europe, chapter 1

it goes without saying that i was incredibly psyched to go on this vacation. what made me even more psyched was the fact that it was in the 60s on the day i flew out, so i was able to drive home from work with the top down on the car. woo hoo! on the way home i stopped at my bank to exchange some cash for euros, but my bank didn't have any... so i planned to do the exchange at the airport, and headed home to grab my luggage.

to save a little bit of money, i had booked a shuttle to take me to the airport... $50 round trip on a shuttle, vs. $200 in airport parking, sounded pretty good. plus one of the shuttle stops was right down the street from me, which made it even better. what i didn't count on is that the shuttle drove all over god's green earth, picking up passengers at 6 other stops, before heading to the airport. it took almost 3 hours to go the 28 miles to the airport, in a van packed with pissed-off business travellers trying to get home on a friday afternoon. and the van... sweet baby jesus, the van... once we got out on the highway, we started driving the whole way down the rumble strips at the side of the road... after a few minutes of it, i was about to ask the driver to pull back into the lane a bit, when i realized that the noise and vibration was actually the darn van! for the next half hour, we buzzed along, and i swear i didn't know if i was going to vomit or have an orgasm. thank god i did neither, and got to the airport completely green but safe.

( vacationy goodness! france-y france france! )