The epic journey to the motherland

Just got to Vancouver after an epic day on planes and in airports. Normally I would never talk about the travel day since it usually is uneventful and just filled with angst of needing to pee when the seatbelt sign is on. However, this time travel day was filled with events!

I left Strasbourg with a suitcase filled with croissants, pain au chocolats, and other goodies. My suitcase is normally for hand-carry except when I have it. For some reason they all tell me I can't bring it on the plane. When Axel is rolling it, it gets on the plane via hand-carry without any hassles. It turned out it worked out better since I had to carry it up and down the stairs in the subways and train stations and Stephane's place.

I arrived in Paris at 9 am on Thursday and decided that I was going to spend the day learning the city for real. I had plans to see the Picasso exhibit but when I got there the line up was 2 1/2 hours long at the beginning of the line! So in the future, make sure you know that you can make a reservation to go to these museums so you don't have to line up! So I decided that, rather than spending my entire day in a lineup, I was going to just see where the wind took me. I crossed the seine and ended up in the 5th and 6th districts. This is one of the trendy areas of Paris so it was a good place to head to. And then I found myself at the Musee d'Orsay so I went in! For those who don't know, it's probably one of the best collections of art and displayed in a palatable way. Unlike the louvre which would take days, this took me 4 hours with the little audioguide. Exhausting but worth the effort. I saw everything. EVERYTHING! After, I wandered for a couple of hours: walked along the river, saw Notre Dame, watched a guy do trick rollerblading. And then met up for dinner with Stephane. Stephane and I had a great night of chatter which we never have enough of since we don't normally see each other alone! I left my camera in Strasbourg with Axel (in hopes that he will actually use it) so all of my pics are on my cell phone...so quality sucks big time. I will try and pretty up some pictures for later. What is the etiquette on posting pictures for previous entries? Do you post them with the corresponding entries? Or do you post them in a new entry? hmm..

The next morning I scooted off to the airport and waited in line at the french customs (which everyone, including EU citizens have to do) for 1.5 hours. It was endless. And in reality, had they had more than 1 customs officer, it wouldn't have blipped on my radar. People missed their flights in the line and no one helped them. So if you are going on Air Canada, make sure to give yourself 2 hours!! The flight was full except one seat...which I ended up having right next to me!! So I had a great lounge seat and watched really bad movies for 8 hours. I got to Montreal and this is where the real action started...

I saw Paul Martin and his wife Eline!!! They were just getting off a flight and I crossed paths. I smiled at him and he smiled back!! I felt like an idiot. Axel makes fun of me because I get starry-eyed at politicians...couldn't care less about celebrities but there's something about the people that control governments that make me all fluttery. Anyway, it turns out my flight was overbooked and so I got booted with some perks like a travel voucher and a ticket for the air can lounge! Free food! Free drinks! and Free internet!! So I took full advantage and hung out for 4 hours. I was just about to leave when I crossed paths with Bob Richards, the founder of the International Space University, Axel's school! We had seen him before at BCIT give a talk about the moon and the Google Lunar X project and then Axel re-met him last month at a reception. Anyway, anyone who has seen him would understand why I recognized him instantly. He's very distinct in his features and he always looks like he's smiling so it was easy to approach him. I introduced myself and mentioned Axel who he remembered because there is an Axelle who is a member of the ISU advisory board. He introduced me to the president of Optech, another space company that Axel could tell you more about. We chatted about internships and Strasbourg. It was pretty cool. So I called Axel and left him a message about the encounter and ended up standing right next to my dear friend Robi Smith, who I went to India with many moons ago! She was coming back from Quebec City so we caught up on life and politics. She was my favourite person on the exchange to India, if only because she always made me laugh.

So my dad and sister picked me up and we booted it to Horseshoe Bay to make the last ferry. After 27 hours of being on the go and not sleeping, I finally shut my eyes at 1 am, only to be woken up at 4 am to one of my brother's friends almost stepping on my head! He needed a place to crash because it was cold and raining and so I assume this is where he normally comes?? not his house?!? So he crashed on the couch and I stayed awake. Hence, another rambly entry.