My FB friends know that I have arrived safely, if a bit (a lot actually) sleepy, so I don’t know how coherent my writing will be tonight. Forgive me any spelling errors or such…

My trip over is behind me and all I can say is “thank goodness!” That was never going to be much fun anyway and it really wasn’t. My flight from Philadelphia left 50 minutes late, thereby immediately jeopardizing my chances of making my connection at Paris. The plane was dreadfully hot for that hour sitting on the tarmac and at least the first two hours into the flight. It was really awful for me, seeing as I’m in another spell in life where I seem to be always warm – ugh! In addition, the plane was not at all roomy considering we were going to be on it for 8 hours. The poor guy next to me (young and cute! 🙂 ) was pretty tall and he must have been horribly squished sitting in the middle seat. He agreed with me about the cramped quarters – he said his recent flight to Australia was MUCH more roomy. We did get plenty of food and water and we had On Demand movies and TV available throughout the whole flight on the mini screens on the seatback in front of us. I watched the movie about the rescue of the whales in Alaska, Big Miracle, I think it was called.

Despite leaving so late we landed in Paris only 5 minutes late, but we were parked in some remote corner of the airfield and it took 30 minutes to get off the plane and 20 more to get into a terminal, 10 more to get to the RIGHT terminal so I missed my connection. I wasn’t very impressed with Air France’s ability to help it’s customers or the airport (Charles de Gaulle) but then again I wasn’t really seeing much of the best of the terminal, more like the back areas, utility areas, etc. When I finally got to the terminal, even that wasn’t very impressive although there were some expensive shops and tasty food options.

Once I boarded for Warsaw, however, I finally felt like I was in Europe, with all the “better”-ness that implies. Just based on that one flight, but Europeans load the planes faster, their overhead bins aren’t nearly so crowded, they still provide food on a flight that is less than 2 hours and they also deplane faster too

I was shocked that I didn’t have to go through any customs in Warsaw and a bit disappointed not to get a Poland stamp in my passport. I have a French stamp but all I did there was sit in the airport a few hours.

My first impressions of Warsaw once away from the airport is that it seems a little bit grimy, not as shiny and bright as some other European cities I’ve visited. That may be a bit of a hangover from the Communist period but I get the sense that Warsaw is growing and changing every year. I can’t really say for sure if that bit of grimy-ness is a leftover of the Communist era because this is the first city I’ve visited that was wholly Communist. (Berlin was never fully Communist and in any case it has recovered more quickly than Warsaw has from it’s Communist past

My hotel is nice. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to turn the lights on but eventually I did figure it out based on my sheer determination NOT to have to ask the front  desk, thereby risking an identification as a stupid American. In any case, there is a holder on the wall for your room card and your lights only come on when the card is in place. I love the toilet flusher here – not a little handle, but a big flat panel to push. I’ve seen that before, either in other European cities or in Israel, I can’t remember which.

Enough of first impressions for now. I’m tired and tonight’s soccer games are on. So goodnight for now and watch for more to come!