Euro Trip Day 16 - Last day!
If you missed any and don't feel like reading them in LJ format, the whole trip is at:
Linky!/
October 11th - Saturday
Not really a pretty picture day, but I do think the old lady in the airport story is funny...
Our last Paris breakfast of the trip. This is pretty standard, she looks chipper, I look like I need to main-line coffee.
Outside of our hotel
Up early, last of the free breakfasts, and then checkout. On to the train stations, then the airport. Our airport setup is a bit involved. jossel is carrying a small mini-framed pack, that usually is around 25lbs, and we carry onto the plane. I'm carrying the larger frame pack that is roughly 40-45lbs that we check. It however is covered in straps and dangly things everywhere, and generally the kind of thing baggage folk hate. So we brought a big army/navy duffel bag to stuff it into.
We arrive at our check-in line, step back, and drop the pack on the ground. We undo the rolled up duffel bag clipped onto the bottom of the bag like a bedroll, and start wrestling the pack into it. We have to partially detach our little "toiletries bag" that clips onto this thing, and toss it on top of the bag. This separate bundle ends up being the head of what ultimately looks like me dragging a body in a duffle bag around.
It amazed me in both airports that the security folks seemed to think this was just fine.
Our plane was heading out around the same time a Houston flight from the same airline was heading out, so we shared the line with them. This being a flight back to the states we heard lots of loud annoying Americans. But this one lady took the cake.
This overweight gray haired old lady was chatting with equally looking American Old People in line in front of us (the security line). I started picking up on the conversation midway in, so it confused me that she was talking about how lax security was while in the security line.
She was talking about how astonishing it was that she could walk right thru security with a big metal thermos. Now, it was full of insulin, but how were THEY to know that without checking! she exclaimed. This seemed to me like a Bad Idea to be bitching about while in a security line. But that might just be me - I like to make life for these security folks as easy as possible, make myself as non-threatening as possible, because I think the whole thing is weird and annoying but I want it to be as painless as possible for everyone involved. And the last thing I want to do is make people with guns nervous. Just a general rule of thumb I guess.
Anyhow, we are doing all the crazy shoe in container, laptop out kinda crap, while this woman puts her one purse in a bin in front of us. So she should be cleared thru the metal detector well before us. But no, she says to the security folks she isn't going anywhere, she is keeping her eye on her purse the WHOLE time. The thing was the next bin to go into the machine, but no, she had to wait until it entered to go anywhere.
And of course she is saying this all in English, getting progressively louder and more tense as it becomes clearer and clearer the person she is talking to has no idea why she is behaving this way - and who may very well have limited English understanding anyhow. The very example of things that I think are a terrible idea to do to people with guns. Behaving erratically, weirdly, in a security line.
So we walk past her, easily through the metal detectors without a blink from gun-toting security - the way I like it. She rushes through behind us desperate to catch up with her purse, which of course they have decided to search. Because, ya know, she's a crazy lady behaving oddly.
We are putting our shoes on, stuffing our laptop back into an overpacked bag, tying warm weather gear around our waists - all that annoying post security crap, so we easily observe this crazy lady and the armed security folks.
They pull a thermos out of her bag that is STEAMING. Like it was packed in dry ice or something. Really, I don't know why they didn't just shoot her immediately. I guess maybe security IS lax. Anyhow, she is indignant, and shouting "It's JUST Insulin!". Lets recall how this same lady was scoffing at security for not even asking her about it. Now she's angry they are. This was when I remembered that I hate Americans. That's fine, as soon as I get home and look at polling and not every single state is overwhelmingly voting for Obama, I'll have the same feeling again.
We left behind our screaming crazy lady as they were summoning people who spoke better English, but I really hope a full body cavity search was involved. I mean, not for the security folks, poor bastards. But maybe next time this lady won't say shit about lax security. Even if I do believe that having to take off our shoes because of one retarded failed shoe bomb incident is a bit much.
Anyhow, the flight was uneventful, and I started and finished the fourth book of the trip (all very fluffy fiction of course, since it is vacation after all!).
We arrived at around 4pm EST, taxi'ed to where our car was parked near jossel's friend's place, and drove back to our lovely, comfy, awesome bed. We got in at around 10 or 11 EST, which is something like 4am in France. Mmmm comfy bed.
The End!
Linky!/
October 11th - Saturday
Not really a pretty picture day, but I do think the old lady in the airport story is funny...
Our last Paris breakfast of the trip. This is pretty standard, she looks chipper, I look like I need to main-line coffee.
Outside of our hotel
Up early, last of the free breakfasts, and then checkout. On to the train stations, then the airport. Our airport setup is a bit involved. jossel is carrying a small mini-framed pack, that usually is around 25lbs, and we carry onto the plane. I'm carrying the larger frame pack that is roughly 40-45lbs that we check. It however is covered in straps and dangly things everywhere, and generally the kind of thing baggage folk hate. So we brought a big army/navy duffel bag to stuff it into.
We arrive at our check-in line, step back, and drop the pack on the ground. We undo the rolled up duffel bag clipped onto the bottom of the bag like a bedroll, and start wrestling the pack into it. We have to partially detach our little "toiletries bag" that clips onto this thing, and toss it on top of the bag. This separate bundle ends up being the head of what ultimately looks like me dragging a body in a duffle bag around.
It amazed me in both airports that the security folks seemed to think this was just fine.
Our plane was heading out around the same time a Houston flight from the same airline was heading out, so we shared the line with them. This being a flight back to the states we heard lots of loud annoying Americans. But this one lady took the cake.
This overweight gray haired old lady was chatting with equally looking American Old People in line in front of us (the security line). I started picking up on the conversation midway in, so it confused me that she was talking about how lax security was while in the security line.
She was talking about how astonishing it was that she could walk right thru security with a big metal thermos. Now, it was full of insulin, but how were THEY to know that without checking! she exclaimed. This seemed to me like a Bad Idea to be bitching about while in a security line. But that might just be me - I like to make life for these security folks as easy as possible, make myself as non-threatening as possible, because I think the whole thing is weird and annoying but I want it to be as painless as possible for everyone involved. And the last thing I want to do is make people with guns nervous. Just a general rule of thumb I guess.
Anyhow, we are doing all the crazy shoe in container, laptop out kinda crap, while this woman puts her one purse in a bin in front of us. So she should be cleared thru the metal detector well before us. But no, she says to the security folks she isn't going anywhere, she is keeping her eye on her purse the WHOLE time. The thing was the next bin to go into the machine, but no, she had to wait until it entered to go anywhere.
And of course she is saying this all in English, getting progressively louder and more tense as it becomes clearer and clearer the person she is talking to has no idea why she is behaving this way - and who may very well have limited English understanding anyhow. The very example of things that I think are a terrible idea to do to people with guns. Behaving erratically, weirdly, in a security line.
So we walk past her, easily through the metal detectors without a blink from gun-toting security - the way I like it. She rushes through behind us desperate to catch up with her purse, which of course they have decided to search. Because, ya know, she's a crazy lady behaving oddly.
We are putting our shoes on, stuffing our laptop back into an overpacked bag, tying warm weather gear around our waists - all that annoying post security crap, so we easily observe this crazy lady and the armed security folks.
They pull a thermos out of her bag that is STEAMING. Like it was packed in dry ice or something. Really, I don't know why they didn't just shoot her immediately. I guess maybe security IS lax. Anyhow, she is indignant, and shouting "It's JUST Insulin!". Lets recall how this same lady was scoffing at security for not even asking her about it. Now she's angry they are. This was when I remembered that I hate Americans. That's fine, as soon as I get home and look at polling and not every single state is overwhelmingly voting for Obama, I'll have the same feeling again.
We left behind our screaming crazy lady as they were summoning people who spoke better English, but I really hope a full body cavity search was involved. I mean, not for the security folks, poor bastards. But maybe next time this lady won't say shit about lax security. Even if I do believe that having to take off our shoes because of one retarded failed shoe bomb incident is a bit much.
Anyhow, the flight was uneventful, and I started and finished the fourth book of the trip (all very fluffy fiction of course, since it is vacation after all!).
We arrived at around 4pm EST, taxi'ed to where our car was parked near jossel's friend's place, and drove back to our lovely, comfy, awesome bed. We got in at around 10 or 11 EST, which is something like 4am in France. Mmmm comfy bed.
The End!