Sniff. Last day (sob!). I have to admit, as awesome as this vacation has been, I was also looking forward to going home. I was looking forward to being able to drive to where I want to go (instead of walking until my feet fall off), sleeping in my own bed, having my stuff around me, and not living out of a suitcase anymore. I also missed my Bento. I mean, how can you not miss this little face?
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| no, he doesn't actually wear glasses. You think I buy Oliver Peoples glasses for my dog? Please. He only gets Target |
What was I not looking forwards to? Going back to work. (sob!) Yeah...I didn't build in a buffer day, so our plane was going to land around 9:30 pm and less than 12 hours later I had to be in my office in work clothes (blech) ready to go to court (with a trial set too) while feeling cranky, tired, pissed off, and hungover. Not looking forward to that. But before that, we have the flight home.
Am I weird that I actually like flying? Okay, I lied. I like flying in business class. I definitely do NOT like flying in economy when you have a screaming kid wiping snot onto your seat while kicking your seat back like it's a soccer ball.
Anyhoo, we wake up in our big ass room and head down to breakfast. Our ride to the airport is picking us up in the lobby at 8:30 for our 11 am flight to D.C, so instead of eating breakfast dragging our big ass suitcases with us, we decided to eat early, then grab our suitcases afterwards and check out then.
Breakfast!
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| beverage station |
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| hot foods (behind the plant) and cheese plates to the left |
It's buffet style - two long rows against each wall with all sorts of food. I have to admit, the eggs are not so awesome as they're still too runny. The bread (pastries/tarts/croissants) were pretty good, and they had a coffee machine, which I fully partook of...a few too many times. I do love my coffee drinks. There was a large enough assortment of food to please just about anyone, and while not as tasty and a wide variety as the cruise (really, what is?), it was perfectly pleasant and a nice perk to the room.
It also has to be said that the breakfast room(s) were really pretty. It was spacious, the furniture, linen and silverware were very nice and there was a courtyard that would be a lovely place to eat when the weather is cooperative. I don't think I've ever breakfasted at a place with this many chandeliers before.
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| what is UP with my hair? Seriously! No one told me I looked like a tard until I saw this photo. Like, days later. Did I spend all day like this?! |
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| pretty green courtyard - too bad it rained while we were there |
Once we finished, we headed back to our rooms to grab our luggage and check it one final time.
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| lounge off the lobby. They serve afternoon tea here, I'm kind of sad we didn't get to do that |
Our ride to the airport was actually early - we checked out pretty quickly and were at the airport in a half hour or so. Once we checked in and went through security, the first thing I wanted to do (other than get my VAT return, which was SOOOO easy if you were getting it refunded on your credit card) was shop since the airports are all VAT free. So all the retail prices in the airport shops are lower than in the stores since they don't charge a VAT at the duty free shops. SO MUCH better than the shops we have at home. I wandered around and the only store that appealed to me was Prada. I wasn't going to buy another purse since my credit card would explode if I did, but I wanted to buy Raymond a business card holder since he asked for one. So this is his souvenir from Rome:
Not too shabby, eh? After I calculated everything, I ended up buying that for about $40 less than I would've paid at home, so I immediately felt the need to reward myself by spending the $40 I saved. I went into the airport store and bought a lot of random stuff like candy and sauces just 'cause I could.
Then we went to the lounge because there was no seating by the gate and it was getting kind of rowdy there.
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| a display of my dad's less than phenomenal picture taking skills |
When our flight was about to board, we left the lounge and went to our gate. Which sucked donkey balls as our flight ended up being delayed for over an hour, but the ground crew there was really bad and never told us. We just waited and waited, and people started getting upset and impatient. It wasn't until AFTER 11 (yes, when our flight was scheduled to leave) that they made an announcement that our flight was delayed. Uh...duh retards. No crap it was delayed - we're still standing there! They had no further info they were willing to relay to us, so we couldn't even go back to the lounge as we were afraid they'd start boarding any second and since these were clearly retards working here, no one in the lounge would make any boarding announcements. There was no place to sit and irate people standing everywhere, so we walked to a corner and just sat on the ground. It wasn't until it was well after noon that they began boarding. I understand delays, I really do. But would it hurt these bastards to let us know what's going on? Or make an announcement that they had no further info at this time but would keep us updated?? Whatever! Fortunately, the flight was much better with a much smarter crew than this crew of dumbasses at the gate.
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| unhappy passengers. I was rooting for someone to storm the ground crew |
Once I got onto the plane itself and stowed my stuff away I finally got to sit down and just relax. My plan was to try to sleep on the first flight and force myself to stay awake through the second flight so when I got home I could sleep through the night. I did manage to nap for a few hours in the flight to D.C. and struggled to stay awake from D.C to LAX, but dude, all that did was make me feel like a zombie. Even though I crashed when I got home, my body was still all screwed up from the time difference and I ended up waking up at 2:30 in the morning unable to fall back asleep. No bueno.
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| once again, my dad's mad photography skills at work |
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| I know it's such a small thing, but a bowl of mixed nuts makes me so freaking happy |
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| this was the chicken something something dish. Tasted faintly like Thai because of the coconut in the sauce, but it was pretty good. |
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| the cioppino, which didn't look like any cioppino I've ever had before. But my mama said it was fine |
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| and duh, of course you need dessert. I wasn't smart on this flight, I only got chocolate sauce. On my next flight I smartened up and got caramel AND chocolate |
After sleeping for a few hours and reading for the remainder of the flight (and eating like a pig - the theme of the vacation) we arrived in D.C where we went to the lounge again. Of course, this was after going through immigration and customs and going through security (again) and having to pick up our luggage and then re-check it to L.A. Blech.
We had a few hours before our flight to L.A, so we snacked and played on the wifi available in the lounge. All I remember was that the cappuccino machine was broken and I had to settle for plain old coffee (sob!). I know, first world problems, such a bitch.
The flight home was uneventful - our luggage was waiting for us at the carousel when we arrived and our ride home arrived within 10 minutes of our call. By this point, I was a zombie. Both my parents slept on the flight from D.C, but I valiantly stayed away, aided by a massive ingestion of caffeine. I was so tired I was getting dizzy and really, it was for nothing since I ended up with only like, 3 hours of sleep that night anyway.
Anyhoo, thus ended our big trip abroad. It ended back at home at around 10:30 pm on a Monday night. When I was laying in my own bed it blew my mind that less than 20 hours before I had been in Rome and now I was snuggled in with my Bento (who surprisingly, didn't get all emo about being left behind for 2 weeks. I guess old age is mellowing him out?).
Our trip lasted 16 days, spanned 4 countries, 2 and a half days spent flying, 7 days aboard a cruise ship, 16 macarons eaten, innumerable croissants savored, and we hit the double digits in gelato this trip. All of it was tiring, but all of it pure awesomeness. Unlike last time when I felt like I only got a taste of Italy, I feel like I have a sufficient grasp of Rome now and I'm actually itching to return to France again. I think I need at least another week in Paris, and if I have time, I want to travel to see the beaches at Normandy to pay my respects. I also want to see Provence and walk through the lavender fields. Okay, who am I kidding? Me? walk through fields in my flip flops? Yeah...okay, realistically, it would be me snapping a gazillion photos of the lavender and buying up a couple hundred bars of lavender soap. And have my photo taken in front of the lavender of course. I still want to return to Italy, but not Rome any time soon - but there's still Tuscany, which we barely touched on last time - and there's the Amalfi Coast, which you can never be tired of. I also wouldn't mind going back to Pompeii once more and I haven't even visited Herculaneum yet. One day I also want to return to Greece and visit Athens, then I want to go to London to see all the stuff that used to be in the Acropolis that the Brits jacked from the Greek and now reside in the British Museum. And if I do a land/cruise combo vacation again, next time I'd do the cruise first so I can eat like a cow and get all fat and then walk it all off the second week when I literally have to walk everywhere.
Of course, after the massive quantities of food eaten (only a portion of which was depicted here), if I ever want to wear my clothes again I have to rein this in. So...excuse me while I go and munch on a carrot stick and sob over the fact that I'm eating not a rabbit, but like a rabbit.
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