I arrived in England on Saturday, January 7. I flew via British Airways. This particular airline seemed to call out boarding stages very oddly. They first called for passengers that had small children or needed extra time for boarding. They then called people seated at the back of the plane and passengers at the front of the plane. From there, they gradually worked their way to passengers sitting in the middle of the plane. Guess where my seat was? Yep. Middle of the plane...
The plane was actually a lot smaller than I imagined it would be. The seats were very cramped, and the overhead compartments were downright minuscule. My mom was amazing and helped me pack a lot of things. However, my carry on had so many things that my backpack was jam packed. When I boarded the plane, my seatmate had already boarded. I opened our overhead compartment only to discover that he had used up a large majority of it. He was able to board before me because he needed "extra time" due to having a guitar. That guitar took up pretty much the whole compartment.
As I looked around, I realized that nearly every compartment was full. When I did find compartments that had space, I discovered that my carry on was so big that it did not fit. People were trying to get by me, and I felt awful for slowing everyone down. I began to panic. This was my first time traveling all by myself. I was shaking; I thought they would make me leave my bag behind. Eventually, a flight attendant helped me find a compartment that was near the front of the plane. It still didn't fit... I had to remove a few items and keep them on my lap for the flight. The entire flight, I was petrified that someone would try to open that compartment and my bag would fall out and hurt someone.
I was only able to sleep for about two hours. The other five hours were spent attempting to sleep (trust me, it's time consuming) and watching Harry Potter and Modern Family.
Flying over London was unbelievable. I looked out of the window and saw the Tower Bridge. I tried to get a picture of it, but by the time I was able to get my phone, we were over it. Here's the best I could do...
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| London From Above |
I was amazed at the size of the airport. I knew it was large, but I vastly underestimated Heathrow... When we landed, we had to exit the plane by climbing down stairs attached to the plane. From there, a shuttle picked us up and drove us to the terminal.
After passing Immigration with no problems, I faced my next problem. The shuttle driver was not there to pick me up! I had a map printed out of the airport with the meeting point marked off. After walking back and forth twice, I had to sit down. I was heaving around a heavy backpack, a laptop case, and rolling luggage. I was also wearing two jackets because they didn't fit in my suitcase. I was overheated, exhausted, and lost. That wasn't fun... but I didn't panic. Instead, I took a seat and began to weigh my options. Just taking that moment to collect my thoughts was incredibly helpful. The people at the airport information desk were so helpful and nice.The shuttle driver was thirty minutes late.
I was incredibly proud of myself for my successful travel trip alone. I think my whole mantra for the next six months will be:
In my next post, I will discuss London. :)
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