Wednesday July 30, 2008

Definitely should have known when our flight took off on time from Newark airport that something was going to go terribly wrong. For those of you who have ever flown out of Newark, you know what a rare occasion this is! We arrived in Paris with no hitches, on time, at 8:15am on Tuesday. Everything was going great and we were all set to transfer planes when the “Vol Retard” (Flight Delayed) signs went up. Okay, not unusual for international flights to be delayed from time to time. Three hours later….and we were waiting in line at the Air France courtesy desk for hotel and meal vouchers. Yes, that’s right, the flight went from being delayed to being cancelled. Apparently, we decided to fly to Gabon the same day the workers at the airport decided to go on strike for higher wages.
We had to wait for almost two hours for the airport customs officers to grant everyone from Gabon 24 hour emergency visas so that we could go to the hotel. The good news? We got a buffet full of phenomenal French food for dinner and breakfast, though I think we were both way more excited about the breakfast than the dinner. As you can see from the pictures, we spent a lot of time being tired and waiting. In fact, as I write this we are still waiting in Paris. The flight they put on for today is delayed now too…I’m just hoping you don’t see a second entry on Thursday still from Paris! Never a dull moment in my travels!!