On of Those Days

Haver you ever just had one of those days?  You know, where absolutely nothing goes right and you think the world is conspiring against you.  I had one of those the day I was trying to leave for our trip.  Ryan was travelling ahead of me for work reasons, so I was meeting him.

I had to board the animals at the kennel, which is on base.  They close at 6 pm, and my flight was later, so I figured that I could drop them off around 4:30 I had more time with them.  At 3:30 I remembered that the kennel did not have the up to date vaccine records because I took the girls locally, not on base, for their shots.  I scanned and emailed at that time.  I get there at 4:20 with the animals and discover that my cat is missing the feline leukemia vaccine and the one from the year before has expired.  I can't board her. 

I panicked.  I had to leave soon for the airport and now I have no place for my cat.  The vet on base was closed and so was the vet nearby in town.  I thought about and decided I had to drive across to the southern part of the island, back to the Angra vet.  We called ahead, so they were waiting with the vaccine ready to go.  I drove there and back (about 15 miles, and had the vaccine and the cat was in her kennel "room" by 5:30.  Ah, a sigh of relief...

But not for long.  I got to the airport and they can't find my reservation.  The girl makes a call and says there is a problem with my ticket.  I needed to go to the customer service desk.  I got there and discovered the issue, which I could have predicted, was about my credit card.  The airline website did not let me enter my realy billing address, which is an APO (militay) address.  The states is listed as AE and the airline did not give me that option, so I changed the country to Portugal and it processed my transaction, and I got the confirmation, and my credit card company confirmed this with me by phone and charged me for the ticket.  So I thought I was good to go, but I was not.  Luckily, all it took was to show my credit card and ID to verify it was a legitimate transaction.  Ah, a sigh of relief...

But not for long.  The airline had 2 flights leaving at the same time.  I heard an announcement that sounded like it was for my flight and everyone was lining up and the sign said Lisbon.  I got in line, handed the man my ticket, and went downstairs to get on the bus that takes you down the runway to the plane.  Then I hear a woman cal out my name.  Yes, I had tried to board the wrong plane.  Mine boarded 10 minutes later, from the next gate over, with a very similar flight number.

It was certainly one of those days.

Here we go, I am finally ready to board for Lisbon, so know you know I was headed back to mainland Europe.  I think this is actually the sign for the other flight I wrongly boarded, but it still is for Lisbon.

Even with a rough day, I scored myself a whole row.  Things are looking up...but not for long.

Bye Island!  Look at the gorgeous coast line.

The sun is getting ready to set as we cross the Atlantic.

Here comes my meal.  They always serve sandwiches.  This time, I called and ordered vegetarian meals.  Nope, they did not have one for me on this flight.  So I settled on just the little cake.  I knew this would happen, because it was a rough day for me.

I did get lucky, and the flight attendant had a tuna sandwich in her meal that she was not going to eat, so she offered it to me.  Score!  I was very thankful for this, although I could have had a snack, since I planned for this, plus I had a 7 hour layover in Lisbon.

Lisbon, here I come!  The city is so beautiful.  I think I am in love with Lisbon.  It is fantastic and looked amazing from the sky at night.

After fighting to stay awake for most of the night, I was happy when the airport opened up again.  If you are wondering why I decided not to sleep in the airport, with my layover from midnight to 7 am, it was because I was having such a bad day, that I figured something bad might happen.  I played online and used skype to call home.

Once things opened close to 5 am, I stopped by the Harrod's cafe for a bite to eat and some coffee.

Oh was this tasty.  Just what I needed, although I was exhausted.

Look who it is!  None other than a giant Harrod's bear.

Drum roll please...

If you guessed that our trip was to Paris, you are 100% correct.  It seems so romantic there and there is a ton to see.  So we planned to meet in Paris for a few days.

Can you believe they had my vegetarian meal on this flight.

I had a steaming hot veggie sandwich for breakfast, and some fruit.

Here I am, in Paris.  I was so excited to see the Eiffel tower from a far while driving in.  then i got to the hotel.

Here is our room.  As soon as I got in, and after I took this picture, I took a shower and took a 3 hour nap, until Ryan would arrive.

There you have it, the world conspiring against us to take this trip.  In fact, that is why I did not say anything soon.  I avoided details so I did not curse myself.  The planning was roacky with constant changes to our vacation plans.  Originally, we were going to go to London, Paris and Brussels, but it fell through, so then we planned for just Paris, and I decided to stay hush, hush on the details.

But, I am here now, actually getting this post written as I wait for Ryan to arrive at the hotel.

Stayed tuned...more to come on PARIS!

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever had one of THOSE days?  What city do you picture as being romantic?