Homeward Bound & the Ten Steps of Doom We Encountered Beforehand

It's day nineteen (for me) in the A-Z blog challenge! This month I'll be sharing all about my Christmas/New Year travels in NYC and Europe – providing insight into the places I went, reviewing the hotels I stayed at, and telling my story. Today's letter is W for feeling wronged and weary in New York City. Feel free to follow along as I make my way through the alphabet! :)

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After staying up late wandering around Paris, dealing with a cab driver that was ripping us off, and trying to arrive early to the airport for catching our flight home, we were more than happy to be headed back to the US. Our thought was: Europe, if you're done with us, we're done with you! Only … we had no idea what lurked ahead…

It all began the moment we stepped foot into CDG…

1. Do you know how hard it is to find a decent croissant in CDG? And if you do, the lines are crazy long!!!! 

I can function without breakfast.

My husband, on the other hand, cannot. Well, more so, he can't function without coffee. 

Buy mug here.

Yeah, that's him. :)

And sometimes it takes two cups before it's acceptable to talk!

2. After you've found a sufficient breakfast, then you can sleep on the plane, right?!

Except not if you have had your two cups of coffee. ;) Or so Justin found out.

I had no problem relaxing for the six hours between Paris and New York City. I even fit in a few episodes of "Two Broke Girls" which oddly enough I was introduced to by a German.   

My husband, on the other hand… :)

When the plane landed before it's scheduled arrival time I was ready to go! He, however, was not. :-/

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3. That's when we decided to save money and take our luggage to the Newark airport (where we would be flying out the next day) and rent a locker for our luggage. We thought it might save us time and money. Only…

As it turns out, the information I was viewing online was old. :( There were no lockers available at EWR for rent.

And just like that, noon became five o'clock. The bus ride to EWR had taken all afternoon and we still hadn't gotten to our hotel. :(

4. So we hopped in a cab and headed to the Hyatt Regency in Jersey City.

First of all, I only have good things to say about the hotel; it was amazing! I had missed a beautiful sunset view from the pier, but it didn't matter. I quickly fell in love with the hotel anyway!

But by this point, the paper bag I had been using to hold various items (so we wouldn't be charged an overage fee on our luggage from our flight to NYC) had broken, so we knew the first thing on our to do list was to head to Macy's to get a new bag.

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5. First I wanted to go to the fabric district and find fabric for my grandmother though. It was suppose to be a late Christmas gift.

I had fully intended on buying fabric in Paris, but I didn't want to carry it around Europe so we decided to wait until the last day before we returned to the US to shop for it. Unfortunately, I underestimated how long the train ride would take between Germany and France. So that didn't happen. :( 

As it turns out though, even in NYC we were too late to buy fabric. Just like in our hometown, stores close early on Sundays. We made it all the way to the correct district only to find shop after shop closed. :(

I guess it just wasn't meant to be?

6. So, then it was on to Macy's, which we knew had an early closing time.

We roamed the entire luggage collection over and over again trying to pick the cheapest bag that we would also get the most post-trip use out of. If you know my husband at all, you would realize that by this time the lack of food and sleep was leading to something even beyond hanger. There would be no arguing with him. My luggage choices and his weren't going to align, so, rather than fight it, I agreed to settle. Whatever made him happy. (Because at some point, it just doesn't matter!)

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7. As we headed away from Macy's and through Times Square, some jerk with a bag of broken glass decided to hit my hangered husband's newly acquired luggage piece.

Maybe we looked like we had money?

Or?

Me, who hadn't been paying attention, stopped, looking very confused at the two men. This is when the guy took advantage of the situation and complained that Justin had broken his just bought, very expensive Whiskey. 

I think my first thought was: "There's no liquid on the ground? And the glass in the bag sounded literally shattered into thousands of pieces. Not like four. And how in the world did a piece of soft luggage manage to do that?"

Justin said he only had $10, which the guy took readily.

And then we left truly feeling taken advantage of. :(

But what were we suppose to do? Get into a fight? Go to jail? 

This was the first truly depressing experience I have ever had in NYC. I'm just glad nothing worse happened. :-/

8. Finally food.

We made our way to a local pizza shop far away from Times Square. The pizza was amazing! But while we were eating, you'll never guess what happened!

It started raining. :( 

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9. So we raced to the subway! 

Only Justin was so tired that he wasn't paying attention to the stops and we missed every. single. one. And me? I was trusting him. :( Needless to say, it was another late night. This time, not on purpose.

10. As if all of that wasn't enough of an ending to what had been a delightful holiday, we found out the next morning that David Bowie had passed. :(

I think that was a sign that our vacation was officially over. It was time to get back to real life. :-/

Have you ever had a wonderful vacation only for it to end in a less than pleasant way? 

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