My Trip . . .
I had a flight out from Tampa to Atlanta with Delta on Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm. That meant I needed to be at the airport at 1 pm.
I had gone on Monday to get a PCR test done - as here in Poland the results were back in about 6 hours at the place where we went.
My brother found one that said “one day”, so I went there (Lakeland) on Monday morning.
Even though I had my vaccination card (I had gotten the shots while in FL at Walgreens - Pfizer), I had read somewhere that not all European countries were accepting that and a PCR test was advisable. However, I also read that Poland didn’t require it but said that anyone who had been vaccinated by an approved European Union group—and they gave the initials—would be exempted from the PCR requirement. However, as a traveler, I didn’t know what was an “approved” vaccination - esp. when you are talking between countries and continents. In the end, the airlines and border patrol people have the final say and no matter what, you have to abide by their regulations that they decide on. In the end, because I didn’t know if my vaccination card would be acceptable, I decided to get the PCR test to have with me.
Well, when I was getting that ‘one day’ PCR test, which I figured would be back in time the next day, the nurse said, “You will have the results by tomorrow at 7 pm!”
“What?” (It was 11 am.) “Your website says 1 day.”
“Well, it may say that, but it is what it is - we send it via Fed Ex and when the lab gets it done, they will send you an email.”
OK….so I swallowed hard. I wasn’t sure if my vaccination card would be enough or if I would get the PCR test results back in time.
(Ah the stress of international travel right now!)
I couldn’t take the PCR test TOO early or it wouldn’t count - and apparently I had waited too late to get mine done properly. I had signed up for another one about 30 minutes north of Dade City at a CVS Pharmacy there in the afternoon - but figured it would be a miracle to get that one back in time. I decided to go ahead and do that one as well as their contact with me had been so good. I had hopes that maybe they might be fast - 6 hours or so - like here in Poland.
Nope.
I kept checking for results back on Monday evening, Monday night, Tuesday morning early, and Tuesday morning late - from either test.
Nothing.
No news before it was time to leave for the airport at noon. With my USA passport, Polish residency permit, AND vaccination card from Walgreens in hand, I went to the airport with my 2 bags, carry on and newly made special bag as a personal bag.
No, I couldn’t check in ahead of time - they had to see that I had the right to be in Poland. My brother, Jon, and I went to the desk and there a competent lady checked me in. One bag was 50 lbs, and the second one, 51 lbs - it flickered back and forth between 50 and 51 and finally settled on 51. I didn’t think that was too bad, actually. They let 51 go (50 is the limit) because they allow for variances of scales but put a “HEAVY” tag on it.
She looked at my vaccination card, saw it was all okay and I got my three boarding passes for the three flights - TPA-ATL-CDG-WAW (Tampa-Atlanta-Paris-Warsaw).
Hmm. Not great seats, but at this point, I just wanted to get back to Poland - not really caring about the ‘experience’ of it at all. I’m past enjoying the trip.
After I said “bye” to my brother, I went up to Wendy’s at the Tampa airport as it was about 1:20 and I hadn’t had lunch yet - and ate. I then went through security, where of course, they had to pat me down - and went to the gate.
I had had two carry on bags, but when the agent at the check-in desk told me the flights were all pretty full, I hoped that they would let me gate check the silver one with wheels. And sure enough, as I walked up to the area, they were talking to the people who were waiting and asking for volunteers who would be wiling to gate check their wheeled roller bags.
Gladly.
I had just paid $159 to check 2 bags through to Warsaw - and this would be free. So I did. I traded the expensive item that was in it for some some quilting books that I was going to have to lug around with me as they had arrived at the last minute.
Then the adventure began. Tampa to Atlanta was no problem. My seat was a “B” seat which mean that it was a middle seat, but I didn’t complain. I just wanted to “be there already”.
Once we arrived in Atlanta, I must have looked tired or something, because, naturally it seemed, our plane landed at A2 and I needed to walk to the center of the terminal to get to the plane train.
A man was sitting there with a shuttle buggy and asked me if I wanted to go. I told him that I hadn’t requested transportation and he told me, “It’s okay - we are here to help people!” So I climbed on and got taken to the middle of the terminal where I got the escalator to the plane train to terminal F - the international one. Because of that help, I made it easily to the next flight - whereas sometimes it can be a tight connect.
Boarding was no problem.
However, as I was sitting in row 50 - on the aisle - in our big Airbus 350-900 headed to Paris - almost completely full (holds 325 people) - they told us that we had very strong tail winds crossing the ocean and we would arrive over an hour early in CDG (Paris) if we left then. Since we had a time slot for arrival, we were going to wait and delay the start so we wouldn’t arrive in Paris too early.
Well. Fine.
What choice did we have? The airplane entertainment system was working for so I started watching some things - actually I had already started.
Hmm. Why so long? I wasn’t sure.
Then, the pilot came on and said, “Sorry for the delay but we are having issues. This plane was originally slotted to go to Tokyo but they changed it to go to Paris, so they had to take some fuel back off as it would have been too heavy. But they forgot to measure how much they took off as they did it and we only have our fuel gauge to go by, and we always use a 2-step measuring method for telling how much fuel we have. We are going to have to go back and measure the fuel and it is going to take a while - maybe half an hour.”
Fine. What choice did we have? I watched another NCIS program.
FINALLY. We got going.
Late.
Everyone was late. Very late.
The strong tail winds couldn’t help us “that much”.
Everyone was going to miss their connections.
And so I did.
I didn’t have any problems at any borders or any plane. People had accepted my vaccination card instead of the PCR test - though no one had really examined it much at that point.
In Paris I had to stand in quite a long line to find out that they had already rerouted me through Amsterdam and I would fly from Amsterdam (AMS) to Warsaw later that day. I kind of sighed and said that I would rather just fly from CDG (Paris) directly to Warsaw even if it was later. I would be fine with just waiting at the airport. Two more flights? I didn’t know how much I could take. I was quite tired and AMS isn’t any fun at all to be wandering around when you are very tired (It is HUGE!).
A man was playing the piano which was in the center of the terminal. He was quite good.
So, she obliged. I got put on an evening flight - which meant about a 10 hour layover in Paris. I was really fine with that. They gave me a 15 euro voucher for food for the day. I made my way to the area close to my gate after going through passport control and security once again. Everything was fine. No one questioned my vaccination card - for which I was grateful.
I found a place in the airport where I could sit and charge my phone - ever so slowly - as apparently my cable was not fast charging - so 4 hours later, my phone was finally fully charged once more. I had thought it wouldn’t charge on the long flight over, but it turned out it was probably charging, but just slowly - not sure - there was not much room to maneuver as I had a guy in the seat next to me and didn’t want to disturb him by wrestling with cables and such.
At the airport in Paris, I dozed and rested and dozed as I had not slept much of the night at all. About 2 pm I wandered down to the food area and found a sandwich and a couple of pastries. I had a 15 euro voucher given to me by the airlines. With these food vouchers, you have to use it all at once as they don’t give you change or let you use only part of it at a time. I bought a sandwich, two pastries and 2 Coke Zero bottles and paid about 17 euros. I ate the sandwich then and drank one Coke Zero and saved the pastries and the other Coke Zero for supper. Hindsight says I should have bought 2 sandwiches (one for late lunch and one for supper) and 2 Coke Zeroes and skipped the pastries. I was so tired I wasn’t thinking straight.
Of course I didn’t know if the sandwich was actually going to be good when I ordered it (it was!).
FINALLY, when it was time to board, they had us all start lining up but there was no plane to Warsaw in the slot. I thought it was strange that we were lining up already when there was no plane sitting in position.
No plane.
They got on the intercom and told us that they would have more information in about 15 minutes - so just wait. So, in about 15 minutes, they said that there was a technical issue and we should just wait (as if we have a choice!).
I still thought it strange that they didn’t know where the plane was nor how long it would take to get there. (This was now Air France - I had taken Delta on the first two flights).
Finally, a nice sized Airbus 318-something holds 107-132 passengers - not sure about the one we were on - showed up and we boarded. I do think it must have come from service as no one got off of it. This time on boarding, they actually looked more closely at my vaccination certificate, but didn’t say anything and let me get on the plane. This flight was was FULL - once again, I had a “B” seat - but all was well. The man on my left didn’t have any idea how to fill out the form we had been given as it was in English/Polish and he was French. I tried to help him by showing him mine. (It was about COVID-19 and your location in case they needed to contact you.) Thankfully a young lady sat down on my right who spoke English and French and she helped him by translating for him.
Once we landed, after we got off and before we reached the baggage claim area, there was yet another group of people waiting to check our PCR or vaccination certificates.
This time the man looked at my passport AND my vaccination certificate closely to make sure it was the same name.
All was fine. He let me go through. Apparently the American vaccination cards are valid here - at least for Poland.
Relief!
“Stuff” I had. Today I was determined to get everything sorted and put away.
Thankfully my 3 pieces of luggage were there - wonderfully. I went out the “nothing to declare” door with a bit of trepidation as last time we were stopped and checked - the agent had opened our bags and asked us questions about what we had with us.
This time I had a lot of fabric and various presents for my husband for both his birthday and Christmas, and a few other things (mostly fabric). This time, no one stopped me to query me about my stuff. Yeah!
The fabric by the yard I brought back with me. I also have a few of Rachael’s “packs”.
Close up of the panels I brought back.
So, I went out the door where the people usually wait for the newly returning flyers and my husband wasn’t there. Hmm.
I went outside as I had tried to contact him but my phone didn’t want to connect to the airport WiFi and I didn’t have my Polish card in the phone. My phone then decided to connect to Messenger and he wrote back and said he was at 1 - I didn’t known what he meant for sure. I then went outside to see if was there where I normally meet him - but he was not. At that point my phone disconnected from WiFi.
Then, I realized he meant that he was at the other terminal which isn’t too far from where I was - but now I was outside. My phone didn’t want to connect to WiFi again as it had lost the signal. I didn’t know what to do. Eventually after some running around and going up and down elevators, he found me and we went home. We got home shortly before midnight and by midnight we had climbed in bed. My husband is not a night owl. I was a bit wound up from my trip, but still tired. Our bed is so much nicer than what I had been sleeping on at my mom’s.
I did sleep well that first night - here’s hoping the second night back goes well as well. Often it is much worse.
I was struck by how humid it was in the house - as it’s been quite rainy here lately. But it is so much cooler - so quite bearable. When I was in Florida it was 92F - but today here in Poland it is 67F. I’m currently in a long sleeved t-shirt.
I’ve spent the day putting things away that I brought with me and that my husband brought with him - (donated quilt tops).
I trust all is well back in Florida with my mom. I’ve not called yet today. I will be calling her often to check on her but I know my brother is still there.
I thought you might appreciate this photo. This is a bag full of donated quilt tops for charity that between the two of us, Mike and I brought back! Thank you, those of you who donated, so much!!! I will get busy on these in about a month. I’ll start by finding backings for them and checking sizes, etc, on the ones that aren’t already written down! I am appreciative for you all!
Oh…by the way - I did get my results from the CVS PCR test - negative - it’s on the app which wouldn’t work for me in the airport but is there today, Thursday - but haven’t seen anything yet from the other place which said ‘one day’.
Good thing I didn’t need it!
Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Stay safe!
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!
Here’s one of the beauties we have!
