Almost home...

I took a bus from Paris to the CDG airport so I could catch a shuttle from the airport to the hotel I am staying at tonight. My flight departs at 8 am tomorrow morning so I wanted to be close to the airport. The bus ride went fine, but I was once again reminded how much I overpacked for this trip. I can almost read people's minds when they see me wrestling my 2 suitcases. One is actually very small - carry on size actually. The other is actually a suitcase I inherited from Brooke when she upgraded her luggage. I think this is the last journey it will make as the handle broke yesterday, so picking it up is pretty challenging... luckily there is a handle on the side, though. So it will make it back to MSP, but will probably RIP after it gets emptied out... This trip has kind of had that effect on more than just my suitcase - I also wore out 2 pairs of shoes, both of which I had recently purchased, so that goes to show how much walking I did!

I got to my hotel and was pleasantly surprised by it. The room is large & it comes with an electric water heater & some packets of hot chocolate. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's little touches like this that I enjoy after the paired down accomodations I've been staying in! The coolest thing about the room is displayed in the picture to the left. Ok, maybe not the coolest thing, but the smartest thing! The 2 boxes to the left are light switches & then you have to put your card in the slot in order to get the lights to work. It's good for the hotel in that you can't have lights on while you are gone so will waste less energy.... and it's good for people like me who have a knack for loosing things like keys! I've never seen this before, but I think that more hotels should move to this system!

So now I am blogging away in the lobby. I just overheard a family of Americans that were asking where the pool was... The front desk guy kindly explained that there is no pool and that no hotels around here have pools. I'm guessing that these Americans are just starting their trip. They are in for a 'treat' if they expect swimming pools in their accomodations... It's times like this where I am thankful that I am somewhat well-traveled and know what to expect when overseas....

Tonight will be a quiet night for me - will probably try to burn up the rest of my phone card minutes and get to bed early. Tomorrow will be a long day. I fly to Iceland at 8 am, and then have a 7 hour layover there... :( Still undecided on whether I'll venture into the city.... Then I have my flight home from Iceland which departs at 4:30 Iceland time & arrives in Minneapolis at 6 pm CST. Which will feel like 1 am. I am going to try not to sleep on the flight so that I can get home, go straight to bed, and hopefully sleep thru until Tuesday a.m. when I get up and have to go back to work!

So this is my final blog entry. I will probably do one last one when I get home, but it will probably be a 'this is what I will/won't miss'. So thanks to you all you faithful blog followers out there! It's been fun recording my time in France, and hopefully you've enjoyed virtually joining me on my adventures! I've had a wonderful time here, but am very, very excited to get back to the good 'ol US of A. Everytime I leave the country, I am reminded of how good we have it back home; this trip is no exception. I will probably dream of Mt Dew, Chipotle, and currency-friendly shop keepers tonight! ;)

So au revoir - I hope to see all of you soon!