The flight home was actually quite nice. I scored the best seat on the whole plane, purely by accident. I was seated on the aisle seat of the bulkhead separating cattle car class from business class. Since it was a 777 there is no wall so I had about 6 feet of blissful open space in front of me. And as a bonus, the handicap lav was about 3 feet to my right. The guy beside me, Luca, was an Italian from Florence, visiting the States for the first time. We had a great time talking about both countries. Yippee for me! Unfortunately, about 5 hours into our 10 hour flight, there was a woman who went into serious medical distress, a suspected deep vein thrombosis and cardiac issues. They put her in the flight attendant's seat across from me; not fun to watch a woman sick and terrified at 30,000 with land at least an hour and a half away. Fortunately there were 2 doctors and a herd of nurses on the flight to stabilize her. We had to make a medical emergency landing in Newfoundland on an airstrip that I swear was in someone's back yard. Paramedics took her off, we refueled, and headed on to Dulles. I will never know what happened to that woman; I wish her the very best though.
So, through customs and immigration I go. I was psyched that my luggage was not dripping or smelling of wine, since I had packed about 7 bottles of my favorites, some olive oil, and my holy liquor. Joey was supposed to be waiting for me outside of Int'l arrivals; I'm looking and can't find him. Scanning the throngs of people, I finally spy two familiar faces a bit back in the line. Liz and Joe were standing there with cowboy hats on, waiving little American flags, and yelling "welcome to America" in ridiculous accents. It was hilarious and eased the pain of prying myself out of a country I love more than anything. To further soften my return, they had packed wine, cheese, nuts, etc. for a little patio party at my house. We cracked open a bottle of my Brunello di Montelcino and laughed, drank, and gossiped. Liz and I then headed out to O'Connells for a couple of drinks. After being up for over 24 hours, I finally went to bed glad to see my amazing friends again. Thanks Liz and Joe!!!
Beth and I decide sleep is not needed before our flights home. A final picture in my apartment.
"Welcome to America"
O'Connells; I did miss that place!
Liz loves booze, too!
2 comments:
Thanks for the posts to my blog Carrie. Your blog was very well written. I was telling my sister it could be a published travel journal, I laughed alot!
Lala: you are so sweet; not sure many people would want to read about "sperm cafe" or the couple of hurting guys I met. It sure did make me laugh, though!!
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