Day 1- October 14th

I finally made it to London! My flight from DFW was canceled due to engine problems. American wouldn’t try to put us on flights with other carriers and they had no other flights leaving on Friday night. I rebooked to leave DFW at 11:30am on Saturday going to RDU, leaving RDU at 6:25pm to London Gatwick. The counter agent told me that he had rerouted my bags. American put our flight up at the Gaylord Texan, a huge resort and conference center. The rack rate listed on the door said $700! It was a nice room but not worth that much money! I also got a $20 food voucher and used it to order room service. I also caught the tail end of the Rockies game. I had met a very cute young Italian couple on the bus to the hotel. They didn’t speak much English, but I tried my best to make sure they knew what time to get the shuttle back to the airport the next day. I had a change of clothes in my carry-on, but decided to save them in case my luggage was delayed due to the flight change. Note to self: remember to pack deodorant in carry-on! I showered and went to bed. Woke up at 6:00am and tried again to get to London. Last night I had a panic attack, pity party, and crying jag. I was going to miss out on going to Wimbledon, the London sight-seeing tour, and going to take the picture of the James Bond building for my friends. Saturday I was calmer. I realized that even though I was missing out on those things, I was still going to be able to see some really amazing things after all. While waiting for the flight to RDU I saw some people from last night, notably Veronica. Veronica’s daughter was doing a semester abroad in London and she was going to visit her during her daughter’s fall break. The flight to RDU was uneventful, however I really dislike that American only does a beverage service and no snacks, not even a bag of pretzels or peanuts. After landing in RDU Veronica and I changed our seats to something better than what they assigned us last night in the rush to get people booked on flights. Ran to Ellie, a nice girl from London trying to get home. I was behind her in line last night in Dallas when we were trying to rebook our flights. I chatted with her for a bit while Veronica went outside for some fresh air. I got something to eat and then Ellie told us how to take the Gatwick Express train to Victoria Station. Since I was arriving a day late, I missed my free transfer to the hotel and had to make my own way. While waiting to board the flight we saw even more people from the original canceled DFW flight. Finally boarded the plane. The plane right was uneventful and I finally used an airplane bathroom for the first time after waiting FOREVER for some stupid chick to spend like twenty minutes in it putting on makeup. The airplane food was OK. I had a salad with some sort of vinaigrette dressing. I had the chicken with rice and a roll with butter. The roll was very cold in the middle so I put it on top of the chicken for awhile to warm it up. Dessert was a pack of applesauce oatmeal cookies. Watched License to Wed which was AWFUL, but not as bad as My Super Ex Girlfriend (which I also saw on a plane). I dozed off and on for a few hours. Luckily my seat had a power port so I was able to recharge my ipod and watch a few episodes of Firefly. Breakfast was a croissant with jelly and butter, yogurt, and orange juice. We landed in London at 6:45 am. Met up with Veronica and Alison, another of our DFW compatriots, and went through customs. The line was very long, I was wishing I was part of the European Union as they had no line, but the line moved fairly fast. We were done with customs by about 7:30am. There’s a booth right outside of customs to buy tickets on the Gatwick Express train so we all bought some and then headed to baggage claim. Alison’s bag was there but not mine, Veronica’s, or two other couples that were on our original DFW flight. Turns out they had routed all of our bags on a flight from DFW that left earlier that morning. Our bags were to arrive a few hours later. We filed a claim with American and they told us they would deliver our bags to our hotels. Veronica and I got on the train followed by some police with HUGE automatic rifles and a sniffer dog. It was kind of nice not having luggage because it made having to navigate the train and tube much easier. When we arrived at Victoria Station Veronica was met by her daughter. Her daughter showed me where to buy a ticket on the tube. I took the Victoria Line to the Euston station. I couldn’t find my way out, probably because I was really tired. I stopped a nice young man and asked him which way was out, he told me to just follow him. Turned out he was from Mexico and was working in London. It was a very warm day when I finally reached outsideworld. No one seemed to know where my hotel was and after a half hour of walking around I went back to the tube station and asked the information desk. Turned out it was like a one minute walk around the one corner I hadn’t tried! By the time I arrived at the hotel I had missed the morning sight-seeing tour but signed up for the Tower of London optional. The COSMOS rep helped beg me a room as they didn’t have one ready for me yet. I badly needed a shower! I took a shower and then called and left a message on my sister’s voicemail to let her know I had finally arrived in London. Went down to the lobby at 1:20pm for the optional. It was still very warm outside. I took a lot of pictures while there. We had a guide who showed us around and then gave us time to do our own thing. I went and saw the Crown Jewels which are incredibly huge and ornate. Then I went to the White Tower which has an excellent display of arms and armor. Then I went to the Tower Shop and bought some postcards and a Christmas Ornament that looks like Henry VIII. Got back to the hotel and checked with the concierge. He called the airline for me and told me that my luggage was out on delivery but not at the hotel. I walked around to try to find something to eat. It was Sunday and pretty much everything was closed except for the Indian restaurants nearby. I wasn’t keen on trying Indian food so I walked back to the tube station since I knew there were some places to eat in there. I bought a bottle of water and had a very good ham and cheddar sandwich on some sort of baguette. Back o the room and I washed the shirt I had worn the day before in case my luggage didn’t get in today. I had a small crying jag over possible lost luggage and by that time I was very tired so I dozed a bit. I had dreams about lost luggage and trying to find a place that was open to buy deodorant when the phone rang around 9:00pm. It was the concierge telling me my luggage was here. Deoderant! Woo! I went down to collect my luggage and asked for 5:30am wake up call. Breakfast tomorrow starts at 6:30am and I’m supposed to meet down in the lobby at 7:45am to leave at 8am.

Hotel: Thistle Euston. Had a single room. It was fairly small with a single, twin-sized, bed, desk, and TV. The bathroom was a good size with tub and shower. I had to walk quite a way from the lift to get to my room and also had to go up a half flight of stairs to get to the hallway my room was in. The room faced the roadway so there was some traffic noise, but I was so tired that it didn’t matter.

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