I’m home. Back in Van. The trip is over. It’s really quite surreal to be home. Surreal, but good.
It was a long day. An emotional day. A scary day. Yes, I said scary. 
We started our day with the scare. We woke up at 5:30 am as planned, since we had an 8:30 am flight from Lisbon to Frankfurt, before heading on the plane to Vancouver. All was going well, for about 10 minutes. I was up and all packed. I double-checked my room, confirmed that I had everything and then went over to my parents’ room to let them know that I was going to head downstairs and jump on the Internet while I waited for them.
Before I get into the scare, I will start off by saying the rooms in our hotel were VERY small. So small, that we had to book two rooms. And the shower was just that – a shower, no bathtub, and not fully enclosed. There was just a glass screen that covered just enough of the area to MINIMIZE water spraying onto the floor in the rest of the bathroom. Add the fact that the bathroom was tiled, and that could be scary. And it was. As I was talking to my mom at the door of her room, my dad slipped on the wet tile floor and fell….. My heart stopped for a second. It was scary. He was hurt.
Luckily he did not hit his head, but he did hurt his foot and may lose his toenail. As I said, a scary start to the day. Not a good start to the day.
My dad didn’t want to go to the hospital, and we did have a flight to make, so my mom wrapped up his foot and we headed to the airport. We requested special assistance for my dad as we checked in. Got him in a wheelchair and were on our way.
Little did we know, this incident that we had was the only reason why we made it home today. A blessing in disguise, even though I would rather get stuck in Frankfurt if it meant that my dad DIDN’T get hurt. See, our flight out of Lisbon was delayed by an hour. Apparently the wrong food cart had been loaded on the plane and needed to be changed. This was not good. Being one hour late meant that we were going to have to run to our connecting flight.
I am not sure if you know, but Frankfurt airport is HUGE … it is one of the biggest airports in the world, after all. So, the fact that we did not have a lot of time between flights AND the fact that we still had to go through customs to do so was quite unnerving. And that is where the wheelchair assistance made sure that we made it home on time and are not sitting in an airport hotel in Frankfurt right now. We were carted over to the gate where the drama continued. When we checked in in Lisbon, they were able to check us into our Frankfurt flight, but couldn’t print out our boarding passes. For some reason. We were told that we would be able to get our passes at the gate. When we got off the plane and were greeted by the wheelchair assistant, she informed us that we shouldn’t worry, but needed to get there quickly.
And we ran. She maneuvered my dad’s wheelchair while my mom and I ran through the halls. We were rushed through customs (we NEVER would have made it through customs in time without the special assistance – the line was LONG!), and we finally arrived at the gate. They did not have boarding passes for us. We were NOT checked into our flight. After a discussion between our assistant and the lady at the gate, thankfully they were able to get us on the plane. In business class. Yup, business class. Yes, a blessing in disguise.
We had joked throughout the trip that we should fly business class on the way home. Who would have known that that dream would actually happen. And it really WAS a dream. Whatever I wanted to drink was mine. My seat turned into a bed. I was given a care package, which included an eye mask, a toothbrush and toothpaste, socks, ear plugs, and some lip balm. My seat had a massage function. The movie selection was better. The food was better. Life in business class is really amazing. I will never look at flying the same again. Hahaha
Lounging in Business Class 
And now we’re back. My eyes are still adjusting from the sensory overload that I faced – traveling back in time meant that for 9 hours it was ALWAYS 3:00 pm. Every time we crossed to a new time zone, it was the same time. The sun should have gone down hours ago, but it has not. It’s time for me to sleep.
And I will let you know that my dad is doing much better and is getting checked out by the doctors in Oliver to make sure that all is good with his foot. It may take some time to heal, but he is doing well.
The end to an amazing trip … thank you to my parents for taking me on this adventure.
