Traveling Around Europe Feels a Lot Like Being in a Movie

Back in December, my mom, Jesse and I went to Leavenworth, Washington to see the tree lighting festival. The place was cold and teeming with people, which led to me being very cranky and unpleasant. My mom said that being with me in Leavenworth was like being with Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day.

Well, if I was Bill Murray in Groundhog Day back then, then sightseeing by myself in Paris made me feel like Chevy Chase in the movie European Vacation. Chevy's character makes his family mad and winds up sightseeing by himself. I recall my dad saying once while watching that movie that having to take your own tourist pictures is the saddest thing in the world. I certainly did feel a little lame trying to take pictures of myself in Paris!

But my movie experiences does not stop there; continuing in our theme of 80s movies, I also had a Steve Martin experience, trying to get from Paris to Venice. Funny as Steve Martin is, my experience this time came from the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I refrained from dropping the f-bomb at any overly-cheerful car-rental staff, but I certainly had quite the ordeal getting from France to Italy.

My flight was scheduled to depart at 8:35 AM, so I left my hostel at 5:30 to catch the metro in to Paris. I had to wait 17 minutes to catch the metro, then had to wait 15 minutes to catch the bus to the airport. I arrived at the Paris Orly airport at 7:20, which is twenty minutes before check-in was scheduled to close. I was a smidge panicked, hoping that I would not miss my flight. When I finally reached the check-in desk, I was informed that the airline had made a mistake, and I was at the wrong airport. My flight was now departing from Paris Charles Degaul airport at 11:00, and there was a shuttle coming in half an hour to take the passengers to the other airport.

So, naturally, the shuttle came late. And the flight departed late. We finally arrived in Venice at 1:00, and then sat and waited at baggage claim for an hour before our baggage finally arrived. I finally left the airport around 2:00, where I promptly missed the bus to the train station and had to wait 20 minutes for the next bus. Only, the next bus came late, and I really waited an extra 10 minutes for it. By the time I reached the Venice train station, I had to catch a train to Rome immediately. Frankly, I'm lucky I managed to even do that; there were only four seats left on ANY train from Venice to Rome for that day.

After a four hour train ride to Rome (I thought it would be three hours), I arrived in Rome where I caught the metro to the station where my hostel runs a shuttle service. I had to wait once more for the shuttle to arrive, but I eventually made it to my hostel by 9:30 PM. And I spent the day traveling by plane, then train, and finally automobile!

When I left Rome yesterday (at the lovely hour of 4:15 AM), I felt a bit like George Clooney in his latest film, Up In the Air. There's actually no reason why I felt this way, except I happened to see a billboard with Cloons on it as I was arriving at the Rome Fiumicino airport. I actually had a good travel experience this go 'round, arriving in Riga tired but happy.

And now, after my rather crazy weekend of 80s movie references, I am here in Riga (once again!) visiting with the Sirmacs and having a lovely time. There's rumor that a day trip to Lithuania may be in store for tomorrow; so we'll just wait and see!