Plane thoughts, train thoughts, wandering about thoughts

In case everyone didn't already know, I'm a bit of a procrastinator. Bit is also an extreme understatement--I didn't have my bags completely packed until 2:30 PM of Monday, September 19th (and even then I forgot a thing or two!). Because I didn't see this coming for 6 months, right?

Incidentally, it's been a pretty wonderful 6 months with a pretty wonderful guy who waited with me as I cried over guava pastry and spilled some of a very hot cafecito on him before I left. :) But I digress!

Let's hop to the plane. 

I was expecting serious greatness from Virgin Atlantic. I hesitate to say I was disappointed because the service was quite nice, we got two meals (if you call an egg and cheese sandwich in the morning a meal, but it was much welcomed), and of course an overnight/long flight pack consisting of your standard socks, sleeping mask, and toothbrush/one-use toothpaste combo. The personal entertainment system was nice, but glitchy. I expected there to be more room in coach! It was okay for me, but I really felt for the poor guy at the end of my row who was considerably taller than me (doesn't take much, haha!) and definitely needed one of the two empty seats between us to get comfy. I, too, eventually took advantage of my said empty seat and I think it's half the reason I got that paltry hour of sleep that I did! 

The layout in coach was a 3-4-3 pattern. I had an aisle seat (YUSS) in one of the 4 sections...next to the lavatory. There was another opposite it. Good heavens, I have never seen so many people get up to use the bathroom! The worst were the idiots who failed to use a REAL bathroom at the airport before we left. They were just getting up and using it before we even left the gate. The funny part of this story came with a lovely woman who decided as we pulled away from the gate that she needed to go NOW. Right this minute! The flight attendants couldn't contain her raging ill-timed request and called in the supervisor who proceeded to berate her as though she were a child (which, frankly, she was acting like). I couldn't begin to remember what he said, but he sounded to me like a stereotypical British schoolmarm. His reprimand was hilarious and went something along the lines of we're not turning a plane of 300 passengers around so you can take a piss. You should've thought this through, dimwit. A flight attendant had to sit next to her to prevent her from getting up during taxi and takeoff.

Dinner was...interesting. I ended up with Thai curry (wasn't bad, but I wouldn't call it authentic, ha) and coffee. Between that and  my cafecito, I was largely doomed to stay awake for the vast part of the 8/8.5 hour flight. While Bridesmaids cheered me up for its running time, keeping my mind off my boy was really hard. I did more sudoku than I should ever admit to and turned on movies in the background just to keep something there. I really did not plan this out well at all--for goodness' sake, I knew I should've brought snacks! I grew loopy by the end and felt a little sick due to many factors.

Did you know? 100 pounds of luggage is very heavy. Chances are also good that it's quite bulky! Hm...now let's use public transportation to reach my hostel. Leaving Heathrow was easy enough; at least the attendants there expect you to not know your way around and people are, in general, more forgiving and have just as much stuff as you. The Heathrow Connect was a lovely train the reminded me instantly of Tokyo, though this train was silent and mostly empty. The view wasn't much, but when I got one, I saw a lot of small wind turbines! I found this cool.

My first Mind the Gap!

An interesting sign at a stop on Heathrow Connect---I wonder if it's Hindi?

A note: forgive my dearth of pictures with this post and bear in mind I was carrying large, heavy luggage and running off 6 total hours of sleep in the past 48 hours plus trying to find my way around public transportation and 4 connections on said public transportation involving stairs. STAIRS, PEOPLE.

Heathrow Connect terminated in Paddington. I snapped a shot of the station...

Paddington grew very confusing once I had to transfer to the London Underground. Just by looking at a map, it is absolutely not immediately clear where you should be going. Three kind attendants and stairs and four changes later, I finally made it to my hostel. I'm glossing over this because my GOD,I was so tired and pissed and just wanted to cry because everything was going wrong. I got more stains on my tights to add to the coffee from before and also semi-ruined them from lugging my luggage all over creation. 

I feel better after a shower and a nap. And some food. Here's my meal of CHAMPIONS:

There's blackcurrant in my Starburst! And prawn in my crisps! And Strongbow in my glass for a mere 2 pounds 50! Dreams are made of this.

Full day tomorrow! I'll update later.

Cheers!