We arrived at DIA just after 8am for an 11am flight, per our instructions for international travel. This actually worked out, because I discovered when I arrived at the airport that I was on the same flight not only with my roommate Brandy but with a couple of our other friends as well. After getting our special bag tags and sending our luggage along to be loaded, we grabbed breakfast and prepared for the initial leg of our flight: from Denver to Houston.
That flight was actually very smooth, and I had the pleasure of sitting beside two of the guys in our chorus - David & Alex - both of whom were knowledgeable, sarcastic, and completely entertaining. Not having met either of them before (rehearsal is all about singing and we don't really get to socialize much outside of those who sit right beside us), it was a good start to the trip getting to know some new people.
We landed in Houston and for some reason, there were a chunk of us who had only received boarding passes for the first leg of the flight. This meant that we had about an hour to get to the next gate (not a problem) and get our new boarding passes for the transatlantic flight (a little more of a challenge - there were a lot of us). Once that was squared away, we boarded the Air France plane (a 777 - 3 seats, aisle, 4 seats, aisle, 3 seats) and got settled. I was near the front in a middle seat on the left side of the plane between two people not in the chorus and far, far away from the rest of the crew. Not really an issue, since I had hopes of sleeping my way across the Atlantic so that I'd be ready for the 8 hour time change when we got to Paris. After a 40 minute delay on the runway, we were off!
Well, it didn't take long for me to realize that sleep wasn't really going to happen for me. First, I was tired but I was also kind of jazzed up for my first-ever transatlantic flight! Then, there was the food. I like food, and wasn't going to accidentally sleep through the dinner meal...and I'm glad I didn't. The food was really very good, and I learned that they give you wine (or various other adult beverages) on these long flights. I asked for water, and then the guy next to me asked for red wine and I exclaimed to him,"You can do that??" He laughed and said,"This is Air France, of course they have wine!" And I immediately asked for one to go with my dinner...awesome!
After dinner, they dimmed the lights and I decided to grab some shut-eye...before I discovered the movies in the backs of the seats. They had everything, so I thought I'd watch until I dozed off, but no such luck. Unfortunately, I must have picked some bug up on the first flight because 1/2 way through the 8.5 hour flight my nose started running and I was blowing my nose like mad. I tried to hide it and just rest, but felt even more self-conscious because the woman on my other side was wearing a mask and I just KNEW it was because of people like me, lol.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, although 8+ hours of sitting is tough. We arrived in Paris with only 30-45 minutes to make our connection due to the delay out of Houston, and we had to run nearly the full length of the airport. I have NEVER been in an airport that size - I swear it felt like miles. We had to all go through and get our passports stamped, through security again because we had to switch entire concourses, and though most of us were running by the time we got to the assigned gate there was no plane.
We all lined up to get reassigned to a different flight and discovered that we were going to be stuck in Charles De Gaulle for 6 more hours before our next flight. None of us had slept, I was sneezing and blowing my nose to beat the band, and now we were stuck in an unairconditioned bomb-shelter looking airport. As cool as I've always dreamed Paris would be, you would never know by their airport!
(Me being grateful to be on the ground in Paris)My friend Sheri had everything you could ever possibly need (it's so good to have friends who pack that well!), and since my cold seemed more like allergies we thought it would be a good idea if I tried a Benedryl. Um...wrong move, lol. I went catatonic about 1/2 hour after that - the poor lunch waitress had to ask me 3 times if I wanted gas in my water or flat before I understood what she was getting at. All I can say is that after that, I could have slept anywhere and the chairs with my backpack as a pillow were perfectly acceptable.
Finally - FINALLY - we caught our connection to Budapest and I don't think there's ever been a group of people so happy to arrive. We had been travelling for nearly 25 hours at that point, most of us with very little sleep. We collected our luggage, pulled money from the ATM, and hopped on the coach where our courier told us we were 20 minutes from the hotel and we should have a little more than an hour to get ready for dinner.
(Brandy, me, Melissa and Sheri - finally there!)Then, the bus driver got lost. 20 minutes turned into 40, and by the time we got to the hotel we had 35 minutes to get both roommates through the shower and back onto the buses for dinner.
Let the record show that people could tell who all traveled on Air France - we were the ones who looked like we'd been through a battle and might take your head off when asked how our flight was. The groups on Lufthansa and British Airways had both been planned better - they had left several hours after we did and arrived several hours before.
But, thank God we got the nice restaurant that night...because that helped make the misadventure worthwhile. I'll take up in Budapest on the next entry :-)
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