Home for Christmas!

So we were all packed and excited to be coming home for Christmas our first year living in London. Its harder than people think to be away from family during this time especially when you have nieces and nephews that are at the age to enjoy it all. We decided to go to Rome the weekend before we were heading home to squeeze in one last trip. We debated even going when we heard that the next couple weeks might be bad in London. We took the risk anyways with lots of prayers while in Rome. Our flight back from Rome was delayed hours because no flights from Rome had gone into London all day due to snow (in London). After much stress we finally were the first flight out of Rome to London ALL day. We thought to our selves...we could not have been more lucky. And then......

We land at Gatwick airport to get a message from Tony's mother telling us that our flight in the morning to Atlanta was cancelled. We were so disappointed and shocked because both airports in London had select flights that were taking off that evening. We arrive to our place at 1 am exhausted but knew we couldnt sleep until we attempted to find a flight to get home. Tony was on the phone with delta until 3am and they told us they could not get us out until the 24th of December. We both looked at each other and knew that that was not going to be an option for us. We had our hearts set on getting to the states much earlier. We decided to go to bed and try again in the morning.

We both woke up thinking to ourselves that there has to be another option. Once again Tony gets on the phone with Delta and once again they have nothing. Then Tony and I think to ask them to try and find a flight from a different city in Europe. BUT there is only one problem. Eurostar and most other train services have also shut down due to the snow. The Delta rep told us if we could get to Brussels then she could put us on a flight tomorrow. We both looked at each other thinking- Is this even possible? We tell the rep to hold that flight for us and we would try to call around and see if there was any train that could get us there.

After hours of calling train services and ferry services we find an option that MUST work out perfectly considering there are 5 different legs of the trip that must work out to get us to this flight on time. Wesat down and had a HUGE discussion of whether this was even humanly possible for us to do. The 5 legs would be to get on a 2 hour train to Dover which is south of London. Then we would take a 2 hour ferry from Dover to Calais, France. Then we would have to take a hour and a half train from Calais, France to Lille, France. There we would have to switch trains to get from Lille, France to Brussels, Belgium. Then get a train/cab to the airport for our flight. We decide that it would be worth all this hassle to be able to spend as much time as we can with our families.

We load up our luggage which looking back we should have only taken backpacks knowing the massive trip we were about to endure. BUT noooooo....not thinking we took 2 large suitcases (both weighing about 50 lbs or more) and both had pretty large carry on bags. We head to the tube finally to get a high speed train from London to Dover, UK. So far so good!

We arrive in Dover and lug our suitcases to where the ferries take off. Little did we know that EVERYONE thought of this same idea...HA! We then panic but still stay hopeful that it all works out. They had a method in place at Dover where each individual had to take a ticket and stand in line for a couple hours before even boarding the next ferry. The line was outside in the snow and we all know I hate being cold. We suffered through it to finally get onto the boat. We get on and notice hey this might be kinda fun! It was set up like a mini cruise ship with restaurants and a bar. So then we decide we deserve a beer and some relaxation time. UNITL.....tony checks the internet to find out our flight in Brussels has been canceled due to the snow storm! Tony took one look at me and I burst into tears. I tried to stay positive this whole time but as the boat is departing this is the news that we receive.

Tony then panics and calls Delta again and tells then that they have to get us on a flight from any European as we are on our way to France. After an hour of conversation and panic they put us on a flight from Paris. Once we find this out the people on the boat tell us we really need to book a hotel in Calais as there are no trains out until the morning. So we call a couple places and finally find a hotel that has one room left. Once that is booked and our flight is booked in Paris we sit and relax....again!

So we safely arrive in Calais, France. We rush off the boat knowing all the cabs will be busy transporting people to the city center of Calais. We get to the cab pick up and none are to be found. NO CABS! We wait and then decide our only option is to walk. At this point it is a full on blizzard outside (well to me it is but to most people who are used to snow it probably wasn't). We walked about 2 miles in the snow lugging our heavy suitcases to the hotel. Everyone else was doing the same thing so at one point we couldn't help but laughing even though I wanted to cry. We had my friend Cathy book us the first train in the morning at 5 am since we had no internet access. I will try and get a picture Tony took of me treading through the snow with all the luggage.

We finally get to the hotel we booked and give the woman our name. Let me remind everyone that we put down our credit card to hold the room. The woman then tells us she is sorry but she gave our room away because we were an hour late of when we told her we hoped to get there. I immediately break down into tears at this point as we saw others outside walking hotel to hotel trying to find anything that had available rooms. Calais is such a small little town that there couldn't have been more than 10 hotels in the whole town. Tony at this point (12 am) is furious and is asking the woman how she could give up our room when we put down a credit card number. She apologizes and tell us she will kindly check other places and drive us there herself in her personal car. Forgot to mention that she speaks no English and a random man who has been staying in the hotel is translating for us. She ends up telling her there is only one place with availability left so we say okay because we are so tired at this point. We get into the random woman's car and she hikes us over to this "hotel " or what "I" thought was going to be a hotel. Little did I know she was taking us to a hostel. Tony had a feeling she was taking us to one as he knew nothing else was available. I start crying again of coarse because at this point the flood gates are WIDE OPEN. We go inside to check in and as bad as it is I can even look into this woman's eyes and giver her a heartfelt thank you for the lift. We get keys to our room and attempt to sleep for 3 hours.

We "wake up" that morning and neither of us had slept because there was still so much uncertainty at this point of the trip. We asked for a cab to the train station since it was about a mile walk with our luggage but of coarse no one came. Once again we lugged our luggage through the snow to the train station. We successfully get on the train from Calais to Lille, France to start the next leg of our trip.

Once we finally got onto the train from Lille to Paris we are starting to think....will this really happen and work out the way we had planned? So far so good! We arrive to Paris airport successfully.

We go to check in at the airport and notice that understandably the airport is packed with people trying to get out on flights. We stand in a very long line to find out that the woman from Delta who said she booked our flight never actually confirmed the flight. We both look at each other with total disappointed on our faces. We are sooooo furious at this point since it is our last leg that we thought would end in Success! Tony then goes and stands in another never ending line for an hour to an hour and a half to find out what is going on with our flight confirmation. After Tony explaining our long, exhausting journey to one representative she was so sweet to get us on a different direct flight to Atlanta! We were so happy until we noticed our ticked said stand by on them. We were thinking no way she did not put us on stand by to again have the fear of not getting out. After more discussion we ended up getting our tickets switched so we had confirmed seats on this flight.

At this point we are not satisfied until the wheels of this flight are not touching the runway! After a few hours of delay we finally were airborne and were heading to see Tony's family in Atlanta! We both celebrated with a nice cold cocktail on the flight!

Our time with our family and friends was WONDERFUL! We could not have asked for a better holiday season. We had some very upsetting news when we arrived that Tony's sweet Grandmother "Nina" had passed away the morning before we had gotten to Atlanta. She was such a special person in both of our lives and we were so blessed to have spent the time we did with her. Tony had such a special bond with her and I know she is looking down on him each and everyday! We love you Nina!

The funny thing is that I wish I could tell you our drama was over but we ended up going to a cabin in the North Georgia mountains with Tony's family and of coarse the day we leave to fly to Jacksonville there is a massive snow storm. Long story short and after a few tears (they are set off easily at this point) Tony's dad pays some random man with 4 wheel drive to take us to the bottom of the mountain where we had a car waiting for us (we knew bad storms were coming our way the night before). We successfully got to the Atlanta airport to head to my parents place in Jacksonville after hours of not knowing if we would even get out due to the storm in Georgia. Thankfully Tony's family was so sweet that they did everything they could to help us get out so we could spend the holidays with my family too.

Overall it was a long trip but well worth all the tears and stress we endured. We could not have made it through everything without all of our families support. We look back and laugh now at how crazy our trip was...we could prob make a sitcom/movie out of it all!!!!!