Three flights and three rooms later

So, my friend Liz and her sweet hubby took me to the airport yesterday morning, which was awesome. It was a long drive for them across Dallas to get me, too, since they live in a suburb on the other side. Taxis always make me nervous. You have to try to figure out when to call and wonder how long they will take. Will they show up before you are ready? Or get lost and show up late? We live close to DFW...about 15 minutes to the gate, so taxis aren't super expensive, but they are still a pain and getting to meet Alec and then getting a hug from Auntie Liz before I left were added bonuses. N has no idea she has so many people waiting anxiously to meet her.

The Delta check-in was weird. The self-check-in kiosk couldn't find my reservation and I had to go to the 1st class desk and that guy was kind of strange. And he kept talking to some baggage guy like I wasn't even there (the Elite/1st class lines usually have really good service over at AA). Then when he gave me all three of my boarding passes and luggage claim, I asked for one of those envelope thingies to put them all in and he said they don't use them anymore. Seriously. I don't normally fly Delta and this is just odd. He said they had all these terms and conditions that were out of date that people kept trying to hold them to, so they don't have any right now until they get new ones. WTFE You don't think that envelope is a big deal until you travel half-way across the world on three flights trying to keep up with that stuff. The baggage claim slip came out of my passport 5 minutes later in security and I had to send a security agent back through the metal detector to get it where I could see it on the floor. Mighty good thing I checked for it before I loaded up and left. After that, I put that slip in my wallet. Lesson learned.

The flight to Atlanta was fast. I dozed for about 45 minutes. The couple next to me was not a "couple" couple...they were acquaintances somehow, and on their way to Israel and did. not. shut. up. Good thing I had my Ipod to drown them out. Seriously, people, don't get on a plane and talk nonstop for 2-3 hours. It makes the people around you want to throw you off. They were talking as soon as they showed up, they were talking when we deplaned.

Air France has really good food. (Not surprising.) Puts the American Airlines transatlantic meal to shame. Between getting on Moscow time two days earlier and my nighttime cold medicine, I slept solid for a whopping 3 hours or so on that flight. That is monumental for me. I was VERY uncomfortable, though. I was on an Airbus (AA uses Boeing and I haven't been on a lot of big Aibuses) and the seats lean back farther, it seems which is good, but then that means the person in front of you is in your lap just like you are in the lap of the person behind you. And the seats are better padded than 777's and 757's I have been on, but my problem was leg room. And I have really short legs, so that is not usually an issue. I angled for and changed my pre-assigned Air France middle seats to aisle seats once I got to Atlanta, but in doing so, I was not able to do the seatguru.com thing. So the gate agent gave me an aisle seat, which is a must-have, but part of the leg room on the right was blocked by an equipment box. My backpack had to go in an overhead bin because of that equipment box and I ended up going through my backpack as I boarded, throwing all my overnight flight necessaries into a Target bag and using that at my feet. When I slept, I could never really stretch out my right leg and I have a bad right knee. If it is bent for too long it hurts really bad. I think that pain is what woke me up.

Anyway, I awoke fairly refreshed and got up for 20 minutes to kill time and exercise. I knew better than to turn on my overhead light while everyone else around me was sacked out. Once they turned on the cabin lighting, I finished N's little earflap hat she will need to wear here.

The transfer in Paris was tough. I'm not sure if I have ever been to Charles de Gaulle before. We've been through Orly several times, but not de Gaulle. It was a hike to get to my new gate and I had to go through security again and that was excrutiating. Not only did they want my laptop out (and out of its protective sleeve, too), but they wanted my camcorder and camera out. Those were packed together in the very bottom of my backpack. So I had to dig that out and I had never managed to fully reinstate my flight necessities that were still in the Target bag to their correct locations and I only had an hour and ten minutes (thank goodness we landed ten minutes early) to transfer and I am pretty sure now that one of my Maine Morning Mitts is on the floor of the Charles de Gaulle security check for gate E29. I hated that security point.

Then I needed to find a bathroom and I wanna have a word with the person who designed that airport because you have to go down three flights of stairs to get to the bathrooms...if you can ever find them because they are hidden away. So I'm lugging my 27 pound backpack and my rolling carry-on (20 something pounds) up and down stairs.

Made that connection and I was feeling pretty good on that flight for a little while, but then I dozed off and wham! I was really really tired. I dozed more than I knit on that flight. It was not full, so I took a whole row to myself and dozed on and off. Thankfully it was a very quiet flight. No chatty Cathys on their way to Israel. The flight from Paris to Moscow was pretty short (3+ hours) and when I landed I boarded slowly, done with the whole rushing thing.

At passport control, some of the passengers in the line next to me picked a verbal fight with the guy who was taking a long time at the desk and it all happened in Russian, but I have never ever seen anyone speak out like that in passport control. We were all in the non-Russian lines and I have to say that acting out while waiting to get approved to enter the country is pretty damn nervy. The passport officer even opened her little booth door to, best I could tell, tell the guys to STFU and they acted all offended. De Niro ala Taxi Driver. "you talkin' to ME?" Some things are evident across language barriers, But then she eventually let them in, so I guess it worked out for them. I've just never seen anyone misbehave in passport control before.

I am staying at the hotel that is closest to the airport and there is a free shuttle every 15 minutes. Took me a while to figure out where to wait for it, but once I got here all was well and my room was fine for five munites until I tried to call my translator to make plans for tomorrow. I'd pick up the phone and it wouldn't let me dial anyone, so I figured they didn't open my line but it wouldn't even let me call the front desk, which was weird and my mini bar was locked even though I gave them the credit card and I really needed that $3 Diet Pepsi, so I went down to the desk and he fixed the mini-bar thing but asked why I didn't just call and I told him about the message he said he would open my line for calls when he fixed the mini-bar.

So I came back up and I still couldn't dial anything and I couldn't understrand the recording so I went down to the front desk again and he came up to my room to see what the issue was with the phone. It was set on "do not disturb", but he couldn't turn it off with the turn-off code #36 and unplugging the phone didn't work, so he went to go get me another room and sent the bell boy up with the key. The bell boy helped me move rooms, but the second room was smoking and a no-go, so he ran down to the desk again and returned with a third room key. Along with a coupon for two free drinks at the restaurant or bar downstairs.

So we moved me again and this time I got a dial tone but when I tried to dial Zhanna's number, it told me it was an unauthorized number and so I had to call the desk to get them to fix that. Then I finally got to talk to Zhanna.

C has mentioned he'd like to maybe call me at 7-8pm here every day. Good thing I tried to call Zhanna or I'd be in room number one with a do not disturb setting on my phone and no way to know about it.

It's 7 now and I am REALLY starting to feel loopy. I want to wait to eat until after I talk to C...if I end up talking to C. I just hope I can hang in long enough because things are starting to get a little woozy.