With that said we're going to start with number one... I like to call this..
I thought I'd Have Irish Luck.. I guess Not: The Traveling Nightmare.
we start this tale the night before I am scheduled to leave for London and ultimately Dublin.
The scene is as follows.. I am spending 4 months away from home and have not one article of clothing packed for said months. I also have to write 2.5 film reviews for my class that I am taking in Dublin/Belfast. I have one night to get it all done...
needless to say it was a sleepless night. I didn't sleep a wink but instead worked through the night and talked to my friend from Italy and ended up finishing my reviews. so YAY!!! erin got her work done, got herself packed, got no sleep and is ready to travel.
then there is Lambert Airport. Oh my third home... concourse A. I get to the gate everything is dandy and we get on the plane. I knock out... serious deep sleep 15 min cat nap. Wake up to people getting up on a still parked plane. "whats going on?" "oh we're getting off because the plane is delayed 2 hours.." wooooonderful. The plane continues to get delayed and during this time I have a 30 minute phone call with a friend on a not completely charged (and charger-less) phone, and remember the items i forgot to pack. At this time I call my sister and get her to run up to the airport selflessly missing volleyball she promised to be at so I could have my items. (these are important items i can't get in the UK.. i'm not some crazy bitch that made her sister come over a tshirt or toothbrush). To get these things I have to run outside and then run back through security and back to the gate, only to find out there is going to be another hour delay. Have I mentioned that all of these delays are chipping away at my connection time in Newark? Well they are... severely...
We finally get on the plane around 4:30 the plane was supposed to take off at 12:51. and my phone has totally died.. so i'm using stranger's phones to call my mom and try and figure out the whole london flight situation. I get to Newark and BOOK IT... however, I have no idea where I am going or what this airport is all about. So I am doing my best and make it to the ticket counter and find no one.. absolutely zero people, in the ticketing area. I start talking to the people at Virgin and they're telling me the gate is closed and I cant make it. On top of that I'll have to pay 50 pounds as a change fee to change my flight till the next day. So i just break down and cry. It's been such a long day.. i'm running on like 15 mins of sleep and just want to get to london.
Finally someone from SU finds me and gets everything settled including my emotions and nerves. She gets me on the flight, i have to pay $150 to check my bag that I had as a carry on but whatever I'm getting to London. So I start racing down to the gate totally expecting everyone to be boarded and having to walk down the isle shading my face so no one can see me because i help up the plane. But instead... I see everyone there.. the people that know me are like ERIN! and I get greeted with a hug from Brian our AMAZING trip assistant. <3>
We get to London everything is dandy. Got about 2-3 hours of sleep so I'm still pretty tired but just really excited to get there. Then Molly starts to pull out her passport and I'm thinking 'hey yeah i should get that out'.. I start looking around in my backpack... and I'm looking.. and looking.. and looking and try as I might I can't find it... anywhere. shit. So i lost my passport.. and I'm at the UK border. things are looking faaaaantastic. Everyone else goes through the border and I am stuck to wait while Brian lets people know so they can look on the plane and so forth. I take out my pendulum and it says the passport is on the plane so I'm totally relaxed.. its just a waiting game at this point. As I knew they would (thank you pendulum) they find my passport on the plane but it takes a total of 1.5 hours for them to search the plane and get it to me. which again chips away at my connection time.
If you have ever been the London Heathrow then you know, its GIGANTIC. I'm with Brian and he walks me to where I have to declare my bags missing. (another thing to the trip nightmare but the fact that I barely made the plane I was not surprised when my luggage didn't show up). Anyway, Brian has to leave me to get his own luggage to the van and tells me 'go through nothing to declare then alskdjfoksaufeoiuioshdgsd" I couldn't remember what he said by the time I got through customs and out to the ticketing area. So I basically relied on my instinct and airport smarts to get me from one terminal to the another one on my own.
I get lost and turned around but I'm still plugging away because at this point there is no way for me to call or reach Brian and I can't go back because I don't know where 'back' is. I'm running around the airport and finally find out where I'm supposed to be. But then continued to get turned around and confused. However, I make it all on my own to the gate and everyone there is like 'you found your passport??!!' again.. what an entrance. I tell everyone my trying story and then we hop on the plane to Dublin and everything is dandy. I'm so happy to be there we get to our 'hotel' which is actually Grad Student housing at Trinity College and they're these amazing little apartments. But anyway, I'm unpacking everything and I can't seem to find the little items my sister brought me at the airport completely out of the way. Since it's so fitting with my day I consider them lost and hope they turn up somewhere... luckily they did. In my backpack, that i searched 3 times, 3 days later.
Thats the travel story. I'll try to do more about Ireland in general and also finish up some of my Italy posts as well. So it could be a little jumbled... then there are also the posts about my first week and an half in London... just be patient with me. I'm doing my best.
LOVE FROM LONDONTOWN
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