travel.adventures.take1

June 22, 2012 (took a while to update, but here is what I wrote)


     Hey everyone!


     It is 1:34pm and I have finally arrived at my hotel. Phew!


     What a long day! I am completely exhausted. 


     My plane was about an hour late to leave the airport in Calgary. But I enjoyed the time to write in my journal and contemplate this experience.  Plus I just got more and more excited by the accents that I was hearing everywhich way. "Mummy and daddy" are probably my favorites! Then of course there was the crazy long plane ride. I was sitting my the window because I wanted to be able to get the very first glimpse of London from the sky and just soak it all in. But I was in for a few surprises..

   Before I get into my surprises I would like to mention my wonderful seat mates. They were an adorable newly wed couple. She was Canadian and he was British and they were off to honeymoon/meet up with his folks. They were sweet and woke me up everytime something important happened, but also being newly weds and all, they were inclined to cuddle, leaving me with more room than I had anticipated. How nice.
 
     I actually slept quite a bit of the flight and when I wasn't sleeping I read Persuasion  by Jane Austen, a book I am required to read for my British Literature class I will be taking over here. I have been trying to read it for ages in Kamloops, but once I buckled down I really got into it. Now I would recommend it to all, what a wonderful love story! It makes me happy.

     Now I flew on a rather cheap airline, the cheaper the better! But this meant that we did not have our own individual TVs on the back of the seat! It also meant they barely showed movies at all. We watched an episode of Friends, the one where Monica gets stung by a jelly fish and Ross and Rachel get back together and break-up AGAIN! There was also an episode of The Simpsons (the first I've ever seen) and then we watched Mamma Mia and some old silent black and white film. The rest of the eight  hour flight was filled with watching the airplane slowly cross the Atlantic Ocean. It was all very exciting! All of that time also allowed me to discover their radio stations really only cycle through ten songs and half the country songs on the country station were no good, in my opinion!

    Then here comes the surprise! We stop in Manchester! Now, imagine me! I'm freaking out! I didn't know this was happening! I am supposed to get to Gatwick and I don't know what to do!

   It turns out this is a layover. We are all led off the plane, stand in line, go through securtiy, because it is apparently UK law, and then the half of the flgiht that wants to go to Gatwick, or more accurately has tickets to Gatwick get back on the plane and off we go on a forty five minute flight.  

   The waiting doesn't end here though! We get off the plane and now wait two and ahlf hours in customs. I am not exaggerating!

   When I finally got out of customs my bag was just sitting in the terminal. It made me abit nervous, but at least it was there. I find the Gatwick Express Terminal and get on a train.

      But the train was simple enough and I met some nice people already. Well, more specifically I met this nice Turkish man. Yes, I was freaking out a little bit about Taken, But he seemed harmless,and got off a few stops before me. He told me he had moved to London two years before to learn and train to be a professional football referee. I thought that was pretty nifty. He then told me all about the problems of his long-distance relationship with his girlfriend in Amsterdam. He was coming back from surprising her on her birthday! How sweet!

    I got to the tain station and was so incredibly exhausted. Although my mother had told me that my hotel was only three or four blocks away I couldn't figure out which exit to leave from so I just got in line for a cab and figured I would be fine paying a little extra because I was too tired to walk, plus it was raining. But the cabby called me love and told me which way to go and said he would hate to waste my money. So I walked. It was nice and the weather changes faster than a 14 year old girl's mood!

    My hotel was darling. It was tiny! Reminded me of Leap Year! I got all settled and tried to head off to explore the neighborhood!  I was originally planning on Buckingham Palace, but was too tired and apparently can't read a map, so I enjoyed a few churches in the area, saw a funneral and tried to help a british man with his groceries. He was carrying a propane tank and a few bags and dropped them everywhere! I offered to help, and as far as I can tell he said he was fine, so I let him be. I feel that is the British way. But now I worry that that isn't actually what he said!

  For dinner I was lame and just got KFC. I could only find sit-down other kinds of restaurants and felt too loserish if I ate alone.

    Then I watched BBC and fell asleep around 9pm! Jetlag will not stay long!

     I just enjoy everthing right now. It feels like this is such a good thing. All the silly things I've been stressing about, worrying about and carrying around for so long just don't feel important. All that matters is this grand adventure I have set off on and concentrating on making more memories than ever before.
    Actually I have a line from a song from Tangled running through my head, but I've changed it a bit.

• "And now at last I am completely free! I kept wondering and wondering and wondering and wondering when would my life begin?"
• You know, this could be it!

     Love you lots and miss you ! But London may be too exciting to miss you too much!
Love,
     Me