Minneapolis With Open Arms

We made it home. It's now Saturday, and I feel like I can finally recount our final day without too much trauma. I can't sugar coat it, the travel home sucked monkey balls. It was a seemingly unending day, with us having been up a full 24 hours by the time we stepped beyond the condo's threshold. It was 24 hours of very weary, stinky, delayed everything. It was pouring when we had to leave the To Sostre, so though the bus was only a block away, we were drenched by the time we reached it. Our first flight left Bergen for Copenhagen, and after they served the drinks, the dude seated in front of John flopped into his seat, spilling John's coffee all over his legs. It was thankfully a short flight, but since we had only an hour layover, we had to haul serious ass through the Copenhagen airport to get to the proper gate. I had to choke down a peanut butter sandwich because my blood sugar was falling, but I have such problems eating too early that I was feeling too nauseous to enjoy it.

Flight to Copenhagen, choice spot on the plane!


Soon, we were boarding our flight to DC.
Flight? Did I say flight? Ha ha ha. It wasn't a 'flight' so much as a 'ride into the depths of hell'. It was a full house, it stunk like feet, B.O. and dirty diapers from what seemed like half of the passengers who were children under 6, most of whom were actually very well-behaved, and their parents seemed caring and knowledgeable about how to actually care for them. Unfortunately, the aisle next to us had parents that were not knowledgeable about such things, and had two children with them, one about 5/6 and one about 2/3. The smaller kid cried, screamed and shrieked for the entirety of the eight hour flight. THE ENTIRE FLIGHT. And the parents did nothing to alleviate this poor, bored and squirrely child. They had zero toys, zero books, zero electronic gizmos or tactile stimulation for either kid, they didn't even get up out of the seats to walk the kids around. They sat there, forcing the poor kids to sit there for eight solid, torturous, horrible, cruel hours. At one point, the little boy was entertaining himself by slapping the fold-down tray, and those blissfully quiet few minutes were cut short by the mother slamming the tray shut and locking it. Unbelievable. I was ready to fork over my house keys for the kid to play with. Despite the display of all the other parents walking their kids around the plane with stuffies and books in tow, and the happy smiles on their kids' faces, these two only got up once and that was when both children were screaming bloody murder so loudly that every other parent on the plane were shooting daggers out of their eyes at them. I felt so bad for those kids. Even with my earplugs in, headphones on with volume at full throttle, I could not get the screaming to silence.

Hell Flight


At least this flight had the personal entertainment system at each seat, so we watched Snow White and the Huntsman, Brave twice, and then I watched The Full Monty while John played Suduku. Amazingly, I was able to get a few Z's early in the flight, read some of my book and watched with amazement as we passed over the frozen, snow-covered Greenland. Finally, the flight came to an end, and I thought things could only get better. Oh, how mistaken! The security at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC is embarrassingly inefficient and full of cocky, power-hungry dickwads who take pleasure in condescending people. It was a three-tiered system, and took forever to get through. First, the ginormous line to get our passports checked (and some people were even getting fingerprinted! I was appalled at this colossal violation!). Second, the ginormous line to have our customs papers inspected which entailed a person looking at the piece of paper the first guy already looked at and stamped. Third, the ginormous and slow-as-molasses security screen. Finally, we were done with that and had to haul ass to our next plane, home to Minneapolis. Delayed. "No aircraft" the board said. Ugh....another stinky, hot, body odor-stankin', dirty waiting area to sit in. Thankfully, the wait wasn't too long, and though the flight was agonizing in its own right, it was only three hours, and we didn't have to wait for luggage, we could zip right over to the light rail, and walk home. We walked in the door about 9pm. We had originally thought we'd be home more like 6:30-ish, but whatever, we were home.

Greenland!!


Map


Last Flight! Onward to Minneapolis!


We snuggled our kitties, cracked open the two beers left in the fridge and sat out on the balcony before we finally had to just flop into bed. My awesome mother had left us a little care package, so we were able to make a nice breakfast the next morning of eggs, toast, raspberry lemonade and coffee with cream. Norway was unbelievably beautiful, and Balestrand is definitely on the short list of places we'll consider retiring, but there really is no place like home :)
Love, hugs, and thanks for reading everyone! Til next time!
R&J

PS: I inserted photos into each post, so be sure to check past posts to see some sights! We took over 1100 photos, so this is a very small snippet!