Now It's Time For So Long

You can write as many lists as you want, nothing ever goes the way you plan! I made an exact list of the way my morning was supposed to go and while it worked out, it certainly didn't follow a shopping list. Life doesn't work like that, or so I'm told. The alarm went off at 5:00am but it was almost unnecessary because Jess and I barely slept. Stress does that to you. We also had only given ourselves 4 hours of sleep anyway so that wasn't too useful. After hitting stop on the alarm I went right to the kitchen to put on some toast. My schedule said to put on toast, then get dressed and brush my teeth before it popped. Well, I forgot my hair needs to be brushed, let alone that it takes forever to do that, so the toast popped while I was half dressed so I buttered it and put the next 2 slices in before I finished getting dressed and brushed my teeth. By then the second toast had popped so Jess and I ate that in pretty much silence because it was too early to speak before we continued with our tasks. We packed up our charged electronics and organize my purse before Jess decided we needed to finish the bread so we decided to make 4 more slices to eat on the way to the train station. We buttered the toast, did a double check of absolutely everything, dropped off the keys, and headed up tot he train station at 5:30am. It sucked. Hard. We got to the train station just as the 5:44am train was leaving and refilled our Zapping cards with what we hoped was the right amount to get us through 1 train ride and 2 metro rides to the Lisbon airport. We waited the 19 or so minutes we needed to before the train arrived and off we went towards the metro. We arrived at the Sete Rios station at 6:25am so we had to wait a few minutes for the metro to open but we got the first Blue Line metro to S. Sebtuale, which was 2 stops away. We then caught the Red Line to Aerporto! The whole ordeal was actually way smooth! We arrived at the airport at 7:10am and our flight wasn't until 9:40am so we had a solid 2+ hours to get to our gate!

We went through the Duty Free gift shop area of Terminal 1 that sent us looping to a main shop area. We checked a couple of shops and bought a gift for my grandfather, a chicken we'd been debating that we finally decided to go for it, while we waited for our gate to be assigned on one of those big screens they have all over airports. We sat there until 8:20am even though the gate got announced at 8:10am because Jess was still gift shopping, but eventually we meandered over to gate North 46A. We walked the extensive walk to literally the furthest gate ever to be greeted by a line of people already going through the gate. We hopped in line with the rest of them while a woman asked us if they had called Zone 2 yet. Apparently there are Zones they call for boarding but it really didn't matter because there were still Zone 2 people in line to get through their secondary security check when they called Zone 3. We were Zone 3 but like I said, it didn't matter. The secondary security is a little Q&A the airport personal give you while they check your passport and boarding pass to verify that your bag is yours and was with you the whole time and that you aren't carrying anything someone else gave you. It's probably a drug cartel thing, but it could be for a number of things! They send most people through another bag-check but they decided we were clean and sent us right to the actual boarding line where they scanned our boarding passes and wished us a pleasant journey. We took an escalator down to a line where we awaited a bus to take us to the plane. This meant we got to go up the Fun Way to get to the plane.

At this point Jess and I were definitely over-tired and were just laughing about everything so the bus ride was a hoot and boarding the plane was a gigglefest and we just had a good time with all of it! Jess got to be a hero too (sort of). A woman dropped her phone down the side of her seat and Jess rose to the challenge with her long, skinny arms and was able to rescue the phone and it the woman was quite grateful and that was our excitement for boarding. Take off posed no issues and before we knew it we'd gotten a snack, a drink, a hot towel, and our first meal (we get 2 cause it's an 8 hour flight) and that's when the fun started! Jess and I are seated at the very back of the plane, the literal last seats of the middle row. That means we're the last to get served when they bring drinks and whatnot, which Jess and I are fine with! We also didn't mind when they informed us that they were out of the chicken meal and only had thev vegetarian option left (which we were gonna ask for anyway but even if not we wouldn't have minded). But the woman seated next to us did mind. A lot. She pitched a fit about how the vegetarian option is "disguting" and she had "6000 frequent flyer miles" and she was supposed to be in a different seat but she got bumped to the back or something until she wore down the poor flight attendant enough to be given the meal they make for people in business class seats. She barely said thank you. What a goon.

That little bit of excitement over Jess and I played a few rounds of Uno, mostly to justify having brought the cards which we hadn't used up until that point, then watched some movies on our fancy screens! Jess watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice intermittently while she listened to her iPod but I decided to watch some things I'd never seen before. I rarely finish movies I start but I figured if I had nothing else to do but watch it, I would be more inclined to finish it! I watched 'Confessions of a Shopaholic', which I loved, and 'I, Tonya' which I'd been meaning to watch and also really enjoyed! Sometime between then we received our 'second meal' which was a choice of a Pizza Wrap thing or a ham and cheese croissant. Jess got one, I got the other, and we tried them both. We were, however, offered first choice this time around, a courtesy given to everyone in the back as we hadn't gotten a choice earlier which I thought was quite decent of them. From there I finished those two and only had so much time left so I put on 'Miss Congeniality' which I've seen a million times and wouldn't mind not being able to finish. I was right to do so as we landed in Atlanta about an hour into the movie.

The time was 1:00pm-ish and our flight didn't leave until 5:55pm so we figured we had plenty of time to sit around once we got off the plane. We forgot, of course, that America is crazy and we had to do a lot of stuff to re-enter our own country. First we had to wait in a line to get directed to a machine where we scanned our passports and answered a few questions about our trip. Then we stood in another line to actually meet with a customs officer (who could have just asked us the return questions himself but what do I know). Our customs officer was really funny though! When we greeted him he said "What, did you two both rail a line of coke? How are you so cheerful?" and when he asked if we were sisters and we replied twins he went "Wow, weirdos". He was very funny and we liked him a lot. After that it was, guess what? Another line! This time to go through TSA again to get to our connecting flight. Never gone through TSA to get to a connecting flight, but this is America and honestly we are a country where we need to be careful about checking peoples stuff because it's crazy dangerous to fly in America. So we did that and it went fine and we were off to find our plane! We had to get on a tram to get to Terminal A where we walked the long walk to Gate A1 where we saw a sign advertising Atlanta Airport as the most efficient airport ever. Most Complex is the term I would have used, but what do I know.

While we sat the rain began to start and Jess and I realized how much we'd missed America and the rain of the south. Here was when the whole airport discovered Southern Summer Rain because it was then that flights started getting delayed. Every single flight got delayed except, for some reason, ours. It still flashed on the screen as 5:55pm. Which was weird. We asked and the person at the desk confirmed that nothing had changed. Then, about 5:00pm an announcement was made that our gate had been moved to Gate 3, which was just one over from us. So everyone got up and sat for another half hour when it was announced our flight had been moved to 6:16pm. A 20 minute delay in an airport full of hour long or more delays seemed too good to be true. And, to some extend, it was. The plane arrived basically at 5:50pm and had to unload. We didn't really begin boarding until 6:10pm, when I alerted our mother that we'd been delayed and might be late. On board Jess and my seats were separate this time, her being in 23B and me being in 23E. AFter boarding, however, no one had filled 23C, the aisle seat next to Jess, so I gladly swapped over there and began watching Murder on the Orient Express which Jess had watched on the tail end of the plane ride from Portugal. I only had so much time to watch it so I started as soon as I was settled. We took a while to get in the air anyway though because only a few ramps were open and we had to wait in a line of other planes to take off. Once we were in the air turbulence was expected so they initially had all the flight attendants glued to their seats but when we encountered basically none they had the crew gun it to serve snacks to the passengers. We got cookies and a snack bag and life was good.

I didn't finish my movie before we landed but we ended up waiting on the ground for a while there too because another plane was in our gate and we had to wait. That took a while but we didn't mind as we'd landed at 8:00pm and our mother wasn't set to pick us up until 9:30pm. As we exited the plane, even in the 8:00pm air, we could feel the sweet humidity we had missed so much. The warm rush of hot, humid air strained through the cracks between the plane and the ramp and we were thrilled to be met by it! Following that spiritual experience, we took the tram from the terminal to the main building and poked into the Universal and Disney giftshops. We bought nothing, but we were very excited to be back in the Disney/Universal Hype Zone. SO much we'd missed in Europe. At 9:00pm all the shops closed up so we followed the signs to the pick-up zone. We'd texted our mother and she said to meet her outside the KLM pickup but we couldn't find that so we told her to meet us outside the Delta one, which was the company we'd flown with and the first pick-up spot where we were at the time. At last, Jess and I exited the building and stepped outside. It was a holy moment. A holy, humid moment. It was warm, actually warm. Not Ireland Warm, not Paris Warm, and not Portugal Warm, but honest, genuine, hot and humid warm. I took my sweater off. Outside. At night. Know how long it's been since I've done that? 3 weeks, that's how long!

Our mother came at 9:30pm almost on the dot and greeted us with warm hugs and happy smiles and we were all overjoyed to be home! Jess and I weren't quite home yet and won't be for a few more days as we're staying with our mother at her place. She took time off to do things with us that we'll hope we have the energy to do. At her place we almost immediately pulled out the gift bag of chocolates we had acquired in Portugal to try some. Jess and I were still full from the flight food and the ham and cheese sandwiches we ate during the layover so we didn't eat much but decided that was best as it saved more for the next few days to enjoy together. After that we called our brother to wish him a happy early birthday as it would be his birthday the following day, and got ready for bed. We finally got to bed at 12:00pm. In Portugal, though, it was 5:00am. Tally For The Day: Methods of Travel; 1 train, 2 metros, 1 bus, 2 trams, 2 planes, 1 car. Travel Time; 5:00am-5:00am, 24 hours. What a wild day to end a wild trip.

So, that's the end of it then. I write this final post from my mother's house in Florida, quaint and familiar. The adventure is over. I looked through pictures on my instagram earlier in the day and found the ones I posted our very first day in Ireland. I can't put my finger on why, but we look different. Is it weird to say younger? It's only been 3 weeks after all, we haven't grown that much, but looking at those pictures I can't help but feel that person is a much younger version of myself. Then again, it could just be the long sleeves we had to wear. Still, there is something to be said about growth. I learned a lot about myself this trip. I learned I can master a metro system in 2 days, not the usual 3. I learned being an American puts me at an automatic disadvantage and pretending I was French or British gave me back some of what I'd lost. I learned cultures differ but at the core a lot of places are very alike! I learned I can handle myself in a totally new environment without getting mugged, losing anything, and only getting slightly lost. I learned travel is interesting, exciting, and something I definitely don't want to do for a long time after this because boy if it's not also exhausting, expensive, and in a lot of ways, overrated. Life is short, the world is wide, but there are plenty of people ready to go see it and I'll happily be a local Floridian for those globe-trotters. Lastly, I learned perseverence. I'd like to say it was from figuring out metros or spending 17 hours traveling to visit a castle for 2 hours or riding buses without bathroom breaks in Ireland but I honestly learned it most from this blog. There were a lot of days I didn't wanna write my posts and times I told myself I didn't have to. Only like 3 people are reading this (Hi Mom, Alex, and Auntie!) so it wouldn't have mattered to anyone if I'd skipped a day. Anyone but me. I made an agreement with myself to write a post everyday and I held true even when I was dead tired and overwhelmed and I made it happened and I couldn't be prouder of myself! So if your reading this, thanks. This was a labour of love and excessive (or unnecessary) effort that I will always have as a momento of my time in Ireland, Paris, and Portugal. If we ever travel again we'll be sure to be back here (we meaning me but hey, maybe Jess'll show up too), but until such a day, it's time for so long.