Merci, CDG!

Wellll I'm finally back in Paris after a long long day of travel! Most of the hassle resulted from some construction at the CDG airport -- which was very much unappreciated...

I spent the morning packing up all of my stuff at Mel's apartment and cleaning up after myself, and then I set off for the train station about half twelve (as the British would say). I walked across Edinburgh hating myself for having a bag and a backpack...it seemed like I had packed nothing but bricks.

I met Harry at the train station, and we waited for our train to Newcastle which was about 25 minutes late. The train ride was a bit um, restless, to say the least. There was a table of 3 children and their mother, and the kids were running around and screaming....I might be requesting the quiet car on the train from now on...

We got in to Newcastle and found the metro station -- which compared to the Paris metro system, seems like it's from the Stone Age -- and we took the metro to the airport. The Newcastle airport is a bit odd -- they don't post the gate number until about 30 minutes before the plane leaves, and then it's kind of like sheep being herded down a staircase and onto the plane. Also, it was the first time I've taken EasyJet -- think Southwest. There are no seat assignments, and it's a bit chaotic. BUT, what was interesting, was that there is no barrier between the first row of seats and the plane door and flight attendants. It was cool to see them actually shut the door and gossip about the people in the back...

The real fun began after we got off the plane. We tried to take the RER (like another metro -- but it goes out into the suburbs), but of course, the RER station at the airport is closed. How wonderful. So there were lots of people in yellow vests telling us that we had to go take the airport shuttle, and then again, like sheep, we were herded onto buses to a different RER station. Silly me for thinking that it was going to be about a quick 5 minute little ride -- it turned out to be about a 30 minutes ride through the middle of absolutely nowhere....awesome.

After that, we finally made it onto the RER and then connected to the metro to get home. After about a 9 hour day of travel, I'm finally home. It's still odd to consider coming home as coming back to Paris! I get to come home to the city with the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, Notre Dame, and the like!

Alrighty, bedtime! Much too late already! A bientot!