The journey home...

Coincidentally, our camera memory cards were filled Tuesday morning at the Catacombs. Good thing, because I don't think we wanted to document the following events....

I really could have used this...

Tuesday afternoon: We had to bus from Paris to Beauvais Airport, about an hour away from the city. We arrived a little early for our evening flight, and waited around in the [tiny, out of date] airport until we we re able to check in. Just as we were checking in, we saw that our flight was canceled!! We found another group of bewildered SLU students, and we struggled to figure out our options.

As we waited in line to talk to the airlines, other flights to Spain were filling and our anxiety was growing! Our SLU group started worrying about midterms the next day, worried senoras, and draining bank accounts. Out of the group, Sora was the only one with a working phone. I called SLU and asked if they would call our senoras and say we were stuck in Paris.


Our SLU group quickly split, and one side headed back to Paris to catch the train from Paris to Madrid in the morning. The train cost was over 100 euros, and over 13 hours long, so Sora, myself, and two other girls decided to wait around and see what our other options were.


Soon we had a plan:

• A flight from Paris to Girona (outside of Barcelona), arriving in Spain at 1:30 AM


• A "sleepover" at the Girona airport


• A bus from Girona to Barcelona


• The infamous 8 hour bus ride from Barcelona to Madrid

We arrived in Madrid on Wednesday evening: about 24 hours and many euros later than expected. Sora and I battled queasy stomachs throughout the journey, and our bodies finally collapsed when we were at home. We both ended up missing the rest of the week (and midterms) and had to reschedule and catch up the following week.

It was a whirlwind ending for our Paris trip--definitely one for the record books!