks & drinks, and getting bumped into by the rest of the coach class visiting the back of the plane. (Do I sound cranky? I was definitely cranky by the time Dan met us at good ole Pdx.)

At any rate, we made it home and this is definitely a long enough blog. Next post, I will download our pictures off of the camera. For now, we're cleaning house and packing.