After our lovely evening with Joris and Co., we came home and continued with the packing saga . More about that later. And we still had some last minute odds and ends like cleaning the fridge, etc. By the time I was finished, I was tired, but wired and in no way able to lie down to wait the couple of hours for the alarm to go off at 3. Del did get a couple of hours sleep. We have different nap patterns. He can fall asleep the moment his body makes contact with a bed but can barely manage a cat nap while sitting upon any form of transportation. I, on the other hand, have to be exhausted to nap lying down, but can fall sleep immediately upon hearing the click of a seat belt, or curled on the sofa.
Three o'clock came and we got dressed and were ready to roll when the taxi Audrone had reserved for us arrived right on time at 4:30. It was shortly after that that we began to realize that getting home from Lithuania was not the snap that getting there had been. Our driver seemed to be a nice young man, but it was soon apparent that this was not going to be your typical taxi ride. Whether it related at all to the fact that the night before is supposed to be more rowdy than New Year's Eve would be purely speculation on my part, so I'll just stick to the facts as I saw them. Things seemed okay at first, though his recognition of the YIELD sign seemed less consistent than I would have preferred. Of course, it was early on the morning after a big night, so it wasn't as though there was anybody much to yield to, but still. Then he began to open his window, first an inch or two which seemed reasonable, and then more and more until it was wide open. Apparently that did not do the job, because in a short while he pulled over, said, "One minute" and got out of the taxi with his water bottle and walked around for several minutes . He got back into the car, mumbled something about working for two days and off we went. I kept waiting for the projectile vomiting, which was of particular concern since Del was in the front seat beside him. In a few minutes it was crystal clear that he got his sense of direction from the same place I got mine, except he didn't have a GPS to guide him. Two wrong turns later, he stopped the car half way through the turn around and called for directions. It was then that I started to really sweat. But we got there.
Upon arriving at the airport, we discovered that even though we were traveling on a Continental ticket, for which we had to pay extra, we had to follow the SAS rules. That meant we were unable to bring home the same number and weight of bags we had brought with us. After all that packing and repacking. We persuaded them to let us pay for the two larger carry on bags, and off we went to Copenhagen.
Copenhagen airport has a somewhat unorganized way of checking passports. A young man was standing by the door to the gate, so we went to the end of the line and patiently worked our way up to the front. Sometime during the 20 minutes or so it took to get to the front a second line formed beside us. Neither line had any sign to indicate that they were different, but when we got to the front, we were told that we were in the wrong line. We went to the back of the other line and worked our way back to the front. The guy at the front of that line has to have been there as a result of nepotism, but he took each passport, walked about 20 feet to his computer, punched some keys and eventually brought the documents back and allowed the person through. Until he got to us. He was gone for at least 15 minutes, talking on the phone, walking into various offices and talking to three other people who seemed to have no responsibilities. Eventually, when the original line was empty, I asked the young an if he should see what the problem was. He was able to find out that it had something to do with the checked bags. I asked if someone could come over and talk to us about it, and a woman came. By accident, I figured out that the people at the original airpost had charged us for the extra bags and given us claim tickets but had not entered it into the system. We dug out the receipt and in a few minutes were given our passports and allowed to board. I know the people who were backed up behind us had been hoping we would get arrested just to see the line move. Let us say that I don't care what they say about ladies glowing instead of sweating, the sweat rings were down to my waist. Flop sweat might have been the more appropriate term.
Our reentry to the US was uneventful, unless you count my dropping a passport. Fortunately, someone picked it up and gave it to an attendent, and I walked back down the line and got it. I was just fuzzy headed. I can't think of any other word to describe it, except perhaps careless.
We got to Atlanta, gathered our belongings around me, and Del went to get the car from the parking lot off the grounds. Tracy had even left a coupon on the seat for us. We stuffed everything in, made a quick trip to Publix for coffee, milk, cereal (not cornflakes), and sandwich fixings. I smelled fried chicken as got to the door, and some jumped into the cart. Tomorrow, we will begin our careful grocery list making for our big grocery trek.
We got home, put away the groceries, brought in the bags and the mail. I decided to lie down for a minute before supper, and Del sat down to look at the mail. When I awoke at 10, he was in bed, so I got up, emailed people that we were safe and went back to sleep until 3:30. I decided to blog and then go back to bed. It was interesting that when I awoke at 10 it was black outside and still is now at 4:40.
So, despite my whining, the trip home was good, and pretty uneventful. Now to get my head around what all we have experienced and the things I have learned. I'll want to write down what I figure out, so stay tuned if you like.
Day 152 and the sequel are done. Now for a nap on my very own sofa.
Three o'clock came and we got dressed and were ready to roll when the taxi Audrone had reserved for us arrived right on time at 4:30. It was shortly after that that we began to realize that getting home from Lithuania was not the snap that getting there had been. Our driver seemed to be a nice young man, but it was soon apparent that this was not going to be your typical taxi ride. Whether it related at all to the fact that the night before is supposed to be more rowdy than New Year's Eve would be purely speculation on my part, so I'll just stick to the facts as I saw them. Things seemed okay at first, though his recognition of the YIELD sign seemed less consistent than I would have preferred. Of course, it was early on the morning after a big night, so it wasn't as though there was anybody much to yield to, but still. Then he began to open his window, first an inch or two which seemed reasonable, and then more and more until it was wide open. Apparently that did not do the job, because in a short while he pulled over, said, "One minute" and got out of the taxi with his water bottle and walked around for several minutes . He got back into the car, mumbled something about working for two days and off we went. I kept waiting for the projectile vomiting, which was of particular concern since Del was in the front seat beside him. In a few minutes it was crystal clear that he got his sense of direction from the same place I got mine, except he didn't have a GPS to guide him. Two wrong turns later, he stopped the car half way through the turn around and called for directions. It was then that I started to really sweat. But we got there.
Upon arriving at the airport, we discovered that even though we were traveling on a Continental ticket, for which we had to pay extra, we had to follow the SAS rules. That meant we were unable to bring home the same number and weight of bags we had brought with us. After all that packing and repacking. We persuaded them to let us pay for the two larger carry on bags, and off we went to Copenhagen.
Copenhagen airport has a somewhat unorganized way of checking passports. A young man was standing by the door to the gate, so we went to the end of the line and patiently worked our way up to the front. Sometime during the 20 minutes or so it took to get to the front a second line formed beside us. Neither line had any sign to indicate that they were different, but when we got to the front, we were told that we were in the wrong line. We went to the back of the other line and worked our way back to the front. The guy at the front of that line has to have been there as a result of nepotism, but he took each passport, walked about 20 feet to his computer, punched some keys and eventually brought the documents back and allowed the person through. Until he got to us. He was gone for at least 15 minutes, talking on the phone, walking into various offices and talking to three other people who seemed to have no responsibilities. Eventually, when the original line was empty, I asked the young an if he should see what the problem was. He was able to find out that it had something to do with the checked bags. I asked if someone could come over and talk to us about it, and a woman came. By accident, I figured out that the people at the original airpost had charged us for the extra bags and given us claim tickets but had not entered it into the system. We dug out the receipt and in a few minutes were given our passports and allowed to board. I know the people who were backed up behind us had been hoping we would get arrested just to see the line move. Let us say that I don't care what they say about ladies glowing instead of sweating, the sweat rings were down to my waist. Flop sweat might have been the more appropriate term.
Our reentry to the US was uneventful, unless you count my dropping a passport. Fortunately, someone picked it up and gave it to an attendent, and I walked back down the line and got it. I was just fuzzy headed. I can't think of any other word to describe it, except perhaps careless.
We got to Atlanta, gathered our belongings around me, and Del went to get the car from the parking lot off the grounds. Tracy had even left a coupon on the seat for us. We stuffed everything in, made a quick trip to Publix for coffee, milk, cereal (not cornflakes), and sandwich fixings. I smelled fried chicken as got to the door, and some jumped into the cart. Tomorrow, we will begin our careful grocery list making for our big grocery trek.
We got home, put away the groceries, brought in the bags and the mail. I decided to lie down for a minute before supper, and Del sat down to look at the mail. When I awoke at 10, he was in bed, so I got up, emailed people that we were safe and went back to sleep until 3:30. I decided to blog and then go back to bed. It was interesting that when I awoke at 10 it was black outside and still is now at 4:40.
So, despite my whining, the trip home was good, and pretty uneventful. Now to get my head around what all we have experienced and the things I have learned. I'll want to write down what I figure out, so stay tuned if you like.
Day 152 and the sequel are done. Now for a nap on my very own sofa.
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