Transit night in London, England

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Last night, I arrived to London, England around 8pm. I had spent the flight chatting with the lady next to me, who gifted me her jacket, as she was worried I'd be too cold for my layover. Such a sweet lady!
Once I got through the airport, I waited for a few minutes for Jess to arrive (a hostel guest from 10 years ago who offered to host me for the night). We took a bus and metro back to her flat, and stopped at a burrito place along the way so I could grab dinner.
She shares her apartment with her boyfriend Dan, so I got to meet him once we got there, and then Jess and I spent a bit of time chatting before heading to bed.
My flight to Toronto wasn't until 5pm, so Jess gave me directions on how to get to most of the well known sights (The London Eye, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace Hyde Park). I headed out for a few hours of exploring, then stopped for lunch before taking the metro back to the airport.
Heathrow airport is horrible. So congested, and they don't display the gate numbers until less than an hour before the flight. I was a bit concerned about the long flight with my rib, especially once I found out I had a middle seat and there were no aisle seats available. I tried to find out about upgrades, but there weren't any available.

The flight didn't end up being as bad as I feared. I got up frequently so that I didn't feel too crunched up. Once I got to Canada, I went through immigration, my bag was already waiting in the bag claim, and out I went to meet up with Deo, who had driven down from Midland to pick me up. The journey is over!

Though my travels were cut short and there were a few places that I didn't get to, I'm just so thankful to be alive, and to get to hug my boys again. I met some wonderful, caring people on my trip, reconnected with friends from the past, saw many beautiful places, and created lots of great memories.

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