Wednesday, November 7 – Traveling and a reunion

After going to bed at around 9:30, my internal alarm clock woke me up just before my two others at 4 am. I brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes, and booked it for the airport, which was right across the street. The ryanair flight went exactly as it did before…like clockwork. Only one funny story to tell. Everyone lined up in the priority line because they didn’t understand that the normal line curved around. So, I went and lined up by myself in the correct line while wearing headphones. This key detail made it look like I really knew what I was doing. It only took two people lining up behind me before the herd moved in a giant torrent to my line. Sweet.

The shuttle guy was waiting when I came out. He was a real nice guy who spoke English, Italian, and French. We had to wait for another flight to come in, then we left. He was very nice in the van. About an hour in, we suddenly pulled over and I was instructed to get out of the van and switch to the passat wagon that was waiting on the traffic circle in front of us. After 30 minutes of cell phone calls, writing while driving, an unbalanced wheel, and a broken seatbelt I arrived at Gare de L’est in time to wait for 2 hours for my train. The wait wasn’t bad. Good people watching and food to be had. My train left on time. I switched seats early on because I was facing backwards. We also went 10 mph for about 15 minutes due to construction, but overall it was fine. I even dozed a bit. And as we pulled up, I could see Laura standing there on the platform. We hugged and exchanged greetings before walking to my hotel.

The hotel is very cute, clean, and nice. After a few minutes of rest, we walked around the city. Metz is also very cute, clean, and nice. We saw the amazing cathedral and walked along the river. We had a snack of crepes. We just walked and walked and talked. We ran into a guy who said, “Vous etes americain!?!” and went off on this huge thing about how Americans are so nice and we deserve to be number 1 cause we worked for it and some childhood thing about getting hit in the back with a football. As quickly as he appeared, he was gone again. Whatever. We came back to the hotel room for a little rest before dinner. Our search for a restaurant took a little while, but my radar eventually led us to a little place all by itself called Le Strapontin. Once I saw the menu, I knew we were in the right spot. We shared a warm chevre salad with superb cheese melted over bread. I had chicken cooked in a pot, while Laura had pot au feu. Mine fell off the bone and was served with delicious rice…a truly delicious and French meal. For dessert we had a very granular, but delicious crème brulee with a mirabelle inside, a fruit that only grows in the Lorraine region. After dinner, I walked Laura to the empty train station where they were playing Foreigner and saw her off.

I couldn’t be more beat, and I seem to have developed a spontaneous and severe Charlie horse in my right quad. Tomorrow I’m meeting Laura for lunch in Pont a Mousson, so I’ll have the morning to recover.