The Flight

  London, England, United Kingdom
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Getting Boarding Pass's

       We boarded our plane out departing out of Regina at 2:00pm and arrived in Calgary at 3:15pm. After arriving in Calgary we had a 3 hour lay over and headed down to our gate and have a look at our plane. They had one of the engines half torn apart and were franticly trying to fix it. This wonderful find was meet with instant fear and worry as we were about to get on the plane that they were trying to fix, and it was the engine of all things. But we shrugged it off saying they know what they are doing. Departure time was also coming into question as the clock was getting very close to when we should leave and they hadn't even begun boarding yet. We were supposed to depart at 6:10pm but were delayed till 6:40 due to the repairs. The plane was extremely cramped and full. There were tv's in the middle row hanging down but not in every seat which we were a little disappointed about. We were forced to watch the onboard movies which weren't all that bad but it would have been nice to watch TV like the plane from Regina to Calgary. So we packed in like sardines for our 9 hour journey and just hoped they fixed the engine properly.

Sideview Of De Plane

     After watching the first movie we all decided to try and get some shut eye however that as we soon discovered was going to be very difficult. No matter how hard we tried none of us could get comfy enough to fall asleep. After struggling for 4 hours we gave up trying and just watched the movies instead. We knew it was going to make the day rough as we had already been up for 16 hours and counting, but the body just wasn't willing to rest in the pretzel shape provided by the plane. The flight itself was actually very poor and I wouldn't recommend the Airtransat airline to anyone. It was extremely cramped and had some serious heating issues. The temperature was constantly shifting from freezing cold to boiling hot. The food was terrible and I mean couldn't even eat terrible. They never dimmed the lights in the cabin once the entire flight and had constant interruptions and announcements about stupid unimportant things every 30min or so. This didn't help the sleep effort either as the messages were extremely loud. We had two screaming babies right by us who were good for about half the flight but screaming for the other half. Needless to say by the time the plane was coming in for landing all three of us wanted nothing more than to get the hell off that plane.

Neverending Sunset

     There was some temporary excitement on the plane however when Scott decided to get some sparkling wine as a celebration. When he went to open the bottle he didn't realize how pressurized it was and the silence of the plane was suddenly interrupted by a loud bang and a cork flying from the front of the plane to the back as it ricocheted off the luggage holders and took a crazy bounce behind us. Of course this was followed by half the plane staring in our direction as me and Aimee laughed our ass's off at him. He stood up and apologized but we never did learn where the cork went or possibly who it hit. It defiantly added some excitement for us.

      Once we landed we followed what seemed to be an endless number of halls to get to customs. We were immediately meet with a wave of humidity that I haven't felt since traveling to Mexico. It was a cooler day but just the humidity was enough to make you feel sweaty and gross. We had a bit of a stir at customs and they were hounding us with questions about our trip and visa's. They really didn't like the idea we had no address and were quizzing us to the nines. Aimee made it through with no problems so when Scott and I were getting hounded they asked where the other member was and we pointed to behind customs where she was sitting waiting for us already as she got threw with no problem. They customs workers gave each other a glance then just stamped the passport and sent us threw.
 

Waiting On The Train Platform

      We gathered up our bags which were very heavy when having to lug them around with no help. We then followed another serious of endless halls till we found the train station which is actually part of the airport which was helpful and convenient. We picked up some tickets to Watford and headed to the platform to wait for the train. At this point we spun our clocks forward 7 hours to adjust to the time change. Nothing like losing 7 hours of your day to help out the fact your dead tired. We also learned very quickly to not stand anywhere near the edge of the platform as the trains go flying threw there at retarded speeds and scares the crap out of you. We hoped on our train and began another one hour journey to Watford.

The Train To Watford

    While sitting on the train we got talking with a mom who lives here and had a really nice informational chat with her. She got off at a stop before us but was replaced by another mom that we got talking to and got some more advice. This was followed by a train conversation with two others as they overheard us talking and joined in. I'm starting to think we stick out like sore thumbs because everybody was asking us questions about Canada and giving advice about England and area and being extremely friendly and helpful. It definatly helped to boost our confidence that not everyone in England was out to steal your wallet. We had heard so many horror stories before coming here of people having there wallets, money and passports stolen that we were starting to think that London was full of crooks. After the train ride we felt much more comfortable and relaxed with the situation and begain to realize that everyone in London was actually the exact opposite and were very friendly and helpful. While our guard was still up and our valuables hidden we definatly felt better about being here. So after our conversations with the locals on the train we got off at Watford and headed down to Protocol's office building where we were dropping off and storing the bulk of our luggage while we looked for a place to live in Oxford, England.

Streets Of Watford

      Protocol is essentially a teacher placement program for England had found Scott a position in Bicester to teach. They also helped us out by providing us with a place to store our bags and tons of information about banks and other important things and helped to get us set up. I have nothing but good things to say about Protocol as they have been bending over backwards to help us out and provide us with anything we need. They are a great company and a great bunch of people.

      Having arrived in Watford we got directions from the train ticket booth and had some laughs again with the locals as we looked like a huge heard of lost dogs with to many bags for there own good. We left the train station and begain our journey.