I'm sitting in Stansted airport in London using the the Internet cafe setup they've got here.. £3 for 30 minutes. It's actually cheaper than paying for it on the laptop, and then I don't kill the battery... also, my apologies for the lack of an accent aigu on the "e". If you know me, you know how much that bothers me.
To sum up my travel experience so far- mostly miserable. After boarding in Albany, we sat on the tarmac for an hour and a half waiting for "Them" to open flights to Philadelphia again. The crew at Albany finally gave up and we deplaned, only to walk to the other end of the airport and back.. /sigh. After getting to Philly, I found my 10:40PM flight to London Heathrow delayed until 11:15.. no biggie, right?
Then they announced they were performing "maintenance" on the plane with no estimated completion time. Eventually we left Philly around 12:45... and landed at Heathrow at 1:15 PM London time. Or something. I slept through the ENTIRE transatlantic flight. I didn't even wait for the "here's your safety masks, let's hope we don't all die" speech- out like a light the second I got on the plane.
After successfully going through customs, I had to make my way across London to Stansted airport to catch my Ryanair flight to Dinard, France. There are three options: a coach transfer between airports, taking the Tube/Underground/trains, or a taxi. Normally, my choice would have been the coach, but the first person I asked said to take the Tube, so I did- bad idea. The train line I needed to take to the airport had had overhead line damage earlier in the day, so I had to take the other parallel line with a trillion stops. No train personnel had any clue what was happening.. very confusing. At any rate, I walked into the terminal at 4:02 for a 4:05 flight. /cryyyyyyyy
After FREAKING OUT EMOTIONALLY (AUGHHHHHH PANIC ATTACKS AUGHHHHH) I somehow calmed myself down and got in the GINORMOUS line of people repurchasing tickets and whatnot. At this point, the girl in front of me turns to me and tells me about how she was supposed to be headed to Spain for the weekend.. with a delicious English accent that still sounds not quite.. English. So we commiserate, and she waits for me at the counter while I pay another £100 for a second ticket to Dinard ($164.73, to be exact... /broke) and then tells me I can come hang out with her and her 14 flatmates if I don't want to sit in the airport for 23 hours till my flight the following day... after spending about 15 seconds debating the foolishness of this, I decide she is a good person when she also offers to let me use her cell phone to call Julia's grandmother's house (the only phone number I have of use in Europe... haha) and in broken French I ask to speak to the three people I know that will be there.. and fortunately Julia's mom answered the phone, and actually complimented my French (!)..
So, I drag my bags back into (I think) the northwest area of London.. War-something-stow. Or something. I need a map. After a delightful shower (who cares if it was freezing because I couldn't figure the hot water out.. haha) Rachel and I and one of her flatmates, Morgan, decide to go get some awesome Indian food- the concept surrounding which I will discuss in another post. Rachel's accent, by the way, is New Zealand-British. Morgan is from South Africa, but Indian. Another flatmate is Polish, another I met this morning on my way to the bathroom (awkward) was super cute but nationality remains unknown. A few others were away and some just hide in their rooms, apparently. Morgan's girlfriend, Lucy, who lives a bit north of London, met us near the restaurants.
I'm sure a few (if not most) of you think that was a terrible, rash, impetuous, unsafe, etc. decision- but it just reinforces my theory that there are actually still good people left in this world, and complete strangers CAN be nice, and unscary. Which is a terribly good lesson for me to learn, since I tend to run as far away from unfamiliar people in unfamiliar settings and get very skittish.
At any rate, I'm hoping the flight to France goes smoothly. No more travel issues, please. I just want to enjoy this week and see another dear friend get married.
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