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michiexileSo, I'm in Paris now.
Getting here was an adventure, and staying here turns out to be an adventure as well.
Turned out, when I started looking over ways to get to the airport, that the entire northeastern US was battered by thunderstorms. Specifically, this meant that nothing flew into or out of New York, Philadelphia, Washington or anything inbetween these.
Alas, my tickets were for Raleigh - Philadelphia - Paris.
Originally, I had a 3-hour layover in Philadelphia. As the delay estimates got gradually more and more revised, this shrunk to 2, then 1, then 1/2 hour. Just before it got down to the 15-minute mark, I got the attention of the gate agent, and pointed out that this trend wasn't promising in terms of getting me OUT of Philadelphia again on time.
So I got rerouted. Delta flying me Raleigh - Atlanta - Paris.
Raleigh - Atlanta got delayed, so in Atlanta, I kept a steady, fast pace toward my gate, stopping at Arby's in the food court to grab more substantial dinner than airplane fare, and just carried that onboard with me.
As such this trip was pleasant and nice. However - and this qualifies as a decent sized however - once in Paris (not having slept any, since I never can seem to manage to do that on planes), it turned out that my bags had not quite kept up with me. They'll get driven over to my hotel for me once they DO show up at all, and in the mean time I get to spend €100 of Air France's money on the essentials.
This might sound like quite a bit of money. But since I saw this figure, I've been realizing things. Such as - I don't have the European connector for my laptop charger. I don't have my cellphone charger. I don't have my iPod charger. There is, in fact, pretty few cables that made it with me.
Also, I don't have ANY clean clothes either.
And my first few attempts at finding clothes I'd be happy with has been not only unsuccessful, but pretty humiliating. Entering a cheap everything-and-more chain, looking over men's pants, I try with my broken french to ask one of the clerks how to figure out my size.
Instead of answering my question, she looks me over and says something I've managed to translate into "We don't carry Maxi sizes here. Our sizes stop at 50."
She was completely disinclined to tell me anything other than those two sentences.
At Zara's, I tried on a pair of 48s. My _thighs_ didn't fit in those pants.
My current best hope is to walk over - or take a subway or something - to the H&M Google found for me close to Saint Placide, and hope that THEY have clothes I could possibly wear.
Getting here was an adventure, and staying here turns out to be an adventure as well.
Getting here
Turned out, when I started looking over ways to get to the airport, that the entire northeastern US was battered by thunderstorms. Specifically, this meant that nothing flew into or out of New York, Philadelphia, Washington or anything inbetween these.
Alas, my tickets were for Raleigh - Philadelphia - Paris.
Originally, I had a 3-hour layover in Philadelphia. As the delay estimates got gradually more and more revised, this shrunk to 2, then 1, then 1/2 hour. Just before it got down to the 15-minute mark, I got the attention of the gate agent, and pointed out that this trend wasn't promising in terms of getting me OUT of Philadelphia again on time.
So I got rerouted. Delta flying me Raleigh - Atlanta - Paris.
Raleigh - Atlanta got delayed, so in Atlanta, I kept a steady, fast pace toward my gate, stopping at Arby's in the food court to grab more substantial dinner than airplane fare, and just carried that onboard with me.
As such this trip was pleasant and nice. However - and this qualifies as a decent sized however - once in Paris (not having slept any, since I never can seem to manage to do that on planes), it turned out that my bags had not quite kept up with me. They'll get driven over to my hotel for me once they DO show up at all, and in the mean time I get to spend €100 of Air France's money on the essentials.
This might sound like quite a bit of money. But since I saw this figure, I've been realizing things. Such as - I don't have the European connector for my laptop charger. I don't have my cellphone charger. I don't have my iPod charger. There is, in fact, pretty few cables that made it with me.
Also, I don't have ANY clean clothes either.
And my first few attempts at finding clothes I'd be happy with has been not only unsuccessful, but pretty humiliating. Entering a cheap everything-and-more chain, looking over men's pants, I try with my broken french to ask one of the clerks how to figure out my size.
Instead of answering my question, she looks me over and says something I've managed to translate into "We don't carry Maxi sizes here. Our sizes stop at 50."
She was completely disinclined to tell me anything other than those two sentences.
At Zara's, I tried on a pair of 48s. My _thighs_ didn't fit in those pants.
My current best hope is to walk over - or take a subway or something - to the H&M Google found for me close to Saint Placide, and hope that THEY have clothes I could possibly wear.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 04:57 pm (UTC)Make sure anything necessary (medications, travel documents, in-flight distractions, laptop, valuables, any necessary cables, maybe one set of change) goes with you in the cabin. Everything that goes in the hold must be seen as disposable.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 02:01 pm (UTC)Kerstin & Stefan got upgraded to Business Class on their Transatlantic flight!
love,
S
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Date: 2009-04-07 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 02:59 pm (UTC)Any idea when your bags will arrive?
no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 04:07 pm (UTC)Oh well - Air France still will reimburse me, so I just got € 100 worth of free clothes. Black pants, Purple and black shirts. A cord that fits my macbook powerbrick without costing what Apple'd charge for it. Et.c.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 03:00 pm (UTC)Hope it improves quickly.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 04:05 pm (UTC)http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=tnsoi7vsscvm1ohnqdaq558ohg%40group.calendar.google.com
which I set up in order to be able to easily tell people where I am when.
Specifically, I'll be in Paris for almost 2 weeks, starting now, and for about half a week in July.
I will be spending inordinate amounts of time in Galway though.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 10:12 pm (UTC)Glad your bags caught up with you.