Part 1a: And we're off (eventually)!

OK friends.  Here it is.  Part 1a of my trip home.  This is the part that takes me from Rouen to Paris to London.  Part 1b is following shortly, and that will get me from London to Detroit to Chicago to Urbana.  Are you ready?

So, once upon a time, I was in Rouen on the Saturday before Christmas, all packed up and ready to go to London for my three day vacation, before I was to fly home on the following Tuesday (the 22nd).  That was, of course, the day that the Eurostar trains were canceled.  Luckily, my British friend Ben was also schedule to take the Eurostar that day and he was able to inform me that the train I was hoping to take was canceled with no possibility of getting on another one.  They were all canceled, except the one that Ben squeezed his way on to.  (Side note: he was stuck on the train for 10+ hours with no electricity, food, or water, but at least he got to London!)  Anyways, he advised me not to even bother going into Paris so I stayed the extra night in Rouen.  Except I had already moved out of my apartment and put most of my things in my new apartment, and so I just slept on the mattress and used my comforter.  But it was fine enough!

I should mention that during all of this, I was getting snifflier and snifflier, and sneezing more and more.  But that Saturday night I spent a lot of time frustrated, crying, feeling very down that I wasn't going to make it home for Christmas.  Trains got canceled for the next day and it wasn't looking good for the Monday.  Time for Plan #2.

I was on facebook and I saw my friend Philippa's status.  Here's her status and the following comments (yes I tracked it down):

Philippa is finally getting out of Paris tomorrow night via plane...cross your fingers that we can get off the ground with all the snow in Paris and London!!

December 19, 2009 at 10:50pm

Kinzie

are you able to do the paris-london flight? i'm stuck in paris (i was going to take the eurostar) and i'm flying home from london on tuesday morning. so there are flights going?

December 19, 2009 at 10:57pm

Philippa

im booked onto an air france flight tomorrow at 7p.m to london so i hope flights are going because i really want to get out of here!!

December 19, 2009 at 10:59pm

Kinzie

yeah, i saw those for 80 euros. i might be on one of those flights too. i NEED to get to london!

December 19, 2009 at 11:01pm

Philippa

lol come at 7 tomorrow! the weather is bad in london too so i'd get there sooner rather than later! damn this weather!

December 19, 2009 at 11:03pm

So, that facebook exchange happened, and with a bit more advising from Donnie and some reassurance I found on AirFrance's website (their mission statement stating that there may be delays, but they have a responsibility to their paying customers to get them where they need to go -- which is much more than we can say of EuroStar!), I bought a ticket for the 7 pm plane.  Along with that, I now had a travel buddy!  And I can only speak for myself, but I know she kept me sane on the rest of my journey to London...

The next morning, I took the train into Paris, met up with Philippa, and we made our way out the Charles de Gaulle.  We were there seven hours before the flight (we meant business) and entertained ourselves by watching a movie on my laptop.  Then we went through security and waited for hours again, sitting and watching the delays on our flight increase.  Luckily, our flight ended up going only about an hour late -- most of the other Paris-London flights were either hours and hours delayed or canceled altogether!  So thank goodness Philippa decided to get on the 7 pm and told me to join her -- if she hadn't said anything, I would have booked the 6 pm and that flight was canceled!

Here's the picture of a gate right after the 6 pm Paris-London flight got annulé - tons of people were out of luck for the night, trying flight-by-flight to get on standby.  It was miserable:

I couldn't help feeling simultaneously awful for the people stuck there and amazed by my good fortune.  I might actually get home after all!

I'm going to fast-forward a bit through my time in London but because I had canceled my hostel, thinking I wouldn't be getting there in time for any extras in London, I called up my aforementioned friend Ben and he and his family were lovely enough to put me up for one night.  I shared some great times with them, Ben gave me a very rainy tour of London from inside of a city bus, and we got drenched walking through the snowy rain. 

At one point, we hopped off the bus and walked around a bit, but we promptly stepped in a puddle and were soaked up to our ankles.  I felt like I was walking around with buckets on my feet and I was freezing cold!  So we cut our tour short and went back to Bens.  Problem is, the jeans and shoes I was wearing were the only ones I had with me -- everything else I left in Rouen.  So, I walked around in my leggings and socks and Ben's shoes at Ben's family's and set my shoes and pants by the radiator.  They dried in the next couple of hours, and then I headed to my hostel so I could catch an early morning Underground to London Heathrow the next day.  While my shoes and pants were drying, I was quite a sight!

OK, the rest of my epic journey home is going to come in a very near future post.  As in I'm writing it right now but... I think any hope of having a reader make it this far is minimal and if I continue anymore, well, I think all hope would be lost.  So, with this, I bid you all goodnight.  PEACE.