My Christmas Sojourn

So, for anybody who might not have heard, Heathrow Airport was a wreck this past week. Five inches of snow and they panicked, flights were cancelled for days, they refused to have help cleaning up their mess, and thousands of passengers were stranded in London without compensation... me included. For SIX DAYS.

Day 1: Tracy and I first headed down together on the 18th, trekking through miserable weather and even worse traveling conditions-- at one point, both the tube station going North and all buses and taxis going North were simultaneously cancelled, leaving Tracy and I stranded at a crowded McDonald's for something like three hours.

Really? Is this enough snow to cancel trains over??

To be fair, it was less like light fluffy snow and more like a hail storm of dip n'dots...

My gawd we were so cold waiting on that bus. My boots soaked through completely, and poor Tracy had to drag her rolling luggage through all the slush and snow.

 Finally though, we made it to Jane Orr's home. All hail the power of Ft. Thomas mom connections! Apparently, some years ago while working abroad, Jane had stayed with Paula, a local Ft.Thomas mom whose daughter now plays volleyball. My mom and Paula get to talk quite a bit during those long matches, and actually stumbled upon the fact that I needed a place to stay in London- Paula phoned up Jane, and Jane kindly offered her home. We were so glad she did!!! When we finally arrived, she greeted us with warm clothes, a delicious dinner, and (of course) lovely hot tea.

Day 2: The next morning, I woke up to find online that, beyond a doubt, my flight was cancelled. Tracy and I loafed around, took a few photos of Jane's beautiful old house, and then finally left to meet up with Eunjae at the Holiday Inn. Fortunately for me, Tracy and Eunjae were supposed to fly out on the 20th, so they already had a room booked very near the airport, and Mom (with the help of her brother's family) was able to rebook me for the 22nd. After another few day of slow tube service, we got some sleep.

Jane's kitchen was wonderful- so cozy! It looked like it was out of a picture book. In addition, her whole family is full of artists (including herself), so there were wonderful sketches, watercolors, charcoals, and uncannily perfect candid photos hanging everywhere.

Plenty of tea cups!

Day 3: Today, all three of us woke up early and full of hope! We reached the airport and separated to shove through the crowds and pursue each of our flights. Fortunately, Tracy flew Canada Air and was able to make it out on time (apparently Canada is capable of dealing with snow- go figure). Eunjae and I, however, did not fare as well. While she found out within the first five hours her flight was definitely cancelled, I sat on the airport floor as a standby from about 7am to 4pm. Suddenly though, all of us standbys who had stuck it out and stayed all day were summoned-- there was a flight going to DC with extra seats! We were printed tickets, hustled through security, and sprinted to our gate. After another agonizing hour of waiting in line, four people from our group were "chosen." Apparently there had been about 70 standbys, and about 50 seats on the plane... I was one of the unlucky 20. They essentially told us to go home and stay home until we could rebook.

Although I hate that Eunjae got stuck as well, I was so lucky to have her there with me- she'd bought food for us for that night (thank goodness) and had a cup of tea for me when I finally got out of a very long, hot shower.

Day 4: Eunjae and I officially decided the airport was not worth our time. We slept in, drank tea, checked out of the expensive Holiday Inn and transferred to the Firs Lodge Hotel, a much more affordable (yet still very cozy) hotel closer to the airport, and continued relaxing. The day was really quite nice until later that evening... when I saw online my rebooked flight for tomorrow had been cancelled.

Day 5: Physical condition deteriorating exponentially, I showed up at my gate early about 6:45am. The first guard immediately handed me a number to call to rebook again and told me to go home. Unwilling (and unable, since my phone had died) to do so, I wandered around until I talked another guard into helping me get down into the Arrivals area, so I could use the pay phones. After £5 of hold music, a United Airlines employee informed me the soonest I could get a ticket was the 28th. A few hours later, I got the text from Eunjae- she had made it out. Exhausted, miserable, hopeless and sick, I collapsed into a chair next to Arrivals gate and finally let myself wallow in misery as friends and families reunited just feet away.

Finally, after I remembered that being pitiful would solve nothing, I checked my email to find Mom had managed to rebook a ticket for me on the 26th- even though they had explicitly told me nothing sooner was available. It still wasn't great, but it was definitely better than the 28th. As per mom's instructions, I snuck my way upstairs, past security, into the Departures area hoping to just get my boarding pass printed off so I could resign myself to a 24 and 25th in a hotel room. But when I reached the desk, suddenly, miraculously, shockingly nonchalantly- the woman asked "if I wouldn't like a flight home on the 23rd?" Uh, YES. Yes, actually, YES, I would.

Ticket in hand but at least now with some hope for the next day, I half-crawled back to the hotel, snagged some fast food, and tried to sleep through the night. 

Day 6: 

For once, finally, from the moment I arrived things went smoothly. Cold pills and cough syrup got me through the first 8 hour flight, and support from family and friends helped me crawl the rest of the way to my final gate. All I can really remember of that last two hour flight are about ten minutes of take off and five minutes of landing. One thing I do remember though, is the plane breaking through the clouds above Chicago and then: sea of clouds and a full moon above America. I got off the walk way and stumbled into my happy family's arms at just about midnight.

HOME!

 

I've never appreciated being home so much! It was a brutal trip getting back, but completely worth it. Happy Holidays to everybody, I hope everyone enjoys their break and their family and friends!

Favorite Airport Quotes:

"Bring over five shovels and ten people from the mid-west, we'll have this mess cleaned up in a few hours."

--American woman

"It takes an American to speak beautiful English."
--charming older British man who was also on standby with me, talking about the Gettysburg address. Apparently, this same man is on several dating websites. It seems he sets up dates with ladies from around the world- if the date works out, hooray! If not, then he has himself a lovely holiday.