Coming Home

We flew out of Dublin at 8pm local time, and landed at Paris Beauvais just before 11. Paris Beauvais is to Paris Charles de Gaulle as Abbotsford airport is to YVR, so we knew it would be a bit of a journey to get from one airport to the other. We did not, however, realize that the trains would no longer be running when we landed, and that we would need to take a bus. And then another bus. And finally, one more.

We arrived at CDG at about 2:30am, and by 3 we had found a spot to sleep, in a little out of the way alcove sort of thing, with four chairs along each wall and enough space for 3-4 people to lie down in between. We actually slept impressively well, and didn't wake up until almost seven, to find the airport mayhem in full swing. We had not been the only ones sleeping in the airport, but unlike London Luton, we seemed to be the only ones at this airport with enough sense to bring sleeping bags on our trip, so we got a lot of stares as we stuffed our bags. I stayed with the stuff as Michelle went to the washroom, and then we switched. When I returned, however, our spot had been overrun by at least 40 uniformed school children, led by a woman who was loudly and inefficiently handing out croissants.

"How the hell did this happen?" I asked loudly, before I could stop myself. Michelle just sort of shrugged, and I climbed over some kids to get to my stuff, which I then set about re-packing. "They just started showing up here," Michelle explained, fully aware that they were all English speakers and could understand us perfectly if they chose to pay attention over the shouting of the croissant woman. A boy then asked Michelle if anyone was sitting beside her. "It's a table" was her pointed response. He didn't seem to understand the distinction, and sat down anyway.

After some reminiscing about our previous experiences with irritating children and stupid chaperones (why wouldn't the woman at least give us some warning that she was going to block our exit?), we put on our backpacks and stood up. But our exit was very much blocked, burgundy-sweater-wearing kids six deep.

"OKAY KIDS, LET US OUT!"

I wasn't angry, but those kids didn't doubt I meant business. They parted like the red sea.

From there we went to check-in, where we learned that our flight was at least 2 hours delayed. After going through security, we sat down at our gate and took a little nap, and woke up to realize that we were lying in front of the currency exchange window, which would explain why there were transactions going on directly above my head. Good times.

We ended up leaving Paris three hours later than scheduled, which of course caused us to miss our connection in Montreal. We instead caught a 6:00 flight out of Montreal, which then was ground delayed because of storms in Ontario.

We finally arrived at YVR just before 10, fully 35 hours after leaving Dublin, and five and a half hours later than anticipated.

But we slep in our own beds, and it was wonderful.