Author: GFreeWanderer

Getting to Paris

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View of the French countryside on approach to CDG

My journey to Paris took about 23 hours from start to finish. To start the morning off, I managed to lock myself out of the apartment without my keys. After that minor debacle though, the rest of the trip was pretty smooth.

After taking a Lyft to Los Angeles International, I boarded the first of three plane legs. I took JetBlue from LAX to Boston Logan. I don’t know if you guys have been on JetBlue lately, but man have they done some upgrades. Not only was there satellite tv (a JetBlue standard), there was free wifi throughout the cabin, 2 beverage services, AND snacks. This level of service is almost unheard of on US domestic flights. I had managed to grab this flight for about $180.

After landing in Boston, I had to grab my suitcase from the domestic baggage claim and head over the the international terminal. I had a solid cushion of 3 hours between the two flights, but I was still a bit nervous since I had never been to Boston Logan before. However, everything went without a hitch. There was only one person in line ahead of me for security in the international terminal, a travel first for me.

Next up was my WOW Airlines flights from Boston to Keflavik, Iceland and then from Keflavik on to Charles De Gaulle in Paris. WOW doesn’t offer many amenities since it is truly a European budget airline. There were no outlets or radios on this flight and any beverages, headphones, pillows, etc cost extra. The lower quality of travel was worth it to me though since I got both legs (Boston through to Paris) for only $99. Crazy good deal! Of course that was bumped to around $170 after I added the checked bag fee. Still not bad for a transatlantic flight!

Bonus trip feature: I managed to catch a faint glimpse of the Northern Lights on the Boston to KEF leg! Definitely a silver lining to a middle of the night flight with a northern-facing window seat! Check Aurora Borealis off the bucket list! ✔️ Woohoo!

The KEF airport was extremely clean and well organized. A decent amount of shops were open, there were tons of helpful staff members around, free wifi, and loads and loads of outlets- both plug and usb.

In total, I spent $363 getting from California to France.

Money saving tip for flights: I had spent an additional $20 on groceries at my local LA supermarket before flying so that I didn’t have to buy any food at the airport. Those snacks included salami, apples, olives, a gluten free bun, cream cheese, a pack of Babybell cheeses, coconut chips, and some Luna bars. That took care of 4 meals during my flights. I also packed my Vapur collapsible water bottle so that I didn’t have to spend any money on bottled water at the airport. That’s where they getchya!

 

Peace for Paris

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After Friday’s events, it’s so strange reflecting on the wonderful week I just spent in Paris. The city I experienced just ten days ago has been forever changed. I truly hope that the people I spoke to and interacted with are all okay. The people there were so kind and welcoming, I am sure that this beautiful city will stay as strong and united as ever.

 

Preppin’ for Paris… And London

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I am now less than 2 days out from the first leg of my journey to Europe. Third time’s the charm, right? I’ll be flying from LAX to Boston. From there, I’ll go BOS to KEF and on to CDG. I managed to get a $99 flight from Boston to Paris during the Wow Air sale a few months back. I paid for a checked bag though, so it ended up being around $175. European carry on size + cold weather clothing = difficult. After Paris, I’ll be taking the Channel Tunnel (or Chunnel as we Americans say) to explore jolly old England for a few days. Then back to reality. 

My flight into Iceland will be in the wee hours of the morning during fall. I’m hoping to *maybe* get a glimpse of the Northern Lights and I nabbed seats facing north both into KEF and out. I’m a window seat girl anyways, so no harm there.

I just discovered that Wow Air (BOS-KEF-CDG) has no onboard entertainment, so I’m gonna have to get creative. I guess I’ll finally be checking out those offline Amazon Prime offerings. I’ll also be packing some gluten free food for the trip. I’m thinking apples, some leftover cauliflower florets, crackers, bars, and some Gatorade powder to prevent dehydration. My other long haul flight essentials: Tylenol, eye mask, earplugs, headphones (two sets), reading material, music, my collapsible Vapur water bottle, and, occasionally, pre-downloaded movies and TV shows. I bring two sets of headphones because I once endured a solo 11 hour trans-Atlantic flight with zero headphones after the metal jack of my headphones got lodged in the armrest plug and broke off. Of course, this happened within 5 minutes of takeoff and the flight attendants had given out every last pair of the airline headsets. Yay. 

As for the rest of the trip, all planning and researching and note-taking and guidebook reading has been done. Phew. I have my packing list good to go and now just need to actually pack. Easier said than done. The weather forecast jumped up about 15* since I had last checked it so I’ll have to revise the packing list a tad. 

I’m pretty excited for the trip, but at this point I just want it to start. I may have over researched. I used to be a bit more carefree about this stuff, but the gluten limitations spur me into research mode, and I fall to click bait time and time again. Most of the time I’ll go online to google one trip-related thing and then look up from my iPad two hours later. It’s like I never really grew out of my StumbleUpon phase from college. Sidenote- only use StumbleUpon if you have enormous strength of will. It is too addicting for me.

Ttfn.