Ninety One Days in Europe Come to an End

787-8 BRI B-2 Jetairfly

I wanted the title to read ‘When is the Madness Going to End?‘, but decided that a reference to 91 days of travel in Europe would make more sense in the bigger picture.
The 5:00am wake up call was not welcome, since we have had very little sleep the past few days, but it was time to roll it out.
Once again we were in for a surprise when we checked in with the airline as we were supposed to land in Sanford International Airport, our original departure airport. However at check-in we learned that we were being re-routed to Miami and then shuttled via bus to Sanford. What was supposed to be a 12 hour travel day, turned just like that in 22 hours! We were both literally fed up at this point.

Ate a quick breakfast after the long line of checking in, paying $17 per pound for overweight luggage and passed extensive security measures. I must be on some sort of list that I don’t know about because the day before I was frisked at check-in by the police outside the airport and now my hands and waistband were wiped and tested for explosions. I don’t really mind though, as being safe outranks everything else. (At least for me).

Passport control in Belgium was brusque and downright rude. The guy ripped my passport out of its holder and literally flung it at me. Not a hello, good-bye or any word was uttered by him. The cover, in no way, covered up the area he needed to read and/or stamp. He obviously does not like his job. However at this point I just wanted to continue on through and due to the cancelled flight, I was already a day late in exiting Europe, so I kept my mouth shut and just stood there. (difficult for me)

We finally got to the gate and stood in line for 45 minutes before boarding began, which felt like a herd of sheep and ready ourselves for a 9 hours and 45 minutes plane ride.
We were in the middle rows of the plane and sat down next to two nice Belgian girls with vacation destination Jacksonville, and settled in. They were eating chocolate croissants and I mentioned they smelled good, so they offered me one, which I turned down at first, then the smell became too much to resist.

It was a long but easy flight with very little turbulence. I watched three movies on the tiny screen until my eyes were about to fall out. Was not able to catch a catnap but I was fine.
Landed in Miami and our first check-in point were these robot machines that scan your face and take your fingerprints then print out a receipt for you to take to immigration. We thought that the receipt would decrease our time standing in line, but we were once again, wrong completely wrong. We thought that after Han getting through the whole costly procedure of getting his Green Card, we could stand in line as returning to the US, instead of visiting the US – this is how it use to be. Apparently they changed it again, so the line was a long snake of foreign visitors, citizens and alien residents all crammed together and the only thing that made it bearable were the same girls we sat next to on the plane, as we chatted and they shared some eye-opening sugary gummy candy with me.

Finally out of the airport, we stood in yet another line in the horrific heat, waiting for the buses that were late. It took two buses to transport all the re-routed people to Sanford. We found out that we could file complaints with Jetair and possibly receive a refund, but Han has to do that.

The buses were straight up pieces of crap. My side window was shaking so bad that I thought it might fall out any second, the door kept having issues in closing and no seatbelt to buckle up with. I would not normally worry about it but the driver needs some serious lessons in driving. Heck he almost hit a van upon exiting the airport and during the travels he scared me so bad that I gasped and he said, “no worries, no one died.” Really?
I suppose it’s my fault for choosing the seats directly behind the driver. LOL

We finally arrive in Sanford, surprisingly all in one piece, since the driver got lost, hugged the inside line constantly and passed a car on a two lane road. Glad to be out of the bus.
Our dear friend Rory picked us up and we were both extremely happy to see a friendly face, but sure did not welcome another three hours inside a vehicle.
Our other dear friends are letting us stay in their home while they are in Wisconsin and we were relieved and happy to have a peaceful, restful place to lay our heads.
Rory dropped us off and we very shortly found our way to the bed and collapsed. Han figured it out that we were traveling for approximately 22 hours by the time we reached Fernandina Beach. WOW!

So all’s well, that ends well.

The trip was perfect and well worth taking, even with some of the mishaps and issues. I would not change a thing, as all of it was a lesson learned and a memory made. It’s a funny thing about the more crazy aspects of traveling, in that those are the things you can laugh about later and enjoy telling more. They are what make life worth living and able to fully appreciate the better times.

You will not hear from me for a couple of weeks as I can finally hang my clothes out and donate whatever I don’t need or want anymore to the victims of the Louisiana floods.