Time to wait once again! I'm in Paris, in the Paris Aéroport Charles de Gaulle, where I have been twice before now in 2008. I can't believe it's been ten years since I've been to France. I just heard that our take-off has been delayed because of the preparation of the cabin. But, I want to back up and recount the Detroit flight while I was waiting to board for Paris. I walked for ages because I didn't realize that the Detroit airport ALSO had trams. Is it because I haven't been abroad for ten years I've not noticed this? Either way, I walked almost the full 40-something gates to get to mine. Once I got there, of course, I had to go the furthest way to find an outlet for my phone. Not too long after I had sat down, they started calling for boarding. Once I heard my zone called, I got up and got in line, and I was given a new seat, which is fine. What is NOT fine is that the attendant felt the need to fold my boarding passes and shove them back into my passport.
Now, I'm going to be real with everyone: I have diagnosed obsessive-compulsive tendencies. A type of OCD that isn't as overbearing as it could be, but still affects me. One of those things that set me off is keeping official documents straight and pristine. When I had to send away my birth certificate to get my passport, I nearly cried because not only did they fold it but they stapled it, too. That's unacceptable to my brain, so now all I'm thinking is the conservation I know and will have to flatten out my boarding passes when I get home to properly display them in a memory book (or a frame, which drives the Folklore Fiancé bonkers; I frame everything, and they don't understand why. This is part of why.)
So, after that upset, I put my luggage in the overhead, and it looks like it won't fit. Luckily, a fellow sitting across from me helped me adjust it so it would fit. I was trying to get an agent to help me, but she seemed upset that I was asking her for help - which I get, she has other stuff to do. I was just anxious that it wasn't going to fit. The flight attendants rearranged the overhead stuff so it would fit before we took off, though, so I didn't have to worry about that anymore. I was relieved to see that I had an aisle seat because I avoided using the bathroom on my first flight because I was stuck between two skinny fellows and didn't want to disturb them. I was less relieved to see that the cupholder on my dinner tray was broken (these were the ones that fold out on the bottom of the tray so you can have a cup there without the whole tray being down) so I couldn't use that. And, I forgot my headphones, but luckily, the flight provided me with headphones for this flight!
Except those were broken too. One side was hanging literally by the cords and wires. I tried it, and it ended up working out in the one ear, so I just dealt with that. I decided that I was just going to watch movies. Since the flight I was on previously had certain movies with subtitles, I was able to watch Love, Simon in its entirety (I had seen it with Folklore Fiancé in theatres when it came out, and we both cried...a lot) and then I watched half of Thor: Ragnarok. On the Paris flight, I was able to finish the Thor movie and watched Hot Pursuit and the 2016 Jumanji movie before I found Thor: Ragnarok as an option. By that point, it was over half the flight out of the way, and I just decided to watch The Big Bang Theory - I do enjoy the show but I am very critical of the problematic aspects but I relate a lot to Sheldon, so I like watching it.
The Paris flight had a dinner that was a pretty nice spread! I couldn't eat the dessert, though, because it was coconut cake and I'm allergic to coconut. I was able to eat the extra bread, though! I got bread, butter, cheese, green applesauce, a quinoa black bean salad I couldn't eat, and the main part was chicken in a sauce I surprisingly liked, and it came with kale mashed potatoes. I love potatoes, but I hate kale, so I was shocked that I liked it at all let alone finished it. The light breakfast they had was a muffin, plain yogurt (which was disgusting, so I dumped two sugar packets into it), and orange juice. I was able to get tea, water, and soda at different points of the flight and had hot chocolate with breakfast, which was nice.
Once I got to CDG, I was hella confused. I realized then it was the first time I'd ever gone into this airport without a large group. I'm almost thirty, but traveling on my own still makes me a little anxious. Either way, I found my way to the gate I needed and got on another tram, where I missed my gate and had to ride it back after I got off and realized the opposite track was closed completely, so I should have just stayed on the tram in the first place. I went back and followed the long, winding hallways, and had to go through security.
Again.
Which I forgot about.
And, as an American, my first instinct was to take off my shoes. Well, I looked up with one boot in my hand and went "oh, no one else is doing this," and put back on an untied boot and I stumbled through enough French to the attendants that they replied in very rapid French and I was not prepared because the last time I spoke French, remember, regularly, was ten years ago, when I was last in France. I am very rusty. Which is better than I can say about my Bulgarian, because, despite my best efforts, is still non-existent.
Once I found my gate, I sat down and immediately started coughing and realized there was a strange smell that was making me choke. I realized then that it was cigarette smoke, which is another thing I am allergic to, and upon investigation, CDG does indeed have designated smoking areas past security. Which is where I must have been sitting. So, I got up to walk around to clear out my lungs. I couldn't find food that I liked for lunch, so my lunch is a Coca-Cola that is lukewarm (gross - another OCD thing: I need certain liquids super cold, but I needed the caffeine more this time), cookies, and Bueno bars (some of my favorite foreign chocolates).
The attendant just informed me that because the flight to Sofia is full so that our carry-on bags (the large ones) have to be checked. I need to make sure that I've brought a lock for both bags just in case this happens again because now I'm going to be extra anxious until I get there. At least the flight is only a couple of hours! It's the shortest flight of my trip.
We should be boarding by 1:30 p.m. Paris time and I should be in Sofia a little past 5 p.m. Sofia time!
I haven't slept a wink, I'm really anxious, and really hungry.
Cross your fingers I stay sane for the final stretch!
Now, I'm going to be real with everyone: I have diagnosed obsessive-compulsive tendencies. A type of OCD that isn't as overbearing as it could be, but still affects me. One of those things that set me off is keeping official documents straight and pristine. When I had to send away my birth certificate to get my passport, I nearly cried because not only did they fold it but they stapled it, too. That's unacceptable to my brain, so now all I'm thinking is the conservation I know and will have to flatten out my boarding passes when I get home to properly display them in a memory book (or a frame, which drives the Folklore Fiancé bonkers; I frame everything, and they don't understand why. This is part of why.)
So, after that upset, I put my luggage in the overhead, and it looks like it won't fit. Luckily, a fellow sitting across from me helped me adjust it so it would fit. I was trying to get an agent to help me, but she seemed upset that I was asking her for help - which I get, she has other stuff to do. I was just anxious that it wasn't going to fit. The flight attendants rearranged the overhead stuff so it would fit before we took off, though, so I didn't have to worry about that anymore. I was relieved to see that I had an aisle seat because I avoided using the bathroom on my first flight because I was stuck between two skinny fellows and didn't want to disturb them. I was less relieved to see that the cupholder on my dinner tray was broken (these were the ones that fold out on the bottom of the tray so you can have a cup there without the whole tray being down) so I couldn't use that. And, I forgot my headphones, but luckily, the flight provided me with headphones for this flight!
Except those were broken too. One side was hanging literally by the cords and wires. I tried it, and it ended up working out in the one ear, so I just dealt with that. I decided that I was just going to watch movies. Since the flight I was on previously had certain movies with subtitles, I was able to watch Love, Simon in its entirety (I had seen it with Folklore Fiancé in theatres when it came out, and we both cried...a lot) and then I watched half of Thor: Ragnarok. On the Paris flight, I was able to finish the Thor movie and watched Hot Pursuit and the 2016 Jumanji movie before I found Thor: Ragnarok as an option. By that point, it was over half the flight out of the way, and I just decided to watch The Big Bang Theory - I do enjoy the show but I am very critical of the problematic aspects but I relate a lot to Sheldon, so I like watching it.
The Paris flight had a dinner that was a pretty nice spread! I couldn't eat the dessert, though, because it was coconut cake and I'm allergic to coconut. I was able to eat the extra bread, though! I got bread, butter, cheese, green applesauce, a quinoa black bean salad I couldn't eat, and the main part was chicken in a sauce I surprisingly liked, and it came with kale mashed potatoes. I love potatoes, but I hate kale, so I was shocked that I liked it at all let alone finished it. The light breakfast they had was a muffin, plain yogurt (which was disgusting, so I dumped two sugar packets into it), and orange juice. I was able to get tea, water, and soda at different points of the flight and had hot chocolate with breakfast, which was nice.
Once I got to CDG, I was hella confused. I realized then it was the first time I'd ever gone into this airport without a large group. I'm almost thirty, but traveling on my own still makes me a little anxious. Either way, I found my way to the gate I needed and got on another tram, where I missed my gate and had to ride it back after I got off and realized the opposite track was closed completely, so I should have just stayed on the tram in the first place. I went back and followed the long, winding hallways, and had to go through security.
Again.
Which I forgot about.
And, as an American, my first instinct was to take off my shoes. Well, I looked up with one boot in my hand and went "oh, no one else is doing this," and put back on an untied boot and I stumbled through enough French to the attendants that they replied in very rapid French and I was not prepared because the last time I spoke French, remember, regularly, was ten years ago, when I was last in France. I am very rusty. Which is better than I can say about my Bulgarian, because, despite my best efforts, is still non-existent.
Once I found my gate, I sat down and immediately started coughing and realized there was a strange smell that was making me choke. I realized then that it was cigarette smoke, which is another thing I am allergic to, and upon investigation, CDG does indeed have designated smoking areas past security. Which is where I must have been sitting. So, I got up to walk around to clear out my lungs. I couldn't find food that I liked for lunch, so my lunch is a Coca-Cola that is lukewarm (gross - another OCD thing: I need certain liquids super cold, but I needed the caffeine more this time), cookies, and Bueno bars (some of my favorite foreign chocolates).
The attendant just informed me that because the flight to Sofia is full so that our carry-on bags (the large ones) have to be checked. I need to make sure that I've brought a lock for both bags just in case this happens again because now I'm going to be extra anxious until I get there. At least the flight is only a couple of hours! It's the shortest flight of my trip.
We should be boarding by 1:30 p.m. Paris time and I should be in Sofia a little past 5 p.m. Sofia time!
I haven't slept a wink, I'm really anxious, and really hungry.
Cross your fingers I stay sane for the final stretch!
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