On the spur of the moment I decided to meet my friends in Rome. It was her birthday and she and her husband were kind enough to invite me. We had a wonderful time and I had a bloggable trip home. Here’s what happened.
I got to the airport at 5:10 AM. The cab diver drove 140 KM (about 110 MPH). I'm still alive so that's good.
I had to go to three different customs places before I got to the right one to get my VAT tax back. Here's how it works: If you are checking luggage you check your bag and bring boarding pass and luggage tags to the customs counter. I only found this out after I had visited 3 earlier customs counters.
Each is manned with one person, he/she is usually helping people who have some sort of issue that is handled with numerous shrugs and “no’s”. But I finally got mine taken care of and dropped it in the cute little mailbox.
They tried to make me check my bag in Rome and not let me carry it on. I sweetly begged and started to choke up teary-eyed and he got a supervisor so I didn't have to check.
On the flight from London to Denver, the guy in the seat next to me was a snot. The flight attendant thought we were together and gave me a customs form but not him. I called the flight attendant back and said he needed one. When she indicated one per family I said the man and I had only just met and weren't married yet. The guy grabbed his form and slammed up the window between us indicating marriage was not in our future. Grouchy pants.
But it worked out fine. They had a very fine sauvignon blanc that I indulged in prior to my nice nap across the pond.
For some reason, when I tried to check in online the site had directed me to Kenya Airlines for the Denver to LA part of the trip. In London they printed my boarding pass but when I got to Denver, it was missing info so I had to go through a number of different levels of TSA. I said nothing about Kenya or the “e” word.
When I got there I realized there was an earlier flight. No first class but I said it was okay. I ran to the flight and still had time to spare. It was a really small plane and the first class was separated with a curtain. I got a really good seat right behind first class that had more leg room than first class. At the last minute they had an open seat in first class and gave it to the last guy to get on. He was so excited and happy I didn't care. The only difference was free drink in first but I had had plenty of wine and just wanted ice water.
Anyway I got home 3 hours early which was great. Now I’m busily travelling up and down the state educating tax professionals about Obamacare!
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