I'm Finally Here in Italy!

I am not particularly fond of the Paris airport. How are you supposed to navigate such a gigantic airport in fifteen minutes?!! So our flight from Seattle to Paris (a very very long one, especially with a sore throat and now a nagging cough!) landed on time, around 8:50 a.m. but then you have to wait until the plane parks at the terminal and then wait until people unload. You aren’t actually at the terminal as you have to pack into a bus and shuttle to it. So the bus takes us to the terminal 2E. Well, my connecting flight is at terminal 2D, should be pretty close right? Wrong! It’s like a mile or two away from one another! So I had 15 minutes until my plane to Bologna left and still I had to go through customs and security again! Well, all my running and sweating didn’t pay off as my flight boarding was closed....I didn’t even go through security yet!! I went on the waiting list for the next flight to Bologna at 12:55 p.m. It was supposed to be a full flight, but crossing my fingers, hoped that someone wouldn’t show up. If I wasn’t able to fly out on that plane, then I would have to get the next possible flight to Bologna.

I tried calling Chuck to let him know I missed my plane ride, but he wasn’t answering. I assumed he was on his way to pick me up. So there I was waiting all smelly and sick!

I went to the wait list line to see if they had any available seats. Initially, it didn’t look like so as she said they were all booked up for that flight!!! The next best option was to fly to Rome and then catch another plane there to Bologna. Great!!! But else could I do? I had to get there some way or other! So I almost resigned myself to this fact, but then she checked this 12:55 flight again and lo and behold, they had a seat available!!!

I arrived in Bologna at 4 pm. I didn’t know if my baggage would arrive as I missed my flight, but the customer service said it should arrive on this flight. There were carts available and I needed one as I brought four pieces of luggage. So I asked the woman if there was any possible way to exchange my euro bills into coins, though there was a sign saying ’No money exchange’. She was very helpful and asked this really sweet old man (who worked there) to get me a cart....for free! I was very grateful, tried to tip but he waved me off. He tried starting a conversation with me as I faltered since I didn’t know any Italian. But with a lot of gesturing and broken English/Italian we managed small talk.

The baggage started coming and I saw my first very banged up cardboard box....it weighed 65 pounds, so I was very grateful for the cart. Then I saw my suitcase, my 2nd cardboard box (50 pounds) which was banged up and inspected. I was still waiting for my bike box when the sweet old man came up and saw all my luggage and said "Very many!". He started helping put the boxes onto the cart, went away and brought me a second cart! I tried tipping him again, but he waved me off....but after I insisted, he conceded. After all my luggage arrived, I thanked him again and tried to push my carts myself, but he wouldn’t have it! He helped me push it to the exit where I met Chuck!

I am very thankful for the friendly service here and very ecstatic to see Chuck as I gave him a very big and tight hug and of course, a kiss!