Europe Day 01: Leaving on a Jet Plane

At the airport, giddy with excitement!

One of my first trips abroad without my family (per se) was when I went to the Cayman Islands alone with my U. Chrismoose. I believe he taught me one of the best rules about traveling ever: the trip starts the moment you cease doing the everyday, not when you actually arrive.

With the knowledge then, our first Europe day actually began at home upon rising Friday morning, July 4.

We had stayed up really late the night before, about 2 to 3am packing – and still managed to get up by 7am to get through with all the things we needed to have done. While maybe not the best way to get a good night’s sleep before a big trip, I think the excitement about leaving had already started to boil and it was nearly impossible to contain.

It was strange to not have Wyn running about – but also a blessing. We really hadn’t thought about just how much we still needed to get done, and having managed to pretty much pack and finish the night before was only the beginning.

My sister Jello was going to hang at our place while we were away and I was determined not to leave her our condo “as is”. If we had I think she would have freaked.

So for hours we ran around cleaning the condo: sheets, vacuuming, laundry, kitchen, dishes – however out goal was left a bit short (Sorry Jello!!) Everything was pretty much done but We left the second sheet load in the dryer (but at least clean), and one last pile of dishes in the sink – just couldn’t get to them.

LanaByng came over and helped too with some Tupperware organization, and to say goodbye before we left. She also scored the rest of the Sex in the City DVDs H-Rabbit has hooked her on to watch while we’re gone.

Despite the major prep and completion of packing the night before – we still managed to be late for our 6pm departure time (H-Rabbit’s parents were driving up to catch our flight) – I don’t know how we do it, but we do it every time. I don’t think I’ve told anyone to ever expect us on time as it has never, ever happened.

Regardless of leaving late though – we still arrived in perfect time for our flight. It seems everyone in the city decided to bugger off for the weekend many hours earlier and the drive to the airport was faster than most regular evening trips. Our flight wasn’t for another few hours, so we waited the time out with computer exploring (the video we made with my iSight that I was going to put in here has been decidedly shelved for another time), read our travel books and people watched. And also finally grabbed some food – we didn’t eat very much during the day.

Because we had landed a pretty sweet deal on our airline tickets with Air Transat, that of course meant compensations in other departments. We were in economy class in a pretty small plane, didn’t get seat choices, and basically rode out the seven-hour flight amongst a raging horde of babies. All it took was for one screaming and wailing child to set off the whole plane of them – I don’t think I’ve heard anything like it – not even in a daycare. Our seat-mate was a nice lady from England who talked to us about our upcoming journey, however she was a bit of a pain for the hostesses and people near us as she complained about nearly everything and couldn't manage to sit in her seat for more than 5 minutes. She even startled one hostess into silence when she began to complain that the complimentary tea had been steeped too much and wasn't hot at all.

For a flight to England that leaves at 10pm, lasts for 6 hours, and lands in England at 10am the next day, England time, I believe the airlines have their flight itinerary all wrong! Whereas what we all should have been doing was trying our damndest to sleep, sleep, sleep so as to avoid having a dreaded experience curing jet lag, instead we were subjected to an awful two hours filled with “Drillbit Taylor”, almost full lighting in the cabin, interruptions for two meals, earphones, duty free, donating to Children’s Wish and continual operation of the severely bright “entertainment” system that just pushed advertising through the whole experience.

Believe it or not, the airlines have reduced to giving us “real” TV dinners for our flights a la President’s Choice. Chicken Korma baby! (Notice though the funnily “high class” thick blue plastic dinnerware….)

However – the deal was still worth it. Trust me. You wouldn’t the believe the flight prices we were facing otherwise – not to mention that some of those more expensive flights would have seen us in exactly the same conditions as we already experienced.

In the end – I think we only managed to get about 1 to 2 hours of sleep in 30-minute bouts. We had misplaced our earplugs early in the flight, which was definitely a mistake, as when we finally found them – it proved to be the only thing that managed to get us any rest (earplugs wonderful for the drowning out of screaming babies!).

Anyway, our first day actually ends and our second day begins within the same flight – and I’ll be honest – I couldn’t exactly tell you when – all I know is that the moment I chose to actually get some sleep – this is what I saw out the plane window… and our first day “in Europe” had begun.

A horizon at midnight… no sleep for us!