Travel Woes and Woahs!!!

So as many of you know, my dear husband came to visit me this past week.  Let me tell you, it is was a glorious week that we spent galavanting around Europe. I will spare the many times of us getting lost, as that is an inherent quality that comes along with me.... The craziness began on a Friday.  At least, that was when he left Indiana.
Friday : February 25
This evening I could hardly contain myself.  So around the time that I knew Chris was on his way to the Indianapolis Airport, I began flooding his phone with texts ( a handy little trick I discovered that I can do using my gmail account!) Well, anxious me doesn't hear back, so I hope that he is already on his way.  The other nervous-me worries that somehow he is still asleep and hasn't woken up yet, so I start calling his phone.  Finally, it was time for me to go downstairs and have dinner with my host family, so I do that.  After dinner and the nightly news I sprint back up to my room and text Chris one more time.  I get a response : "I am freaking out".  Okkkkaayyyyyy. He his has about an hour until he takes off..... "What is going on?" "I have been in stand still traffic for at least 30 minutes and am only 2 exits away.  A semi decided to tip over and there is a bad traffic jam". Bahhhhh.  I immediately text my dad and ask him what to do.  He told me that Chris should just check in as soon as he gets there so that they could at least hold the plane if need be.  I probably was not of much help to Chris in his situation, so I told him to text me when he had boarded.  I sat in my room, doing something, not really sure what.  Then about 15-20 minutes later I get another text.  "I am going through security and should be to my gate in 10-15 minutes"  WHAT???  Did he sprout a pair of wings and fly there???  I don't know how it all happened  so quickly, but God was definitely doing something up there!  A few short minutes later, I get the text that he was sitting "comfortably" in his seat waiting to take off!  I truly do not know how this all happened, but I am sure glad that it did. So he jumped from Indy to O'Hare, and with another short layover in O'Hare, I still wasn't completely settled.  Thankfully, the rest of his journey there was quite flawless.
Saturday : February 26
I wake up at the lovely hour of 6 am, and check on his flight.  Yep, it took off.  Yep, still flying.  So I waste some time doing stuff, and finally at about 7.52 his flight lands!  Yippeeee!!  My husband is once again in the same country as me:)  Now at the Airport in Paris, you get 15 minutes of free wifi.  So I had told Chris to call my french cell phone using skype in those 15 minutes to let me know that all was going well. About 8.30 I went downstairs for breakfast, and I come back up at 9.  THREE missed calls!!!  Ooopss!!!  After all that....and I was just downstairs eating breakfast.  Well all turned out well.  About 9.30 I jumped on the bus, and then the tram which I took to the place where I needed to be to catch the bus going to the airport.  I was kind of nervous, because I had never taken this bus, and if you know me and my history of public transportation, we don't usually get along so well.  But luckily I met probably the nicest couple since I have been in France.  So we chatted during our wait for the bus. Finally the bus comes and we get to the airport about 15 minutes later.  I have about another 2 hour wait at the airport, and then finally Chris' plane lands.  So I get up and stand in front of the baggage claim room.  Which was a room with glass walls, but with a matte layer over if so that you can't see.  However near the top, there were lines with no matte and so people we peaking over to see their loved ones.  I was of course not tall enough.  So I was looking through a little scratch (more my height...) about the size of a fingernail that was accidentally made sometime ago.  I didn't see him!!  Eeekk!!!  So I decide to just stay call and walk away from the scratch and just watch the door.  People keep coming out with their luggage and no mister Christopher.  Well I guess I had forgotten what he looked like, because I hadn't seen him through the scratch, but finally he came walking through the door.  I ran up and game him the shakiest hug I have ever given.
Once we left the airport, we went and got a week long tram pass for him so that we could take full advantage of the transportation system!  Then we got a sandwich for Chris and were kindly asked to leave the restaurant patio because apparently their sandwich eaters are "paying clients".  Whatever.  So After some wandering around, we found our apartment.  We had originally only planned on staying in Montpellier for 2 days and then going to Munich for the week.  That was way too expensive so we opted for the less convenient, but much less expensive Ryan Air that only flew on Wednesday mornings!!  So we would be in this apartment for 2 days, and then a hotel for the next 2. We got settled in and Chris took a short nap.  Once he woke up, we went back into town, enjoying the many demonstrations with loud drums and crazy dancers.  We just walked around and I showed him some of my favorite little streets.  One of our favorite parts was the few people on top of a truck with speakers plugged into a Macbook playing very loud music, and the 300 or so people following them in their slow trek through the streets.  Once we were cold and had had enough, we went and got ingredients to make tacos!!  My sweet husband brought me two packets of taco seasoning, because I had only been talking about tacos since the day I left.  We went back to our apartment and made the wonderful tacos with rice and pretty much crashed!!
Sunday : February 27 (Chris' Birthday)
I was so happy when I realized that Chris' birthday would overlap with his visit.  We woke up and went to town.  We went to a little cafe and each got a pastry and he got his tiny little coffee:)  We sat there in the sun for an hour or two and then started on the real goal of the day : finding all of Space Invader's pieces.  Space Invader was the street artist that I mentioned in an earlier post.  We spent the whole day walking around and found 18 out of the 25/26 ish.  Which was pretty good!!  We are fairly certain that some have been taken down.  Now if you think the US looks like a ghost town on Sundays...then you should come to France, because Nothing is open Sundays!!!  I had promised him a good birthday meal, but it took some finding!!  After some looking, we settled on what we thought was a small little italian restaurant.  We walk in, and the thing seems to be almost as long as a block, it was huge!!  We get a mozzarella pizza and pesto (I know, I know...trying new things blah, blah, blah).  We also got free bread and olives (which Chris enjoyed).  But I think that he enjoyed his birthday.  I gave him a pair of shorts and a shirt (that I found on super-sale!) and then a french book on Street Art.  I knew that he couldn't read it, but I figured that he may enjoy the pictures, plus it will make a nice coffee table book.  It was even cooler after having spent the whole day looking for street art!
Monday : February 28
Well Monday here is kind of like an extended Sunday.  Things progressively open throughout the week. We grabbed another french breakfast and we walked around, Chris taking pictures this time.  We found a beautiful old cathedral.  We went in an spent some times in there in the morning, but got kicked out about 12 for lunch, so we decided that we would go back the next day.  After lunch, we went out to a shopping center here and we went to an Apple Store and Chris' first IKEA trip!!!  We had tons of fun there, but the only thing that we bought were two packs of batteries of 1.50 euros!!  We went back to the hotel for a quick nap before we headed to my "family's" house.  My host parents wanted to meet Chris, but the strange thing is...Chris doesn't speak french, and they think they speak english....but don't.  So we had "apéritif"  which mainly consisted of me translating.  Then the main meal...Chris got to try the ever-famous vegetable soup that makes me want to vomit.  Luckily, it was better this time.  Then we had some sort of strange uncooked - biscuit things with a creamy sauce and vegetables on top.  Of course there was cheese, and then banana flambé for dessert.
Tuesday : March 1
We woke up a little later on this day, so we decided to have brunch.  We went to an outside café and had  le petit déjeuner anglais..which was a pain au chocolat, orange juice, coffee, toast, eggs, sausage and fromage blanc (or sour cream as we know it in the US...yeah try a nice heaping spoonful of that stuff!!)
We walked around some more and went back into the cathedral so that Chris could take some more pictures.  Probably the best part of the cathedral was the middle age man that farted and then tried to make a bunch of noise to cover it up.  After that we made big plans to go to the Mediterranean Sea.  We were kind of hungry so we grabbed an "Américain" which for a quick refresher is hamburger, ketchup and french fries on a baguette.   Oh yes, Chris did also try his first crèpe confirming that he does in fact enjoy Nutella.  So we hop on the bus that goes straight to the ocean.  And that is correct, is does go to the ocean, but not really any beaches.  We spend a few minutes looking for them, but there were none to be found.  Just water, some rocks, and the water.  Oh and flamingoes... lots of them!!!  We stayed there for about 30 minutes and then the bus came back.  That evening for dinner we went to a place called "le Wok" which was Wonderful, and a much welcomed change from french food.
Wednesday : March 2
We woke up an headed to the airport, filling up our water bottles so that we wouldn't go thirsty.  So we get to the airport and go up the stairs to go through security.  Well there were no trash cans to be found, and we were already part way through the line, so we drank all of our water then and there (mom you would be proud!!)  About an hour before we were supposed to board, people started lining up by the gate.  So we followed suit, which a line in France really means nothing.  So we boarded but all of the kind of people who were sitting in their comfy chairs, got on the plane before we did...strange.  We get on and look around for our seats...turns out that Ryan Air doesn't list seats, just sit where you want!!
We get to Frankfurt Hahn and buy bus tickets to get to Frankfurt.  The bus shows up and we put our luggage under the bus and get in line.  I get on the bus, and then Chris kindly lets two girls on the bus before himself.  Well turns out the bus only held 50 people...I was 48, Chris was 51....Yep.  We had to wait another hour for the next bus, though it was severely less crowded.  We get to Frankfurt in about 2 hours, and find our hotel.  We go to our room, which was about the same size as both of the hotels in France put together!!  We were quite hungry so we went out looking for some dinner!  We wander around and then Chris notices some bright lights so we decide to follow them.  I will spare the details, but turns out that the red light district is not hard to find.  We turned around and opted for an irish pub. I had a bacon cheeseburger with french fries (I miss some food from home okay!!).... and Chris had bangers and mash.
Thursday, Friday : March 3, 4
We spent this day and walked around, taking pictures.  We had pretzels and brats!!  We didn't do anything too specific, but had fun walking around. Thursday evening we took a nap before going out for dinner and Chris played with my hair the entire time!!!!  What a husband:)  We went out to a traditional German restaurant.  I wasn't feeling so well, but Chris had what was pretty much an entire pig on top of sauerkraut.  Friday evening we met up with my wonderful friend that I worked with at the Oakes : Danielle Thompkins and her boyfriend Tobi.  They took up to another traditional german restaurant and I tried Schnitzel.  We had an amazing evening with them.  We got back to our hotel about 1.00 in the morning knowing that we had to wake up at 4.00 the next morning in order to catch our flight to Paris.
Saturday : March 5
This is when the stress begins.  We wake up at 4 and take the train to the airport.  We get there to check in....and where are the passports???  Oh that is right, the responsible us had locked them in the hotel safe, while irresponsible us forgot them there.  Well it was okay, we had an hour and a half still.  We hopped on the train and I watched the luggage at the train station while Chris literally sprinted back to the hotel and got the passports.  He was back in literally 13 minutes.  Just in time to hop on the train again.  So we get on...and I look at the signs.  Was this the same train????  Nope, no it wasn't....Yes, we got on the wrong train.  So we get off at the next stop, in the middle of nowhere.  The next train didn't come for another 14 minutes.   Somehow we finally made it back to the airport.  We RUN to our check-in, but 10 minutes late, and they won't let us check-in, but they are also happy to tell us that for only 565 euros we can take the next Air France place leaving at 10.40.  Luckily I remembered seeing a "last minute flights" desk at the very entrance of the airport in the other terminal.  So we opted to see if we could find anything cheaper...which we did.  It was with Lufthansa, but didn't leave until 4.05 putting us in Paris about 5.00.    So we check our bags, and get our boarding passes.  Just wanting to sit and rest for a bit, we quickly go to security.  The man scans my ticket "I'm sorry ma'am, you are too early."  Seriously?!?!?!  Too early???  Well here was the first good thing of the day "you are tired aren't you...???"  "YESSSS"  Okay, you may go on through.  What a nice man.
So we get to our gate and lay down on the benches.  We napped and watched shows until it was time to leave.  The flight was a bit scary, but thankfully we landed. About an hour later we had our luggage and were ready to go find our hotel.  So we go to the train station and ask how to get to our hotel.  We take the train for about an hour, and then switch over in that train station to another train so that we can switch to another train station, which went to the area where our hotel was.  This all took about 2 and a half hours.  We get to the train station and look for the street... uhhhhhhh.  We couldn't find it on the map.  So I ask a nice looking french couple where it was, and the kind gentleman calls the hotel and informs us that we just need to take bus 189 and get off in a couple of stops.  Well we wandered around looking for the bus stop but couldn't find it.   So we just start walking in the direction of our hotel...after all, it was just 4 stops away.  Well turns out 4 stops is more like 2ish miles.  We eventually find our hotel and check in.  At this point I just feel awful.  So Chris lefts me stay in bed while he goes out to find food.  He comes back with pizza and chicken nuggets.  I could only eat about 4, before wanting to throw up.  We had planned to stay up as late as we could so that we could at least see some of the big things there, but I just felt too terrible, so we fell asleep watching the french version of Dancing with the Stars.
Sunday : May 6
I wake up...try and throw up (yeah, my body just HATES Paris...this was a similar scenario to that of when I had landed in Charles de Gaulle on my way here).  We ask the front desk man the best way to get to the airport, and he tells us that we just need to take this bus for several stops and hop on the train that goes straight to the airport. This went quite smoothly.  We said our goodbyes and got on our respective planes.  I get into Montpellier at 12.40, hoping to take the 13.00 o'clock bus, but I just miss it. So I wait until the 14.55 bus and make it home.  Poor Chris has a 14 hour layover in Chicago, but makes it home fairly easily.
To top off the difficulty of my husband leaving, I get a call from him Monday evening telling me that our Pan and Aro had died while he was here.  Don't really know how it happened, but it is quite sad.
Well, congrats to those who read all of this!!  I appreciate all of the support I have been getting from everyone!
A Bientôt!
Carrie