The Journey Home

Sunday Jan. 31, 2010

We got up pretty early in order to leave by 5:40am to catch our train to the airport. We hurried out the door and caught the train for a half hour ride to the airport. When we got to our stop we hurried up the steps to our entrance but found that we had to use our train tickets in order to get into the airport. Unfortunately they didn't work! So we had a couple of the girls walk through with other people entering the airport, but once they got over, there was no one else going through the gates for us to follow and there wasn't going to be another train with people for at least a half an hour. We couldn't believe this was happening, but we still looked for SOME way to get into the airport. We even considered trying to fit through the small space between the two gates, but found it was impossible. Just as we thought all hope was lost a man from out of no where motioned for us to follow him...we were sceptical, but we had no other choice and he pointed to an open gate we could walk freely through without having to use a ticket. We had looked at all the gates earlier and didn't notice any of the open. It was definitely a miracle and when we turned around to thank him he was gone! Ive never experienced anything like that before, and he was definitely our angel for the day. Once we were all reunited we took off for our flight schedule. Turns out we were quite early so we enjoyed a McDonalds breakfast together and waited until our gate was open.

We checked into our gate and waited what seemed to be forever for our plane to board, and then it got delayed and took even longer. When we finally started to board we walked outside to a bus that would take us to our plane. But then we were on the bus waiting for 40 minutes scrunched between tons of people and their luggage. Through the wait we met a french woman who was very friendly and helpful to us, giving us advice about future trips we had planned to take. We talked to her the remainder of the wait on the bus until we started to move. Everyone on the bus was very patient and considerably quiet, something that wouldn't happen if Americans were stuck on a bus for 40 minutes.

We arrived in Liverpool and searched for our bus to take us to the train station, where our next transportation was. There were many friendly people willing to help us find the cheapest and easiest way to our train station. We got to the station and grabbed a lunch just before our train arrived. After a 2 hour train ride we were back in Bangor! And somewhere along the way, George, Megan's flat mate, got on the same train as us, so we all walked back together to campus.

We were finally back after what felt like a long day! We all unpacked and headed off to church. When we got back we planned our spring break trip and bought tickets for Geneva and Athens! We were all pretty excited about that, but ready for bed after our 3 day adventure in Paris=)