This is London: Day 1

Yes!!! Vacation!!! And just in time – my head is swirling with way too many things that have to do with work and responsibilities – I need some time to just relax, rewind, unwind, unload and forget.

And what better way than to run across the big bad pond and drop right into Londontown!!

Terminal 1
This is my first time running through the new Terminal 1 at Pearson in Toronto – very posh indeed. And while I sort of totally understand and actually like the self-service kiosks – they are also a bit cumbersome to use when you’re lugging 2 or more bags.

Only Terminal 1 downfall? The Tim Horton’s is only a half service desk – no breakfast sandwiches for me! Sigh. I switched allegiance and went to the Starbucks for my iced tea lemonade and a scrumptious slice of Lemon Poppy seed cake.

Late Plane
While all the digital displays and lovely airport personnel insisted our flight was on time – you kind of know your plane is late when it is isn’t even attached to the gate deck and the flight staff are all waiting at the door with their luggage. But – c’est ca – I just settled down to play with my iPhone until something drove up.

Pod People
When we did finally get on our way – we were pleased to find our place was a fairly nice one. First class was made up of all these individual pod sections where you can actually sleep lying down, have your own personal flat screen TV and a footstool for added storage.

Not of course that we were in those seats – we just got to walk past them. However – our economy class digs weren’t too bad either. Even though our seats were labeled A and C – Mom and I were alone in a two-seater on the left side with a window and aisle – and everyone had their own personal TV/movie system with a ton of stuff to watch. Legroom was pretty decent, as was storage space. So much better than my last trans-Atlantic flight with Air Transat – need to remember that for the next time.

De-icing
After we were settled in, the captain let us know that the wings needed de-icing – which while I know is a damned consistent occurrence on flights in our weather – it still makes me nervous. By now we were pretty late and I believe the waiting around for de-icing took at least 30 minutes more – someone didn’t want us to get to London anytime soon.

Movie Time
Good thing the entertainment system was already up and running – time to settle in for a movie! Only problem was – I picked District 9 to start with since I hadn’t seen it yet. I got through about 25 minutes of it and couldn’t take it anymore. Watching a movie yourself in an enclosed space with headphones is NOT the ideal way to watch a movie that both slightly scares you and grosses you out at the same time. I had to give up by the time Wikus decides to settle on his first round of cat food.

Instead, I then settled on two mindless movie runs, to get the weird visions out of my head, and watched Harry Potter again, and then Twilight for the third time in my life.

Air Canada: -1
Only really crappy part of the flight: the food. Air Canada needs to seriously get with the program. Even Air Transat rocked in the food department. I barely kept the food on this flight down. Thank God for my earlier delight in lemony goodness.

Tons of babies – silent!
Twisted recurrence on this trip: lots of babies – but every single one of them silent. Not a peep through the whole flight – someone above was finally on my side!

Finally – in London
Well – in the end the flight went quite well with only a few rounds of turbulence. Ica met us at Heathrow and we took a supremely long ride on the Tube to her area at Holloway. However – to my delight – I reacquainted myself with the wonderful lady’s Tube voice that I love so much – and on the perfect line too as Holloway in on the Piccadilly Line. Ask H-Rabbit – I love saying, “Now arriving at Piccadilly Circus, on the Piccadilly Line!” H-Rabbit – I’ve got the accent down pat now! As the ride was supremely long, and during the last round of trains for the night – we picked up quite a few people who apparently didn’t really care that they chose to sit on our luggage. London is way too packed with people. Torontonians need to experience this to remember how good we have it – even during rush hour.

Walking, Walking, Walking
I forgot my sister’s love of walking – and I forgot how deep down the Tube stations actually are. To get out at Holloway you need to ride the escalator that resembles the stairway to heaven, it’s that freaking tall. I have no idea what happens when all these escalators break down cause there aren’t any stairs at all.

Fair-weather
Coming from -17 degree Toronto with the wind-chill – London’s 5 degrees is definitely balmy – though you can tell it’s much more damp and dingy here – the cold seeps into your bones and my hair is a permanent frizz ball.


Home Sweet Home – for 10 days
We get to Ica’s place, which is really quite nice. We meet her roommate Alex who is actually packing up to leave the next morning to head back to the States for the Christmas break. We quickly gather round the kitchen eat some of Ica’s peanut-butter chicken noodles (quite good actually despite the name and ingredients) because the plane food was so horrible. She also made some homemade Oreo cookies – those did not turn out as well. We trashed the inside and settled for the outer cookies alone, which were at least edible. Then it was time for bed – though Jessica snuck in some painting too as she had to finish Alex’s going away present before she took off the next morning.

Yay Londontown – can’t wait to get started!!

Europe Day 21: Goodbye Europe...

Well – there’s not much to say about today. There’s very little of it that we’ve spent doing anything but being in the processes of leaving.

Our hotel provided a wake-up call on time and we managed to eat some breakfast. They also arranged for our car to the airport. It’s actually about a 30 minute ride from the city so we had to leave early in order to arrive on time for our flight.

Once there, we met up with the Toronto crew from our tour – we all had tickets on the same flight out heading directly to Toronto.

Checking in took quite awhile – there were a lot of people on our flight. However having a group of friends to hang out with during the waiting really made things better than usual.

H-Rabbit is a hijacker!
Well – not really – but one of the security guards thought so. She forgot that the Swiss Army knife she had bought her brother as a souvenir was packed in her purse instead of the suitcases – and when we were going through the security check – they stopped her dead cold.

They wouldn’t let her through and were going to confiscate it – but it cost a fair amount so she couldn’t part with it. Instead – she had to run all the way back to the check-in and check her purse. We emptied all her stuff into my carry on – and then she ran for her life – because if she didn’t catch the check-in before the line was over – she’d miss the packing of our plane and it would all have been for nothing. It sucked large that check-in and security were so far apart.


The Toronto Crew waiting patiently
The rest of us hung out and waited patiently hoping she’d make it back in time – and she did – I think she almost died doing it – but she did. After she passed through security a second time – the group of us then wandered over to the gate to hang until boarding.

Finally off and on our way home
We’re on the flight now and it’s smooth sailing. Definitely a long flight ahead – ten hours is a bit of a trek – but dreams of my own bed make it worth it.

Home Again
Well – this one’s a short one. H-Rabbit’s parents met us at the Airport and drove us home. We’re so glad to be back but the days ahead are going to be crazy. Our hectic schedule only continues here at home – but this Europe trip has been an amazing experience. We’ll remember it always and we can’t wait to figure out what we’re going to do with all of our pictures and souvenirs.

Thank you Europe for an amazing life experience – I can’t wait to see you again.

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!