Bye Bye Europe
It is with a tear in my eye I say goodbye to Europe and the UK. A British Airways flight out of Heathrow was my ticket out of peaceful, cultured, well mannered and weird-speaking Europe and off the the wild abandons of the USA!!
So I headed into Paddington Station for a few final Magner's with Anka and the Heathrow express out to terminal 4. Arriving with about an hour before my flight left I jumped in an incredibly long queue to check-in... only to be told by a very polite gentleman that I had missed my flight.... bugger.... a quick trip to the BA service counter and I was rebooked on a flight three hours later! Bonus! So back into the incredibly long line to check-in for this flight!!
I finally made it to check-in, through security and with an hour to spare and some pretty boring shops to look at - I decided to say goodbye to Mr Magner's once again! :)
So finally in my seat... back-seat bogan once again and up up and away!! With a tear I looked back... past the toilets and past the tail to wave goodbye to the continent of Europe.... "I'll be back... don't you worry about that sunshine!" I said... Europe smiled and said... "No worries... just give me a few months to recover!"
A little over 7 hours later the pilot gave us the word that we were arriving into JFK... then a little over 7 hours 5 minutes later he gave us the word that we were put into a holding pattern... then a little over 7 hours 35 minutes later he gave us the word that we were now making our final approach - apologising for the delay but adding "we like to queue, after all we are British!"
So I arrive, make it smoothly through immigration and customs (a little bit surprisingly after the way I usually get hassled at LAX) and into a shuttle to my hotel! This trip takes about 1.5 hours crammed in a small minivan over the very dodgy roads of New York. Fast check-in to the Hostel (a 10 room dorm in a really funky hotel) and as it is roughly 4am Europe time - off to bed!!
So I headed into Paddington Station for a few final Magner's with Anka and the Heathrow express out to terminal 4. Arriving with about an hour before my flight left I jumped in an incredibly long queue to check-in... only to be told by a very polite gentleman that I had missed my flight.... bugger.... a quick trip to the BA service counter and I was rebooked on a flight three hours later! Bonus! So back into the incredibly long line to check-in for this flight!!
I finally made it to check-in, through security and with an hour to spare and some pretty boring shops to look at - I decided to say goodbye to Mr Magner's once again! :)
So finally in my seat... back-seat bogan once again and up up and away!! With a tear I looked back... past the toilets and past the tail to wave goodbye to the continent of Europe.... "I'll be back... don't you worry about that sunshine!" I said... Europe smiled and said... "No worries... just give me a few months to recover!"
A little over 7 hours later the pilot gave us the word that we were arriving into JFK... then a little over 7 hours 5 minutes later he gave us the word that we were put into a holding pattern... then a little over 7 hours 35 minutes later he gave us the word that we were now making our final approach - apologising for the delay but adding "we like to queue, after all we are British!"
So I arrive, make it smoothly through immigration and customs (a little bit surprisingly after the way I usually get hassled at LAX) and into a shuttle to my hotel! This trip takes about 1.5 hours crammed in a small minivan over the very dodgy roads of New York. Fast check-in to the Hostel (a 10 room dorm in a really funky hotel) and as it is roughly 4am Europe time - off to bed!!
