Tragedy and Beauty Can Sometimes Be Found Hand in Hand

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Tragedy and Beauty Can Sometimes Be Found Hand in Hand

The Day From Hell

Whenever we have to travel, especially when it involves plane travel, we get a little anxious. Mind you, at this point in our travels, we get much less scared than we once did but we still have a healthy dose of anxiety. When we started the day we weren’t expecting our travels to be much, how bad can it get traveling from point A to point B in Europe? We assume after the craziness of SE Asia that Europe will be civilized and much easier. Sometimes we are wrong!

Because a direct flight from Frankfurt to Paris is so expensive we opted to take a layover in London-Heathrow figuring that travel through London is probably easier than some other locations. This was our first big mistake. At all costs do your best to stay away from Heathrow - travel through this mega airport is time consuming, stressful and painful.

When we arrived in London, after our short, uneventful flight from Frankfurt, we were greeted by security. First of all, no one in Heathrow is allowed to carry-on more than one bag. Since I had two we had to do a scramble job to get my two bags consolidated into one. This was a hassle but certainly not too painful. As a regulation it makes little sense to me though. Most people just carry one bag that’s bigger instead of two small bags. Ladies, don’t even think about carrying a purse and a piece of luggage, that’s two bags. Either way, we accomplished our first task and moved into the huge line to get through security. Mind you, we have already gone through security in Frankfurt but have to go through it again in London. Talk about paranoid!

After 25 minutes of waiting in line we finally made it through the security station and were able to get on a ten minute bus ride from concourse 1 to concourse 4. Once in concourse 4 we were a bit lost because they won’t give you your gate until an hour before the plane is supposed to take off. Not board, take off. This bottleneck is caused due to the large traffic of airplanes and limited number of gates, thus they can’t assign a gate until almost the time you are supposed to board.

We grabbed some rather unfortunate airport food and waited until our gate was announced. We spent about 30 minutes sitting in front of our gate because we were fortunate enough to get seats. Don’t get to your gates late, ladies and gents, because seating is limited…very limited.

Finally we boarded and were off to Paris. The flight was once again uneventful and marked our 30th plane flight on this trip, not bad for 7 plus months, no? Well, our arrival in Paris heralded sadness and disappointment for both of us, but me especially. We got through customs in a slow but steady fashion and then and waited for our bags. Kel’s bag arrived pretty quickly but mine didn’t. We waited, and waited and waited before finally heading to the baggage services desk. On our plane alone more than fifteen people’s bags were “mishandled”, that’s the airlines word for plain old lost. Most people were pretty lucky (still upset and angry), their bags had been found but just not in Paris. When they checked for my bag on their little list the only words next to its ID number were, “Not Seen.” Yup, my bag was seriously missing. They had no idea where it was or what happened to it. Needless to say, I was unhappy and very concerned but, of course, there was little I could do. I left my contact info, got a claim number, and we set off to find our hotel and meet up with my parents.

We found a cab in a relatively short period of time and set off for downtown Paris. The unfortunate news here was the fact that due to the extra time in the airport we were attempting to head into Paris during rush hour. For the next 2 to 2 and a half hours our cab driver apologized for the Parisian traffic and proceeded, in broken English, to tell us about the major sights in Paris. He was very energetic and incredibly nice but I was pretty unhappy due to the stop and go traffic, my lost bag, and the fact that we figured we’d be at our hotel at 6ish and didn’t arrive until 8:30pm. Not a good day at all.

The only positive part of the whole day was meeting my parents at the hotel just off the Champs de Elysees. We almost immediately headed up the street from our hotel for dinner in a nearby café. Nothing in the world is as comforting as your parents. Just being with them, talking to them, eating with them cheered me up considerably. My ever pragmatic mother pointed out other scenarios where people we knew had lost baggage only to have it found days to weeks later. This lifted my spirits, at least temporarily, and we proceeded to have a really nice dinner.

When dinner was done we headed back to the hotel to get some rest. While we had only flown a total of two hours during the day we had been traveling a total of 12 hours including airport time and cab time, very tiring. I went to sleep hoping that the morning would bring with it better news.

No News but a Good Day of Exploring

I started the next morning on a grumpy note since I hadn’t slept well the night before as more and more of the contents of my bag came up in my memory. The bag contained all my clothes, my new tripod which I was excited about, my better pair of shoes, all toiletries, and most importantly our external hard drive which had all 13,000 of our pictures on it. Since we’ve been abroad for so long our only sense of home is completely tied to our packs. The only feeling of security comes from what little stuff you have with you: your clothes, your books, your general stuff. While we don’t have much stuff, what we do have is very important to us. I woke in the morning feeling violated, despondent, and lost. Kel did her best to perk me up but until we really got moving and out of the room I was pretty down on life and of course British Airways.

The four of us walked up the street and found a cheap café for breakfast and then started our day. We walked down to the good ole Eiffel Tower and poked around the area until about noon. This is the second time I’ve been to this giant Erector Set tower which seems to be huge due to the lack of perspective, no other building in the area is even close to its size. While it is only 20 something stories tall, which is normal from a skyscraper perspective, no building in the area is more than four or five stories giving the tower a feeling of hugeness which is impressive. We decided not to go up into the tower as the line just to get tickets was never ending and we all deemed the view not really worth it. Instead we walked down to the Seine and bought tickets to a river tour.

The next half hour was spent traveling the Seine admiring the view and the beauty of the day. We finally got off the boat near the Louvre in order to find lunch. Luck would have it that we completely stumbled across a restaurant that had amazing food. The next hour and a half was spent Oohing and Ahhing over our lunches. Paris really does have some amazing food!

After lunch we got back on the boat tour and took the rest of the loop of the river. Paris is an amazing city in that a huge part of it is so beautiful. Many cities in Europe have sections of town which are nice but these are usually relatively small in relation to the overall size of the city itself. Paris, on the other hand, has a huge section of the city center which is just amazing. Even small, inconsequential buildings are beautiful, old and worth admiring. Taking a cruise on the river allows one to just sit back and admire all that Paris has to offer.

By time we were done with the cruise it was time to head back to the hotel as it was getting late and we were pretty tired from all the walking. We rested during the early afternoon before heading off for dinner. Instead of just roaming for a place to eat we had asked our concierge to get us reservations at a relatively famous restaurant on the Champ de Elysees called Fouquet’s. While our dinner was pretty expensive, the food was amazing. Most of us got fish dishes that were scrumptious and the desserts were to die for. All in all it was a great ending for a superb exploration day.

The day ended with still no word about my bag meaning that the next day would bring a little clothes shopping for me. By the way, a little note about British Airways: they have one of the worst baggage handling records in the world. As a final note for all who read this - never fly through Heathrow if you can help it and NEVER fly British Airways. I’m writing this blog after having been in Paris for three full days and they still don’t even know where my bag is. JERKS!!!!

Hope you are all happy and well at home.

Editor’s Note: Mike is really trying to be a trooper about the lost bag thing, but it’s seriously tough. Never having a place to call home for 7 months is challenging but the only thing that feels familiar (besides each other) is what’s in your bag. From stuff as simple to having a toothbrush and razor that you like to socks that are comfy and shoes that are broken in, it gives you a feeling of continuity in a lifestyle that changes daily. Secondly, if we don’t see the bag again, we’ll never be able to do anything with the pictures from the trip up until now - never look at them (except on the blog the way you do), print them or put them up in our house to remember our time by. Mike’s put a ton of effort and care into taking them so it hurts to think they may be gone. We’ll get past it - still hoping the bag will turn up soon! - but it’s not easy. Kudos to Mikey for pushing through this like a champ. Kel

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Photos

Reflection of the Seine in Kel
Shamelessly stole this idea, kinda cool anyway.

Comments

[Rebecca]

Bag woes
Hey guys, I know what it's like to be bagless, but I can only imagine how hard this must be for both of you. I really hope it turns up soon, and that you will still be able to enjoy your time in Paris. There's a great view of the city (+ Eiffel Tower) from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, and a fantastic walking avenue (no cars allowed) called Rue de Cler a few blocks from the Tower. As if you needed tourist ideas... =)