Paris

Finally, we make it to Paris. I had to call Airport Connections right when we landed to make sure they were still going to be able to pick us up and drop us off at our hotel. I called the hotel and they held our reservation, just charged us for the night we didn't quite make. This time, we were definitely exhausted. It is now Saturday, the only shopping day left in Paris before we depart on Monday. Sunday, is a mandatory "closed" day. Well with the exceptions of certain shops on Champs Elysses. Sam & I drag ourselves out there and try to get as much shopping done...well it was definitely a challenge because we didn't know quite where we were this time...last time we went to Paris, we were there for seven days, of course, in a different location. But in the end, we find it, did majority of the shopping, finally make it back to the hotel. My mom was gone. I guess she decided to get up after a while and go shopping too. Soon after, my mom shows up back at the hotel. She's hungry and says we should go out and eat dinner. My daughter was completely not in the mood to do any more walking, even if it meant walking across the street. I asked for room service, but apparently that is only on certain ocassions, not all the time?? I didn't quite understand that part of it. My mother and I venture out to get dinner. We eat at a lovely Restaurant called Brasserie [?]. I have no idea what it means, but the food was yummy. I get take out for Sam. We get back to the hotel & started knocking, but no one answers. I start banging on the door, yelling Sam are you there? I know she is there because she was so tired. My mother starts yelling at me for leaving her [as if I was the only one that left her], but she was genuinely tired. My mother goes to the front desk to get an extra key, well Sam locks the top lock so you can't completely open the door & I continue to knock and knock, calling her...she finally wakes up...crying, mommy, my leg. I knew exactly what she meant, she was cramping up and she couldn't move. I kept telling her that I couldn't help her unless she unlocked the door. She finally got to the door and I had to help her. I draw her a hot bath...she looked grey...so I gave her a neb treatment [she has asthma] & she fell asleep and was biting down on the mouth piece. I attempt to carry her to the bathroom [God knows where the hell my mother is, but she isn't helping] & give her a hot bath & she finally feels better. She eats the food I brought back & ends up passing out on her bed with wet hair. All my mother wants to do is shop, so I end up going with her [again] to shop close by...just a cheap stores. I end up making her purchase me clothing as well [cause I've got to be there with her, might as well, right?] We come back to the hotel and my mother desperately wants to see Versailles. We end up booking a trip to Versailles for 1:30 in the afternoon on Sunday. I was so tired. I slept & slept....and finally got up to go to Versailles. We go on this tour...a driver picks up me, my daughter & my mother and two other guests from our hotel. We travel to one more hotel to pick up two other guests. We make the 40 minute drive, it's about 35 km away from the city. The tour guide gives us the story of Versailles and how it is possibly the biggest palace. It has something like 1000 plus rooms [yes, I was listening very tentatively]. Our luck, we only get to see 25 [thank God]. Lots of tourists, cobblestones, beautiful tapestry, ornate, everything you can think of a grand palace. The gardens were breath taking. It was a cold & windy day. All I wanted to do was just hurdle up by a fireplace, but no...I had the driver drop us off at Champ Elysses because I'm a nut ball. We do little bit of shopping and eat dinner. Finally returning to the hotel to start the endless packing of stuff. A car will come for us at 5:00 a.m., so I guess we'd better be done before we go to bed. The next morning, the driver was prompt. We stop at one other hotel to pick up another couple going to Charles de Gaulle airport. The kiosks were not working, so there were LONG lines, everywhere. I needed to get my VAT stamped so I could receive a tax refund for my purchases. I tell my mom to just go ahead and Sam & I look for the VAT office. We find the VAT office and they tell me that they need my boarding pass, well I haven't checked in because VAT asks that they are able to see the merchandise. I go back and check in thru a kiosk...then my mother realizes that she can't find one of her credit cards and what does she do? She blames me. She can't find her pounds, she thinks I stole it. She can't find her euros, she thinks I stole it. I finally lose it when she starts to accuse my daughter of taking it. I start yelling at her & I just told her to cancel the damn credit card and the others I have no idea...but I assume she dropped it. She has five different places where she hides her money [just like my grandma, who had dimentia]. Then I really tell her off, she was like I never lose anything...and I was like, oh yeah, just like when you lost your passport in California? She didn't like that comment and frowned. I just separated from her & Sam & I deal with our own flight. I get to the check-in desk and check-in my luggage, the agent asks what is my destination? I tell her Denver. She didn't quite understand because it just said Heathrow [London], well we had bought the tickets seperately, but it is both through the same airline, so they just put tags on our bags so that we wouldn't need to pick them up at Heathrow [London] & they would directly go through to Denver. Well as my mother comes over to our area and finds out that we have done so, she is upset because they didn't do that with her luggage. I'm not sure what she did when she checked in, but that's it...she depends on everyone else to help her and if you don't, then you are out to get her. I didn't want the situation to escalate, so I tell her, to get a separate seat from London to Denver. When we got on the plane from Paris to London, I had Sam sit inbetween us because I was literally going to strangle her.

Venezia

We fly to Venice on Ryanair. I guess it is a small european company that flies all over the place out there. They were very strict as to how much we were allowed to check in and bring onto the plane. It was a full flight. Then there is an hour of a time change, so that just made you feel weird altogether. But the flight was only 2 hours long. We get to Venice, tried to figure out how to get from the airport to the island? Well we followed the long lines...and paid 9 euros for a roundtrip ticket on a bus. It was a full bus too. After traveling for an hour and a half on a bus to the island, we had to find our hotel. Well that was a little bit of a challenge, considering we didn't speak Italian. I took the confirmation page and just showed the address to people trying to see where we needed to go...there is a water taxi, its just like the bus, but because there was no land, just water...it stopped at every few blocks. I finally got an answer as to where to get off to find our hotel. We stayed at Sant' elena hotel. It was a beautiful hotel. I was soooo hungry. After we drop off our stuff, we are on our way to find food. Well the only trouble is...there is a lot of walking and I was pretty much pushing myself to walk. We found a really nice Italian restaurant that had a view of the water...the sun was setting, it was beautiful. We had dinner, which was really good, by the way. We start walking back to the hotel, but then decide we should just take the general water taxi back because that's a far walk for all of us. As we ride on the water taxi back, almost at our stop, I wasn't feeling so well. I don't remember what happened next, but I found myself at the hotel with my mother [literally] screaming at me "wake up, Melissa!" My daughter had called my neurologist in the US and spoke with him personally. Apparently, they were instructed to admit me into the local hospital [whereever that may be?]. I tell them both that I am okay and it is not necessary. Later, my neurologist asks me, why didn't your mom call instead of your twelve year old daughter? I told him because my mom didn't know what to do in an emergency and my daughter is so mature, that she knew exactly what to do. The next morning...we didn't really have much time...we made our way to Murano island. The two things I wanted to do in Venice was ride on a gondola and see Murano island and buy glass [yes, I am a retard], but hey, I don't really want to drag my body all over the place. I got to do at least one - go to Murano Island and buy glass, it was beautiful.
Next, our crazy way back to the airport and whatever else that happens next. We get to the main area where our bus had dropped us off...well...apparently, there isn't a bus because of some reason...people were waiting all over the place, we were all from different countries and none of us could understand each other. Finally, I just asked the taxi how much it would cost to get us to the airport by 2:45. I was told it was about 75 euros, which equates to 100 usd. We take the taxi to make our flight. We check in, stand in a LONG line and wait. Wait and wait again, finally boarding the plane and making it back to Stansted [London]. We take a bus from Stansted to Heathrow [which was really late because of traffic]. We sit outside waiting for the bus, it suddenly became very cold. So cold, that I finally had to go indoors because my Raynaud's was just painful. Finally a bus comes, but it isn't our bus, but we take it anyway because our bus is just stuck in traffic. It takes us to Heathrow, but the main terminal, we need terminal 4, which is 30 or 40 minutes away. The bus drivers had to change, anxiously waiting, we finally get one & he drops us off. We get to the ticket counter....lots of people for some reason. They print off our boarding passes and our luggage stickers. As she notes that I need wheelchair assistance, she tears up my tickets in front of my face and tells me that she has given up my seats. What??? Apparently, there was a fire in Waterloo and they have canceled the Eurostar [which is the other alternative to get from London to Paris], so everyone [I mean everyone] was diverted to the airport. All on British Airways or Air France. We were flying British Airways. I went over to the customer service desk and complained...it was the last flight out, and why the hell did she have to do that? I would've limped my ass to the gate. The lady at the British Airways "customer service" desk told me that I needed to make a claim with "customer relations". I looked at her with a bewildered look, where am I? She had to clarify it again that this is "customer service" not "customer relations". I call my travel insurance, trying to book a hotel close to the airport because [apparently] all flights are over booked and if you want to try to get on the first flight out of London you have to be at the terminal at 5:00 a.m. We called ALL hotels, expensive to cheap, but it couldn't be more than five miles away or else it was just useless. They were all fully booked. My luck, right? We end up sleeping @ the airport, with many others. We were able to get on the first flight, but they were offering cash 175 euros if you would wait for the next flight which is an hour later that same day, we said "hell NO". Yes, it is good money, about $250 per person, but we were tired, aggrivated & just wanted to get out of there.

London

My trip to London, umm...where to start? Tired is where I started...we got there, unpacked & was just exhausted. We stayed at a very trendy hotel called the Trafalgar London, which took us forever to get there because of major traffic jams. I had hired a private car to take us, but I think we would have gotten there sooner by taking the subway or something??
My daughter and I were adventurous and wandered around the city by ourselves, taking the buses and subway & doing pretty good. We even found the ghetto mall, haha! We took silly pics that came out on little stickers. We just had fun together.
The next day, we met up with my aunt, who came from Rome. We went shopping. Everything was so expensive because the dollar just sucks! But she was nice enough to buy each my daughter and I, 50 pounds worth of stuff. We didn't get much, but that was pretty cool. That's almost $100 per person.
We leave soon to find an older airport in London to get on our way to Venice, Italy.

Bliss

Bliss is a constatnt state of mind, undistrubed by gain or loss.

This is from the Yogi Tea brand, called "Green Tea Energy"

Monday

Well we officially start Spring? I'm not sure, because it feels all weird to have this time change thing happen so early. I was a little late for work because I hitched a ride with an attorney & he was running late...so you know the game...it was like a domino effect. It is so beautiful outside today.
I got a call from Dr. Ginsberg about my MRI, he said it looks okay. [yea!!]. Then the downside. We don't know what the results are from the EEG [electroencephalogram], but he said that he will track them down. But the results were enough to start treatment for epilepsy. He just said that while I am away in Europe that if any thing happens that I should have my family contact his office. I changed it on my Medic - Alert stuff & now I just have to tell my daughter. I need to see a GYN right away when I return. He said that when women are going thru their menstral cycles, they have the tendency to have seizures [great, huh?]. Although, I haven't had a period since January of 2005. I just started having a period about two days ago. It is VERY heavy too. I don't want to bleed to death...but I don't want to feel like a hypochondriac for every thing, I need to call the doctor. It is a bit odd that I would be having my period...but then again...what do I know?