And We're Off....

After all the planning and packing (and unpacking and packing again) and getting rid of all our unnecessary stuff, the moment had finally arrived! We left for the airport around 5 am and our first flight took off at 8. The 1 hour flight to Bogota was just a warm up for what lay ahead! After a longish layover of hitting all the lounges we had access to, we took off for Paris at 2:00 pm. The 10 hour flight would get us there by 6 am, with a "real feel" of midnight! I dozed a bit but didn't really sleep. I've loved flying since I was 4 years old and flew as an unaccompanied minor for the first time and I'm usually not quick to fall asleep on a plane. But lack of sleep wasn't gonna bring us down. None of us had ever been in Paris before and we had things to do before our next flight at 10 pm!

We freshened up and put on as much clothing as possible (we were traveling from Colombia with all of our planned destinations in warm climates!) before we found the place in the airport to store our bags and then bought metro passes and headed toward the trains! We weren't sure where to go several times along the way but people in the airport were helpful when we asked and we found the metro really user friendly.

Of course, we were headed straight for the Eiffel Tower but when we realized that we had to change trains at the Notre Dame station we thought we would go take a look at the cathedral. Going up the wind tunnel of a staircase out into the city we felt a cold I haven't known for several years now! I felt like retreating but there it was! It was so beautiful and much to our surprise and joy, it was open to visitors! Notre Dame is spectacular. The art everywhere I looked, from the paintings to sculptures to amazing stained glass, not to mention the architecture was overwhelming and had me feeling pretty emotional.

Next up, a quick ride to the Eiffel Tower...or so we thought! The C train was not working but a metro employee was redirecting people headed our way to the 10...No problem, right? After we walked about 15 minutes and rode the train for a little while our stop was a coulple of kilometers to the tower (not 400 meters like the other train's usual stop!). Usually we're big walkers but we were pretty cold in our hoodies! We pressed on because we had people waiting for us. I teach English online to kids all around the world and today I was meeting a student in real life for the first time! Björn is a 9 year old early beginning English student and he brightens every day that I see him! He and his mom, Laur met us at the Tower to spend a few hours together. When Björn spotted me he started running and I couldn't resist doing the same!

We spent time around the Eiffel Tower, went to a cafe for croissants and baguettes, coffee and hot chocolate and then headed to...

The Lourve Museum! Because if you're in Paris you should go see the Mona Lisa, right? Right! The Museum is breathtaking! The art within the halls and walls are stunning but for me the building itself, (the actual halls and walls, and the ceilings!) was everything! I'm n o art critique and I have no fancy words to use when describing what I saw but I was moved by so much. It was a beautiful experience.

So, you've heard that the Mona Lisa Is small? They weren't lying! Here she is behind Chelsea and Andrés. On the other side of the room is this enormous painting! The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo is the largest in the museum and makes quite an impression, making you so aware of how small the Mona Lisa really is. I was feeling lucky to see them both as I never even thought I would go to France!

We were all getting tired so we took a seat in a museum cafe where I talked with Laur and Björn over a coffee. We looked over and realized just how tired Chelsea and Andrés were! How cute are they???

Throughout our time together Björn was as terrific a kid as I had imagined he'd be from our online lessons together and his mom just as lovely as I knew she would be! He engaged with all of us and always wore that adorable smile! I think he especially loved hanging out with Andrés; they were the two guys after all! When we were saying our goodbyes he decided that he wanted to give Andrés one of his bracelets and Andrés told him to chose one of his! It was the sweetest thing ever and I'm just waiting for Björn to switch from English lessons to Spanish!

The only thing to be done once we made our way back to the airport was to sit in a restaurant and eat snails! None of us had ever tried escargot and we felt like it was something we should do before we left the country! Andrés loved it. I thought they were okay and really enjoyed the garlic butter they were swimming in. Chelsea chewed one up but just couldn't swallow it. If you want to join. us for the fun, Chelsea just shared a video of our day in Paris here!

We took off at 10 pm on an 8 hour flight to India and I actually fell asleep a few short times on the flight. Twice, Air India served us wonderfully spicy meals and once again on our flight to Sri Lanka. We are spicy food fans and we wondered what anyone who can't handle the heat would have done on those flights! We arrivred in Sri Lanka exhausted and excited! It took a few hours in a car from Colombo to Weligama. Luckily none of us was driving!

A word about our layover in India: Our flight did not arrive late but airport personnel were hustling us in to our security check like it had. It seems they scheduled the flights too close together for the distance we had to move through the airport. Going through security was tough for me because they didn't just need your electronics out but every cable too and my extra phone cable was in a different part of my backpack and I couldn't remember where in all the exhausting running! They also make women go into a booth and close curtains to be scanned which seemed to take longer than the men. Once I got through they sent me back to find my cable and I had to be scanned again! Once all my stuff was in my 2 backpacks we preceded to run to the terminal and then past 14 gates. I thought I was going to pass out but I made it! It took me a long time to catch my breath and I finally slept well on a plane!