It's a grey, cold, rainy day in Paris -- the kind of weather that makes curling-up in front of a roaring fireplace seems real appealing. Yesterday I did a "dry-run" for my trip to catch a plane tomorrow -- glad I did. On paper, it sounded fairly straight forward -- walk from the hotel to the shuttle train -- take the train to the terminal, walk to the proper gate and check-in -- what could go wrong?
The first thing was I took the train in the wrong direction and ended-up at the wrong terminal (some times even the arrows here don't help all that much) -- no big deal -- reversed course and made it to the correct stop -- Terminal 1 and I just needed to stroll over to Terminal 2A -- twenty minutes later, I'm strolling and still not there -- turns out, Charles Degaulle is a pretty stretched-out airport.
By the time I reached 2A I had worked-up a good sweat (humid/warm) and kept thinking "How is this, I wasn't even towing my two loaded, hundred pound suitcases behind me".
Then, I realized I didn't know which "gate" the plane was leaving from (British Airways neglected to mention gate information in it's boarding instructions) -- not sure how much help that would've been anyway -- the "Arrivals/Departures" board said Gate 9 -- problem was, the gates were in numerical order until I reached Gate 8 -- the one right next to it was "10" -- there was no Gate 9 -- actually, there was -- it just turns out it was in the basement, around corner and down a flight of stairs -- I was thinking to myself -- "I know the French and the English don't especially care for each other, but had it gotten this bad that they stuck British Airways in the basement?" The answer is "Yep!"
So glad I did the "dry-run" -- could just have seen myself at 5:00am on Tuesday morning, half awake, maybe running a little late -- taking the wrong train, finding that two of the elevators I needed to take were out of order (not sure how I'll get those two "monsters" up the stairs, but at least I know I have that to look forward to) and then not finding the gate where I expected it to be -- oh, it would have made the start of my day "so much more interesting!!"
Later that evening, after resting-up a bit, I hopped a shuttle bus to a local "airport mall" -- yes, they have an actuall indoor shopping mall at the airport, complete with a huge grocery store. The mall was in the shape of a circle and the store-mix seemed different from in the USA -- kind of an odd assortment of sporting goods, infant clothes, women's clothes, crafts, bakeries, furniture and lingerie -- a cinema and a bunch of restaurants and bars -- maybe I've forgotten what the malls are like in the States. It was Sunday evening around six and the place was packed with long lines at the bakeries, ice cream stores and restaurants. Very interesting experience.
Well, it's finally arrived -- in less than twenty-four hours I'll be winging my way back to the States -- on some days it felt like like I'd been here forever and other days it was like I just landed in Paris yesterday ready for the "adventure" of a lifetime! In looking back at the first journal entry I wrote while waiting to board the plane at the airport -- wondering "what the hell am I doing" -- I can only say that I'm glad that I went through with it -- it hasn't been easy, and there have been days when I thought to myself that maybe I should just "pack it in, declare success and come home!"
It had been a dream of mine since the early 1980's to do something like this but the finances and timing had never been "right" and I had pretty-much written it off as a pipe dream. Then, about a year ago, things came "together". During my professional consulting career, I worked with many people in organizations and one of the things I tried to get them to understand was if there was something that was important to them, something that they really wanted to do in or with their lives, then they shouldn't be waiting until "tomorrow" to do it because "tomorrow" might never come. Last Fall a few things happened in my personal life that gave me that "wake-up" call and I realized I needed to start "practicing" what I had been "preaching". This trip was one of them.
On this "adventure", I've gone amazing places, seen wonderful things, learned a lot and met some great people along the way -- in retrospect I can't imagine having missed out on this opportunity. But all (well, maybe not "all") good things must end and I have no regrets leaving Europe -- staying in a hotel at the airport in Paris the last few days, I pretty much hibernated (catching-up a bit on this journal) -- couldn't think of anywhere in Paris I wanted to go or anything I wanted to do -- just reinforced what i had been thinking for a while, it really was the right time to return.
