Day 7: Departure Day

We woke up at 6am and got ourselves ready to go. Everything was already packed for the most part and we had cleaned up the place last night. We made sure we had everything as we ate a quick breakfast and took out the trash. Lina (Airbnb host) asked that we leave the keys on table which we did and I took a photo and sent it to her. I also bought her some shea butter from the US and left that as a gift for her. My mom and I made sure we had everything and began our walk to the train station.

We got our train ticket to the airport yesterday and thankfully as soon as we arrived the train was coming. We had a nice 1 hour train ride that took us all the way to the airport at the end of the line. Getting through security was a breeze until they held up some of me and my mom’s bags. Some of our souvenir parfums they took out of the packaging and put in plastic bags to give us. Apparently even though less than 3.24 oz can go through you’re still limited to how much. We had to fit our liquids in a ziploc bag and luckily everything except mouthwash fit (so much for the cute packaging though).

We definitely held up the line but hey we didn’t know and at least nothing was thrown away. We proceeded through passport security and headed towards the gate. On our way we stopped by a shop to grab water and some snacks (we wanted to get rid of some Euro coins). At the gate we snacked on items from the house until we boarded. Our flight began boarding at 10:35am for an 11:25am departure.

We were put it seems like in Premium Economy Seats and were in a row with 3 seats having the middle and window. We were hoping no one would sit on the aisle but then this young guy came and sat beside me and he smelled bad. Me and especially my mom were annoyed but hey what could we do? Thankfully he was with friends and no one ended up sitting beside them so he moved leaving the seat open. (Sidenote: I don’t understand why so many people in France smell bad (we encountered a stench on people at different places everyday here and here parfum is popular-wear it)!

I watched 2 and a half scary movies while on the flight all the while nodding in and out of sleep. The food coming back on the plane was better than it was going (but it still could’ve been better). It was a smooth flight coming in as we were greeted by snow flurries at JFK Airport. We also learned once we landed American pushed my mom’s flight back by a day due to a delay so we went in (thank goodness for Global Entry because we literally walked right through) and spoke to an agent. Instead of now flying to GSO she would fly to RDU (Raleigh) and my aunt agreed to pick her up in Raleigh. We said our goodbyes and I headed to Penn station.

Hoping that maybe I’d be able to get on an earlier train back the Amtrak agent said I got my ticket for the low (my ticket was $21) and it would be an extra $50-118 to leave earlier so I told her I would just wait. I grabbed food from a shop in Penn station and waited. My stop is New Carrollton but I’m going to “miss it” and go to Union Station instead as I need to get on the metro to get home anyway and Union puts me closer.

A lot of trains were delayed but thankfully mine wasn’t and unfortunately the train wasn’t as empty as I thought because I was hoping to get an entire row to myself but I didn’t. I decided since I had to sit next to someone the entire way I’d just get off where I’m supposed to and just make my way home via the blue line. My mom arrived home in Greensboro around 10:50pm and at about 11:30pm I got home. We’ve literally been on planes and trains all day but we enjoyed our trip to Paris.