How was the Trip back?

Like always, the trip back was long and tiring.

Jet lag is an awful thing. The thing that made this trip a bit easier was that our son and his wife, Claire, are here and Tim was able to come and meet us at the airport on this end. On the other end, our son, Jeremiah was able to take us to the airport, so that was a big blessing on both sides!!

We flew from Tampa to Boston and then on to Amsterdam and finally to Warsaw. There were three flights.

We had no problems with our flights. Because we had our max in luggage, it was getting our stuff into Poland without being queried too much (I had a LOT of fabric) because I know the relationship between the US and other countries right now is a bit tense.

When we were coming in Poland, I started to walk into the “nothing to declare” with my 2 checked bags (we paid extra for one) and carry on and my purse when a man from inside the room I was walking past pulled the barrier down and motioned for me to come into the room with my stuff. My husband kept on walking as he was behind me.

After asking me, “Polish or English”? I answered in Polish, “Doesn’t matter”. When I handed him my passport, I also added that I had a residency card, ant which he was a bit taken back. “Oh, okay”. He then asked me if I had any alcohol or tobacco with me. I said, “No”. He then asked me if I had bought anything while there that I brought with me like jewelry, ele tronics, purses. I anaswered “No”. I then added the thing I had was fabric because I like to sew.” He then showed me the door and motioned me to go.

:)

And so it was the truth. My bags were loaded with fabric - full of Lori Holt and some Moda Jelly Rolls and variuos pattern books - one, specifically, that I had taken over with me to use theoretically while there (Quilty Fun). I also had picked up some panels I had cut for Rachael - more often than not, they are the ones that had uneven edges and are harder to sell.

The customs guy had asked me how much money I had - and I answered I think it was about $2000. I was pretty close as I counted it when I got home. We are allowed to bring in 10K, so I was fine. In this day and age, with credit cards and ATM cards, I don’t think it is all important to bring a lot of cash.

Overall, I was relieved. I hate talking with customs people - as frankly, they have all the power. We are a guest in their country and I know it. It is always a little nerve wracking. When that happened before, and they called both Mike and I in to check out our stuff, they x rayed our luggage. But we don’t smoke OR drink so there is 0% chance we would go over the limit on those items.

I’ve watched too many Border Control videos on You Tube where they get pretty picky. However, I had been very careful to not bring back food or other such things that could be questionable.

I just had a lot of fabric. :)

So we got home and unlike Florida, it has been chilly here, so our house was cold, but not as cold as it would have been had not Tim started a fire in the morning.

I unpacked all the suitcases and sorted into piles. I finally got all the stuff put away appropriately by about 7 pm. I had to fold all the fabric - and I was working in slow motion by then. We had missed a night’s rest - it was on the airplane - and that always leaves me very tired and just messed up.

As I write this, all the suitcases are still downstairs - that is something we need to do right away. I haven’t taken the things for the long aArm down to that room yet.

I also haven’t touched my sewing machines yet. I’m itching to.

What I did do was put aside the several tops I brought back (my Granny Square, Tulip, Prairie Stockings Spring Basket, and a couple other tops) and began to figure out if I was truly finished with them or should I add borders - and then begin to figure out backings if I was going to stop.

Before we left in December, I had spent a LOT of time working on my own tops and had almost caught up with many of my personal tops - and I was feeling pretty good about that. Very happy, in fact. But I didn’t bring that many back. I was imagining the customs guy opening the suitcase and seeing my beautiful granny square top and visualizing myself trying to explain to him that I had taken all the blocks FROM Poland just put them together in Florida. (!) I was glad it didn’t come to that.

So there you are. I’ve got some struggles with some coughing, but are hoping that I will soon get better. If it is allergies exacerbating the problem, it might be a while. If it is an infection, I hope sooner rather than later, my cough will go away. Traveling does leave a person susceptible to all those different microbes.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this.




Becky PetersenComment