landing in london

download this: "landing in london" by 3 doors down



random facts: Heathrow is the UK's busiest airport. its the world's second busiest cargo port.
Number of...
Passengers year: Approximately 64 million
Airlines: 90
Destinations: Approximately 170



well, ive arrived in london finally after a nearly 3 hour delay departing ohare (which i still hate at this moment). you might wonder how im spending so much time on the internet at this point... well, they have wireless hotspots in most airport terminals lately and i have to admit, technology is the biggest blessing to the traveler ever. after all the delays and my rebooking on a later flight to dublin, i was able to just pop on the internet and send an email off to niall to let him know i would be about 4 hours later arriving than expected. also, was able to shoot off a test to him on my fancy global phone and got almost immediate replies back from him saying that 4pm was fine and he would be at the airport with bells on (ok, so he didnt say that last part, but he said he would be at the airport nonetheless). so anyway, the one thing that i actually like about the international terminal at ohare is they have this hotspot called boingo and i paid for 24 hours access for like $6 i think. i was only expecting to use it at ohare, but ive discovered that there is another boingo hotspot here in terminal 1 at heathrow and even though its 1230 here, its only 630 in chicago so i still have a few hours access at least. yay technology!



so anyway, once we managed to get on the flight it was actually quite nice. ive decided that in lieu of flying qantas everywhere i go from now on, i ONLY want to take british airways. it was my first experience with BA, but its been quite wonderful thus far. the gate agent was fantastic about rebooking me before we even left chicago so i didnt have to fight with the crankypants aer lingus agent here in heathrow (more on that later).



so i ended up being seated in row 51 which happens to be the 2nd from last row on a 747. the nice part of it is that it was only a two person row and i had an aisle seat. i had the most wonderful charming british guy ever sitting next to me (ian - 37, lives in wimbeldon, was coming home from business in lincoln, NE) and we ended up talking for almost 3 hours at the beginning of the flight about all kinds of different things from books and movies (we switched ipods to check out each others tastes in movies and music) to politics, traveling, geography etc. pretty much we covered everything. we had quite an enjoyable time chatting and talking about the various things that came up. and i definitely put a good impressing forward for the american side with my world knowledge and traveling affinity. sitting next to ian made for quite a good flight actually although i sadly didnt get to watch any movies on either the personal touch screen entertainments system that BA has (pretty sweet actually) or the ones i loaded up on my ipod before i left, but whatever. i can watch movies whenever... i cant have a great conversation with a british guy every day. it was quite fun to be honest and after trying to catch a few (3 to be exact although it was crappy sleep and the benedryl didnt work but whatever) hours of sleep the conversation resumed. imagine that... i managed to talk to a random stranger for hours on end...



so anyway, the flight in was not bad. i definitely would not have made my connection if i hadnt been rebooked because of the ridiculous way heathrow is set up. fortunately, i didnt have to go through terminal 5 afterbeing rerouted so that was good, but i still had to go through immigration (yay another stamp!) and i forgot how serious british immigration officers are. i got drilled about my travel plans (apparently its suspect that i fly to london to fly to dublin to fly back to london for a few days and then on to egypt) and then i got a special barcoaded post it stuck in my passport. when you scan it, it probably says "watch out for this pain in the arse" or "stupid american" or "potential terrorist" or something. im afraid to take it out for fear of being detained in the land of people with not so great senses of humor.



ok, so i have to immigrate first. then i have to catch a bus to terminal 1 where i got lost when it separated out into great britain and other destinations. im going to blame it on my grogginess from the benadryl but really i wasnt paying attention and i got sent back by the security officers. woo hoo. once i got sorted out, i had to go through security AGAIN which makes for the 3 time this trip. it was kinda nice though because i relized that my belt has seen some better days and i probably need to get a better one when i get home. so some good did come of the third trip through security.

once i got through that, i had to recheck in with aer lingus for my connecting flight (and after going through all this, i can definitely see why i would have missed my flight had it been close. better to be sorted before even leaving chicago than having to freak out about it here and risk being stuck in heathrow for even longer than possible). so i tried to check in with the man at hte desk who must have been wearing his special sunday cranky pants because he was just not friendly at all (it also could have been the screaming child sitting right below the desk that did it as well) and kept telling me that i was not booked on any flights to dublin while i kept telling him that he better check again because i was booked when i left chicago. i dont know if he actually finally found it or if he just put me on teh flight himself, but finally i got a boarding pass from him for that flight.

and that brings us up to this moment now. suprisingly, i still have my internet access so here i am after some bit of brain death on my part. i went to plug my laptop in to charge it a bit while i was waiting and i relized that my current coverters do not work with 3 prong plugs. once i realized that, i think i remembered bringing an extension cord when i went to australia and thats how it worked. fortunately, there happened to be a luggage store right where i was perching and i could see converters from there. i managed to find ONE that was for foreign visitors to the UK and ireland that worked with my computer plug so i bought if for like 4 quid so im set for the next week and a half. dont know what im going to do about it when i get to egypt but ill figure something out. may have to buy yet another converter, but id rather do that than go without computer. sad huh?

i have to say, for my first trip to heathrow, and for all the things you hear about it being a huge mess, its actually quite nice. i decided to test out using my credit card at atms with my newly acquired pin so i stopped and got 20 quid just incase i decided that i needed food or a drink (i could feel myself getting shaky and i didnt want to pass out again, so i knew i would need to) and ive been exploring terminal 1 for a bit before writing this. much to my excitement, i discovered a caffe nero in the terminal!!! yes!!! (some of you may remember the obsession i developed with their cappuccinos and muffins the last time i was in london) there is also a pret a manger in the terminal as well which excites me greatly because they tend to have pretty good premade sandwiches. im also sad to report that its actually beneficial to see everything priced here in pounds (like the clothes in the french connection shop and the shoes in LK bennett) because thats a huge deterrent for me to buy anything once i do the math of actual cost to me. ugh i hate this rate right now. euro is not much better but oh well. nothing i can do about it.

i believe my flight will begin boarding here in about half an hour so i need to make my way to the gate and make a stop at caffe nero for a cappuccino before my flight so im out. dont know what the plan for the next few days is, but im sure it will be fun. niall has a set of keys to his apt for me so i can come and go as i please when he is working although he did take tomorrow off work to play tour guide to me. he also messaged me that we can make a stop for dinner on the way home if i want to or we can just dine in. i guess it depends on how tired i am when i get there cuz after 3 less than quality hours of "sleep" last night, im crashing fast.

anyway, peace out. ill post again soon when i get the chance.