one for the books

i can hardly believe that a little more than a year ago, i was crying my eyes out in paris.


don't believe me?


what would i have to cry about, you ask?
   yes, i did just get married.
   why yes, he is the man of my dreams.
   i agree: i am in paris.


still in the dark?   allow me to fill in a few blanks.


on may 22, 2011 j and i took off from IAD for what could only be imagined to be the best 3 weeks.  ever. we were pumped.  i should probably mention that before we took off, i successfully negotiated our ascension through the ranks of the coach-class flyers to ::ahem:: priority coach class.  oh yeah.  extended leg room, don't mind if i do.  this little coup made me feel pretty good about the way the trip was shaping up - and we hadn't even left the states yet!  i should probably also mention that when we were upgraded so generously, our desk-clerk mentioned that since he had to print out new boarding passes, we would need to pick up our second leg pass in london to get to paris.  no problem.

fast forward a few hours and it's monday, may 23, 2011.  we're waking up to the captain announcing that our flight is getting into heathrow just a little late and that passengers with connecting flights should run, not walk to their next gate. {the gate for which we had yet to obtain our boarding pass, you may recall}  do you see where this is going?  we did too, but boy did we try to deny it.

and yes, we missed our flight.  not to worry though, right?  there are about 10 flights daily between london and paris.  we should be out of here in no time.

fun fact: while some of you might remember that icelandic volcano which erupted in 2010, i bet only a handful knew that there was a second eruption.  date? may 23, 2011.  oh yes.  all flights out of heathrow were on hiatus.   so we sit.  and sit.  and finally, late in the afternoon, we get a flight to paris.  YES

we arrive in paris.  woooo!!  our luggage, however, does not.  seriously.  we make our way to our hostel, trying to sort out what we're going to do.  what if {unlikely as it may be} our luggage never makes it?  what will we do?  to make things a little more fun, we have a deadline: our flight from paris to zagrab leaves in 2 days.

holy moly.

once the shock wears off a little bit and we're able to shower, nap and get a baguette, we begin to really think about things.  we have our computer, but the charger is in the suitcase.  dang.  while i did pack an extra pair of undies, that's it: no change of clothes.  truth: your mom really does know best.  slowly we start to realize that this dream vaca might be a little different than what we had planned.  and here come the tears.  with me now?

looking back, i can say without a doubt that this experience was wonderful.  wonderful in the sense that despite all of the major life changes, the big and the little tragedies, the stress of international travel, we both completely broke down and were able to experience that on which a large part marriage is based: vulnerability. 

making the most of it {day #3 of these outfits}

so...loooong story short: still unsure of the future of our honeymoon, we head to bed around midnight the night before we are supposed to catch our flight to croatia.  still mulling things over at about 2 am, we get a phone call from the front desk: "your suitcases were just dropped off." 

i could have kissed him. 

instead, when we ran down the stairs to pick up our ill-fated belongings, i gave that little french man the biggest hug i could.

{note: the staff of our hostel were truly a godsend.  not only did they translate for us with the airlines trying to get an update on our bags, but they actually fought for us...they even offered that if our bags came when we had already left for croatia, that they would hold them, no problem, no charge.  seriously.  i will forever be grateful for the kindness of strangers shown in this instance}

so there you have it: my reason for tears in paris.

ultimately we made it to croatia, had a fabulous time {i promise, pictures are on their way}, and now have a pretty great story to whip out at parties.  i'd say win-win.

now that you've listened to me for so long, tell me: what's your favorite honeymoon/ travel story??