My Trip to France and Italy, Days 14-16

As you recall, this is the way home: Florence to Milan, then Milan to Lyon, then Lyon to Paris (unless I could find a way to Paris from Milan) then once in Paris, I'd be at the North Station, and take the RER B to Charles de Gaulle Airport (2nd stop) then take the Shuttle bus to Gate 2A, and that's where I'd get my ticket. We're headed to the train station in Florence right now.

After hanging out at the station for a little while, we found out a train was leaving for Milan in a few minutes. So I ran to find Maryrose, and said my goodbyes.

I took this as I was kinda running by Becky. She, Mindy, and Maryrose were headed south, and were going to take a ferry across to Greece.

I'm now at the station in Milan. The trainride from Florence to Milan was fairly uneventful, save for an elderly woman who was very concerned with making it to Bologna. After looking around for a while, I couldn't find any trains going to Lyon, so I headed to this information office.

There were 3 sections at this shop. The first was filled with magazines, the second had many books, and the third was completely filled with pornography.

I ended up sitting here in the Milan station for a few hours (I read Harry Potter) while waiting for my train (The Information lady told me about a train to Paris that left at 21:55. It was now about 17:30).

The station had it's fair share of birds flying around as well. I was taking a video of the sign, as it was one of those old style signs where all the numbers and letters flip over rapidly when they update things. Anyway, you can see one of the birds flying to the left at one point.

Here's a shot from my bunk (#91, a bottom bunk) up to the other side. They were stacked 3 high on each side, with a walkway in between about a 1.5-2 feet across. So things were kinda tight on that train.

Here's another shot of the bunks.

After a long night, I was in Paris... but I wasn't at the station I was expection. Also, the station only had the high speed trains, no RERs or Metro trains... so I couldn't find a train to the North Station, where I was expecting to be. After some looking around, and memorizing of a nearby map, I headed off. As you can see, those grey signs ahead are very helpful. They let me know that there was a left, and a right ahead of me. As to what was located in either direction, neither the signs, nor I, had a clue.

After some more walking, and checking another sign, I started heading towards the Gare de Lyon RER station. I got some help from a guy walking by who pointed me in the right direction, and I was most pleased when I came upon this sign.

the next few hours were a bit of a blur. I found the Gare de Lyon station, and after a few failed attempts to get a free ride, I scraped up enough money to buy a metro ticket. I made it to the north station, then to the airport, and found my gate, but there were no earlier flights for me to take. So I was down to 1.50 Euro, and I had 22 hours before my flight. With the 1.50 Euro I was able to buy both lunch and dinner (a total of 2 McDonalds hamburgers), and I spent a good deal of Saturday sitting at these blue chairs reading Harry Potter. I finished the book around 8 or so, and I spent a long time walking around the airport searching for a decent place to sleep. After changing into some warmer clothes (It was freezing in there), I ended up returning to these seats, and slept here (on the floor against the wall to the left of those blue chairs.) I managed to get a few hours sleep, and was very pleased when the Continental Gate was reopened the next morning.

When I got in line, all of a sudden there was a ton of noise coming from down the hallway. Turns out there was a protest of some sort going on. I had no idea what they were saying, but they were all very loud, and lined on front and back by French police officers. Here they are as they walk by.

Here's my gate, A37. I was feeling giddy, as I was finally in a padded seat, instead of those hard plastic dealies they had back where I was before.

I became aware, quite quickly, that I was the only person in that entire section, and that seemed kinda creepy to me.

Here's a look around a little while later. By now a few people have joined me... but still no one that worked at the airport.

A while later, the pilots showed up. This is them getting on to the plane. This is also the picture that I showed the guy who stopped me for a [4th!] security check when I went to board the plane. He had made me turn all my electronics on, and seemed to have his doubts about the purpose of the camera.

Here's that TV screen on the plane, showing us where we're at. I had an open seat next to me, and sat by the aisle on both flights home.

We're pretty high right now.

And this is the flight plan. At one point, this channel was the most entertaining of all 10.

That's New York. I'm in Newark, taking the "air train" to my gate.

And this is my home. After getting picked up by my Aunt Nancy and Grandma, I had dinner with them at my Grandma's house. Then I drove back home, and finally arrived home around 10 or so. It was a very long day.

Oh yeah, and here's the little eiffel tower I got for Cathy.