European Odyssey

Leisurely check out from our hotel, along with tasty French croissants from the local bakery. Our flight wasn't until 7pm so we had basically a whole day to kill. We ended up checking out at about 11am since the hotel wifi wasn't great and didn't feel like paying for a 4pm checkout, so we hopped in an Uber to the airport.

The wifi here was much better, surprisingly, and we just found a quiet corner to park ourselves for the next 6 hours until we could check in. Unfortunately our flight was delayed by about an hour, so we had a bunch more time sitting around!

Also had difficulty finding somewhere for Schnitzel to have a final pit stop before getting on the flight - apparently the only grass anywhere in the vicinity of the terminal buildings (that wasn't next to a runway!) was at a different terminal. In the end we found a bus turning circle with a few weeds growing - I ripped them out of the concrete cracks and piled them on the ground, which was enough to trick Schnitzel into peeing on them!

Lots of kids running around the departure gate area which kept setting him off barking, and he kept being unsettled on the plane too - a first! We gave him some cuddles out of the bag (against the rules!) and eventually he settled down, thankfully. It was a super budget airline and the seats were built to match, very cramped and with no leg or elbow room. I had the window, Shandos in the middle, and a guy on her left on the aisle, so we were all a bit cramped. Not my favourite way to spend 8 hours!

But we eventually arrived in New York, Shandos slept most of the way while I just watched my laptop and listened to podcasts. We'd been warned that immigration and customs at JFK could take ages but we breezed straight through with absolutely no lines, and our plane had parked at one of the closest gates so we were plane to exit within about 10 minutes. Though we did have to wait another 10 for our bags, which we used to feed a very hungry little dog.

Decided that since it was already 11:30pm, we weren't up for taking three trains to our apartment and opted instead for an Uber. While we were waiting, Schnitzel threw up his dinner inside his bag, and had some diarrhoea on the grass too. Since he'd had the lump on his side for the last 24 hours, we were suddenly very nervous!

Our ride arrived and we headed to Brooklyn with no further incidents, thankfully! Let ourselves into the apartment which was a bit weird considering it's a) someone else's apartment, and b) they're asleep in the next room!

To be continued, in another trip!Read more