Wow. Wow wow, wow wow wow. I can’t even begin to describe my day so far. I guess I’ll just start at the beginning…it’s been such a long 30 hours. Prepare yourself for a really long post. Feel free to skim for the highlights if you must.
My domestic flights went really well. I don’t know if I’ve ever had such an entirely uneventful travel day. I left Rapid just fine, on our little puddle-hopper plane, slept the entire way to Denver, waited through my 2-hour layover, got on the bigger plane to Newark and slept through most of that flight as well. Once I got to Newark it was kind of weird, since I came in on a totally different concourse from my departure gate, and at Newark that means you have to take a bus to the other concourse. So I did. I got on the totally pointless bus which transferred us to another bus, which finally took us to the C concourse. There I had a four-hour layover, and what I really wanted was a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. They just started selling them again for the season, and that was going to be my final Starbucks coffee of the semester – drinking Starbucks in another country seems really lame, like eating McDonalds in Italy or something. But of course, the Newark C Concourse is like the single concourse in the country without a Starbucks. Instead, they had a Juan Valdez Café. I’ve never had Juan Valdez coffee but apparently it’s a big thing in Latin America, and my high school Spanish teacher had a poster of it, which I thought was hilarious at the time, and “Juan Valdez” has been a personal joke ever since. I had a goldfish named Juan Valdez. So of course I had to get coffee there. It was pretty disgusting, though, and I’m still thinking about that Pumpkin Spice Latte. I think Starbucks has to be my next stop. Anyways.
So I waited through my four-hour layover, managing to switch my seat in the meantime so I wasn’t in the back row. (I wanted a seat that actually reclined.) And then I was off on the seven-hour (plus five-hour time change) oversea flight. Good news: we didn’t fall into the ocean. I was legit worried. Bad news: I barely slept at all. Prime sleeping time, and I totally did not take advantage. This was due to a number of factors. 1) They had free movies on demand. I watched Letters to Juliet. It was so cheesy and satisfying. 2) They served a meal in-flight, and I hadn’t really eaten lunch or dinner at that point, so I waited up for that. It was pretty gross – teriyaki chicken on rice with a really lame salad. But it was food. 3) I didn’t actually get to recline my seat. I tried once, and the girl behind me apparently needed to sleep leaning forward, with her head against the back of my seat. When I did recline it a little bit, she actually tried to push my seat back up. Um, nice try, hun… So I was nice and leaned it back up. Meaning I was trying to sleep awkwardly kind of on my side, sitting up, with my head against the window. 4) I totally wanted to see the sun rise over the ocean, so I kept kind of jolting back awake hoping I hadn’t missed it. It ended up not being that cool, because I was on the side of the plane facing the northwest. Not ideal at all for sunrise watching in August in the Northern Hemisphere. 5) I had vast amounts of adrenaline coursing through my body like no other.
So. I made it to Edinburgh. Flying in was AMAZING. Ireland and Scotland are absolutely gorgeous from the air – you can see all the awesome mountains and lakes and vast greenness. And by that time I was totally beyond pumped. When the west coast of Ireland appeared out my window (first sight of land since we passed over Canada), I think I audibly gasped, I was so excited. So then we got into the airport, I was gross-looking and exhausted, and so nervous about going through immigration/customs. They did end up letting me into the country. (Phew.) I got my bags without any problem, and didn’t even have to do anything at customs. It was great. I took my time before I went to find a cab – changed clothes, put on some makeup, brushed my teeth. I had to laugh at myself when I saw my face in a mirror – I literally looked dead. So I fixed that. Got some coffee. Struggled with my new currency. Talked really quietly so no one else could hear my American accent. Got on a computer, emailed my mom as per request. And found a taxi and set off for the storage space.
The storage place was an ordeal in and of itself. I had reserved the place, but apparently they didn’t really get my message that I don’t really have a UK address, nor do I really know anyone in the UK to be a secondary contact. So we went through a bunch of stuff trying to get around that. Fortunately the guy helping me was incredibly kind and helpful, especially when he found out I’d literally been off the plane for an hour and was running on about three hours of sleep and a cappuccino. So I got my locker, got my stuff in and organized, and set out with my enormous backpack. I managed to find the right bus stop without too much trouble, and my bus came within a couple of minutes. Slight foolish moment at the beginning as I sat there digging stupidly through my handful of unfamiliar coins trying to come up with correct bus fare. That’s going to happen a lot in the next few days. Anyway. I was on the right bus, going the right way. Problem: Edinburgh streets are really weird. I was warned, but I still didn’t end up with the right map. Even though I had like three of them. So I ended up totally guessing at which stop to get off at, based solely on the amount of time the bus website said I was supposed to be on the bus. I really ended up being pretty close, only a stop off, but then I wandered around randomly for at least half an hour, laughing silently at myself the entire way and garnering a lot of bemused looks. Poor stupid American. Finally found some helpful directions from my giant stash of paperwork and FOUND MY HOSTEL!!! Words cannot express how happy I was. They let me check in even though I thought I couldn’t check in for another two hours. No complaints from me. Walked into the room to two girls arguing rather heatedly in French. Yeah, Europe. Then they left. So then I sat on my bed, finally alone in peaceful silence, and wrote this.
So there you have it. This is all totally surreal and I still cannot believe I’m here. I'm now in the Starbucks that I finally, on the third time around the block, discovered just down the street from my hostel, using their free Wi-fi. I did not, however, get my pumpkin spice deliciousness because I suddenly realized maybe Brits don't drink pumpkin-flavored things and I have really had enough stupid American moments for a single day. Maybe tomorrow. I'm off to get phone stuff now. And soap. I forgot soap.
PS - British accents all over the place is really distracting/weird.
PPS - I am sooooooooo tired.
