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Published: July 10th 2006
Wow, it's been a crazy day! It started off at 5:00 this morning, waking up with the love of my life next to me for the last time in two years because he leaves to serve a mission while I'm in Europe. We finished up my packing and loaded all my luggage in the car and he drove me to the airport. It was a very bittersweet goodbye. I was, of course, balling my eyes out, but it was still a beautiful goodbye. We hugged and kissed and cried together until I absolutely had to leave, then I went through the security line. He stood off to the side and watched me until I got through, then I went up an escalator and stood on and looked at my Nathan, my best friend and my love, for the last time. He looked absolutely darling, wearing one of my favorite shirts and looking all tired and sleepy because we barely slept the night before. I'm going to remember that image of him forever... So I boarded my plane to Denver, still balling, and sat in my seat. It was one of those tiny aircrafts called an Express plane, and there were only two seats on each side with one aisle. An older man sat next to me who wasn't very friendly and smelled very strange, but I was just glad that he wasn't fat haha. I read the whole plane ride and got to Denver safely, and when we exited the plane, we got to get off down some stairs and onto the ground outside, so that was fun haha! Then as my sister Amy and I were walking through the Denver International Airport, we saw my brother-in-law, and then half of my family! We were all traveling through different routes, and as luck would have it, their plane through Denver was delayed, so we got to eat lunch and socialize with them a little bit. It was really fun and very necessary because Amy and I still weren't clear on exact directions to the flat we were staying at in London, so we got everything cleared up. I got a McDonald's Happy Meal to eat, but didn't have time to eat it because it was time to go to Montreal!
I got up to board my flight to Canada, and reached for my boarding pass..... but it wasn't there! So I had to run and get a new boarding pass printed off, I stopped in a shop and bought a couple of Denver postcards for Nathan, and then I boarded my plane. This plane was MUCH nicer than the last one. The seats and aisles were significantly wider and there were three seats on each side with one aisle. My sister and I weren't sitting by each other, so we asked a very nice gentleman, who I don't think understood a word we said, to switch with us. So, I was on the aisle, Amy was by the window and there was no one in between us yet. Then the flight was completely boarded and the seat was still empty! So we lucked out and got a seat in between us to put our junk on. On this plane ride I just wrote on my postcards to Nathan, then I slept the rest of the way.
THEN we got to Montreal.... and I didn't know that EVERYTHING was in French there! People were annoyed at us when we would speak English! I felt like I was in France, for real haha. So we walked up to the Customs desks to clear through Customs... Amy breezed on through, but when I stepped up, the guy completely hassled me. He asked me why I was there, I told him I had a layover. He asked where else I was going on my trip, why I was going, who I was going with, what my occupation was, where I was going to school... yeah it was crazy! Then he pointed me to go to this special place and I started walking there when Amy snuck me through the gate so we could leave haha. So, they told us that we had to claim our baggage in Montreal and recheck it to go to London because we were switching countries. So, we waited at the baggage claim station for an HOUR... then when we were the last people there and our luggage still hadn't shown up, we went to the office and they told us that they just made a new agreement that we didn't have to recheck our bags. UGH! We were sooo frustrated because we had wasted so much time, but we still had to check in and get our tickets for our next flight, so we didn't have much time to waste anymore. So we grabbed some dinner and went to check in.
We got to the counter to check in and get our tickets and when we told the woman working there what the man said about our baggage, she flipped out. She said that was impossible and that something is wrong and she just went off on us! We totally didn't know what to do, and then, without saying a word, she took off. We were standing there at the counter completely confused, when she brought her supervisor and said that she didn't know what to do. She said she would just give us our tickets and we should just hope that our luggage arrived in London. How comforting.... (?) haha
So we boarded the plane for London with success. We got in our seats and settled in, and I decided that I didn't want to take a sleeping pill because I just hate drugs and pills in general, so I hung out and read and watched the movie on the plane (Failure to Launch) and slept too. We got two meals on the plane, and for the dinner meal, the flight attendant spilled all the trays ALL over me! The meals had lids on them, so I didn't get wet or anything, but they were freaking HOT and they were totally burning me! It completely sucked, but I got over it pretty quick haha. What really sucked, though, was waking up from a dream where I was dreaming that Nathan and I were together and it was so wonderful and everything was perfect, but I woke up and it was the middle of the night, the plane was absolutely dark and everyone was sleeping. I have never felt so alone in my whole life. I just wanted to rip my heart out of my chest because it was hurting so much. I just sat there and cried. i couldn't think of anything else to do. I cried and cried and cried until my crying put me back to sleep again.
I woke up in the morning groggy, but ready for adventure. It was 6:45 in the morning on July 8th (my 19th birthday!) and we had a whole day ahead of us. We took the train from the Heathrow airport to Paddington, then caught the Underground to St. John's Wood. It was really fun riding the tube and I took tons of pictures, which I'll post later. We got off at the stop and walked a block or so to the flat we were to stay at, got the key from the porter and went upstairs.
The flat is beautiful! It belongs to an old business parter of my dad's and they are away on holiday, so we have the place to ourselves. It is two stories and is on the top (8th) floor of the complex, so it has an AMAZING balcony and view of the city. They have very nice decorating taste-- everything is very simple and clean, but beautiful. Then Amy and I showered and got all our travel grunge off, then crashed and took naps.
And thus ends the saga of our journey to London! I'll come back to write again soon.
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MadisonChase
Madison Chase
hmm..
yes I definately know how all that feels, the frustration of traveling can be hard to get over, but that is really all you Can do, otherwise you just make yourself grumpy and hate being where you are. Miss you! Mads