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Published: July 29th 2017
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Flight to Mahe
Guess which are my funny Polish friends July 28, 2017 - This was the last, and earliest, morning of the trip. I woke at 4:30am and decided to step outside to see the stars. I'm glad I did. I could see so many - it's so different from home, without all the light pollution. I even saw a shooting star before I went back in, and I wasn't even watching that long. I tried to sleep again, but no luck. So I watched Reign before heading out one final time to my sunrise beach spot. I also watched it before breakfast, and after breakfast, while I finished packing.
10 am was checkout, and I went back to the outdoor hotel restaurant to wait. My boat left at 12:15 pm, so I had some time. I asked the guy from the hotel to call the bike guy to see if he could help me with my bag. He came, took my pack, and we cycled back to the jetty together. I still had an hour to wait before the boat, so I read a bit, and thought about my trip. I liked La Digue the best of the Seychelles islands I visited. It has a nice, relaxed vibe.
I love that everyone gets around my bike, and it was great not spending all my time waiting for the bus. It was a great place to go to relax. I did not even mind not having access to the internet. When you know you don't have it, it's no big deal. Who knew?
Eventually I got in line to get on the boat, and then was told it was the boat to Mahe, not Praslin. That boat arrived 5 minutes later. It was less full than it had been coming over, and the 15 minutes went quickly. From the jetty in Praslin, I walked back to Jenny's, the same bakery I had stopped on my first day in Praslin. I got a bacon baguette and a chocolate ice cream and sat outside to read and eat. Then I was back to waiting for a bus. A German girl came to wait with me. Her husband was sick, and they had just arrived, so she was heading out on her own to find the beach. It was nice to chat a bit before my bus came.
On the bus I asked for help knowing when to ring the
bell to get off. Everyone was very helpful. The airport is tiny, with one check-in, one gate and much of it outside. Security was not intense, and I could even keep my water for the flight to Mahe. In the airport I talked to a Polish couple with a kid, and they were pretty funny. They had taken this flight to Praslin, and I told them they were lucky not to have taken the ferry. Our flight boarded a little late, but I was in no hurry. The plane itself was tiny. It may have held about 15 people, I had to duck the whole way to my seat, and there was no room even for a flight attendant. The cock pit had no door, and we could watch the pilots the whole time. I was sitting in the second row, so I had a good view. The whole flight was only 15 minutes, but it was a cool experience. As soon as I got off the plane and walked into the building, my luggage was already there, at a window, and I just picked it up and continued on to the international terminal.
Now in Mahe at the
airport, I went into the bathroom to change my clothes. I wanted to take off the clothes I had been sweating in and put on a clean t shirt and pants. I even took a wet paper towel to wipe up all the sweat, but it didn't last. And then I asked when I could check in, and she said at 7pm. It was only 5pm. And I would have to wait outside the whole time, as that part of the airport is outside. So, I went back to change again, so my clean clothes did not become too stinky while I waited.
I used the internet at the airport, and saw that my plan for internet check-in had failed. I had asked Jeroen to check me in online to make sure I did have the window seat I had chosen, or another if possible, since I didn't have access to internet for the last several days. It was only in the airport that I found it would not let him check in for my flight from outside the Seychelles. So, a little more stressed out, I watched Reign while I ate an octopus curry (which came like a
tv dinner, by the way). Eventually it was time to change my clothes again and check in. No one else was in line, so check-in was rather quick. I did have my window seat for the long flight, and a middle seat from Paris to Zurich, but I was so happy with the window I didn't even think to ask her to try to change the middle seat. Security was also quick. That left me a little more than two hours to wait for my flight to Paris. More internet, more Reign...you get the picture.
On the plane, no one sat next to me, which was awesome. It was an overnight flight, and I watched a movie about a monster and a boy while I ate part of the crappy meal they brought, then I tried to sleep. I was disappointed that the arm rest between the two seats did not go up fully, so it was not as easy to get comfortable, but I managed to sleep some. They served a breakfast and eventually we made it to Paris.
I never like the Paris airport, having to change terminals is a little bit annoying there. But by
the time I did and went through security again, I only had about 20 minutes to wait before boarding to Zurich. That flight was only just over an hour and went by quickly. A few minutes later, I had my bag and was meeting Jeroen. It was nice to see him after a month. His family is in town visiting, and his father and nephew came along for the airport run. My house is full of family and food and toys, but it's nice to be home. It was also great to see the cats again.
In the afternoon I found myself back in France again as we took his mom and sister shopping. Jeroen and I were hungry and found a baguette sandwich to split. Interestingly, it was a cordon bleu in that baguette! The French will put anything in a sandwich. It's good to be home.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Nice flight
good shot