5:24 PM - Will never understand why these stupid Eastern airports (both Toronto and Montreal) are such corporate slaves to Bell, and will not offer free Wifi Internet at their airports. YVR is light years ahead of these dung heaps - no wonder all the economic power is fleeing to the West now. It's like walking into the Stone Ages here. Surprised they don't get out and push the planes to the runway in Montreal, after turning the propellers to get the engine started. Ugh.
That's right Montreal, - you suck!
5:45 PM - barely had time to get a newspaper when they started boarding again. Full plane and so hot and humid in here - turn on the A/C! Ugh. Man people stink here. I'm just saying.Came back to find a pillow and blanket on my seat which was nice - I love international flying.
I'm guessing my friend Chris, who's in Korea, had way better service on Korean Airlines though - now that would have been a fun trip. This month's Enroute magazine on the plane had a big article on Seoul - love to go someday. Lucky duck! Chris, I'll trade you done smelly French people for some Yum Yum Chicken in Seoul? Do I hear you shaking your head?
I saw people boarding at the next gate for Rome - man was I tempted! Don't get me wrong, I'm sure this will be a fun trip, but I admit I'm not big in France as a country. I'm afraid I'm falling to stereotypes we get from CNN on France - I'm hoping this trip will correct some of them for me. One thing I do know - they are fiercely nationalistic, which is probably why they tick of the US so much.
Had left a message for my parents when I landed and one on boarding and my Mom called back before we left which was nice. Could have talked to her nearly 15 minutes longer as we didn't move anywhere, though we had to turn off all devices right away.
Listen, seriously Air Canada, if my $300 iPhone can bring down your $100 million plane by talking to my Mom for 5 more minutes, you have bigger issues than we thought. Get the message - you all sound silly when you say our little phones can interfere with your equipment. Get new equipment then!
6:18 PM - Finally backing up out of the gate.
6:27 PM - We taxied to the runway so slow we were practically going backwards. Taking off right now, but wow, it seemed to take forever to get off the ground. This is the same plane, right?
6:53 PM - They made some announcement in French only and everyone clapped. I hate being left out. Starting to watch Terminator: Salvation. Let's see if it lives up to the hype.
7:04 PM - Nope, it didn't - stopped it after 1/2 hour. Staff are coming out with food. Man it smells good. I'm sitting up-front on the way back - hate being served last.
7:26 PM (1:26 AM Paris). Am switching to Paris time now. Dinner, or supper as I like to call it, is served (see picture right, click for larger). We have a nice bean salad (with carrots, peas, etc) poulet (chicken) with curly pasta and a really rich cream sauce, a roll, bottle of water and chocolate mousse with a ball of chocolate cake stuck in it. No choice in meat (beef or chicken) like in Sydney but works for me. They are even giving away little bottles of free wine, but I prefer Coke.So weird, just half hour ago you could see Prince Edward Island below us, and now suddenly it's just pitch black outside. Once we've all eaten I'm going to try to sleep. I started watching Night At the Museum 2 - uniquely offered in my choice of English, French and...Korean! Don't think I've ever seen those language choices before.
Nope, that movie just wasn't grabbing me either - decided to visit the washroom before sleeping. Man, flushing the toilet on these things scares me - it sucks all the air out of the room!
2:00 AM - Going to sleep now - so tired for some reason. Even though it's only 5 PM at home, your mind seems to switch gears somehow to Paris time.
Maybe I will need to also sleep at hotel a few hours before heading out - going to be a long day otherwise. I previously bought a day pass to the Palace of Versaille Saturday which may have been a bit optimistic in hindsight. Too late now
Getting really anxious now about Paris for some reason - almost panicking. I really hope I can get by this next week with a phrase book and 'Parlez-vous anglais'-ing these poor people to death.
2:48 AM - At least, I think it is. My iPhone says this is the correct Paris time, but the plane's system says an hour earlier. However, it also says we'd get there at 5:30 AM and I know that's wrong (6:30 at the earliest) so I think I'm OK. I like the map that shows you where you are and gives our flight details (see picture left, click for larger). In case you can't read it, we are at 33,000 feet, going 650 MPH and it's -52.6F outside. We've already flown 1397 miles and 2090 to go. 'Yikes' on all counts! We're over something called Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone. Yah doesn't sound good at all. To summarize, we're over the deep end of the ocean - not quite 1/2 way.4:00 AM - still can't sleep. The hillbilly couple behind me that got on in Montreal keeps grabbing the back of my seat every time they stand up. Looks like we're 2/3 there now - 2150 miles flown, 1344 left. Get me off this thing. Flying east is always a nightmare physically, I think because of the fact you are losing time and you don't catch up really until you go back.
4:22 AM - Seriously, being tired is all in my head. How could I even want to sleep - it's 7:22 PM back home - I'm not that old and I've just sat around all day - but for some reason I'm totally bone tired. It must be lack of fresh air, altitude, pressure or something. I'm going to try to stay up until at least 1:00 PM Paris time and go see Versailles. Rick Steves says it's always crazy busy in the afternoons. However, that's like 4:00 AM at home though, which means I'd have been up for 24 hours, so really need to sleep a bit now. I really wish I brought a sleeping pill on the plane. Definitely going to need one to re-regulate - not going through the Sydney disaster again.
5:33 AM - Stewardesses brought around muffins and orange juice, and I talked to Anna, a girl beside me who flew all day with me. She's from Bellingham, WA and is going to be an au pair (like a nanny) for a year in Paris. Her French is even less than mine, so I feel much better now. Like the old saying goes, "I complained about having no shoes until I met a man with no feet". We were flying over Ireland a few minutes ago and now we can see the lights below of little towns in Wales. So cool.
5:45 AM - We cut across the southeast tip of England and will soon cross the English Channel into France. The lights in the plane are turning pink and getting brighter now - we're about 45 min from Paris.
6:01 AM - crossing the English Channel now and I'm getting really excited all of a sudden. I've found my 5th wind I think, and I'm not scared of Paris now. Been through Dallas, LA, New York, Boston, Washington and Sydney in the last decade alone - not sure why I thought Paris is different. If you can read a map, and can figure out that trains have a start and end station on every line, and how to transfer between lines, you can really go anywhere in any city. Discovered part of my iPhone app for the train station that is amazing - you tell it the closest station and the one you want on any line - Metro (subway) or RER (suburban rail, like West Coast Express) and it tells me where to change trains.
I also just learned that my hotel is on an RER line (there are 10!) and a Metro line (there are 14!). It's even on the right line to go to Versailles - only 27 min to get there! This was an amazing hotel choice for sure - thanks again Mom!
I decided I will get to the hotel, check in and sleep for 2-3 hours and then hop on the train around noon to go to Versailles. I do like learning train systems - gotten a lot of places that way!
6:07 AM - descending now and officially crossed into France according to our satellite map! (see picture right, click for larger) The lights of the massive city of Paris, the City of Lights (and I can see why, it's lights as far as your eye can see in the distance!) are below. There are few skyscrapers in Europe, so a big city like Paris is really spread out, more so than a same-sized population in Canada/US would be.
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