Moneyticketspassport - Edina Monsoon

• Southern-fairy's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from London

Trip Start Sep 12, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 11, 2008 Next
Entry

  London, United Kingdom
Thursday, September 13, 2007

I'm writing this on the plane. Well, not actually on the plane. They probably wouldn't like it and it would ruin the look of the thing - but you get the idea. 8 hours is a long time to fill if you've seen all the films. It's quite surreal flying from Heathrow. I've never actually flown from there before. For one thing it's mahoosive and also quite old and shabby. Here's a tip - the escalator outside Wetherspoons on the land side of terminal 4 screeches terrifyingly every 2 minutes so I'd recommend taking some WD40 should you wish to patronize the place. While you're there, check out 'Yotel' which is a sort of capsule hotel concept by the makers of, well, fairly obviously, Yo Sushi. It wasn't finished earlier when I passed through but it sounds quite intriguing.
 
Mum and Dad brought me to the airport and very kindly bought me lunch. Whilst quietly ticking off another Wetherspoons

No Burger King here...

. I think they've been to something like 250 of them now. They collect them with the avidity that some of us collect geocaches, it's quite amazing. 
 
So anyway, I'm on the plane and just flew over the Eastenders title sequence and now we're climbing steadily to the height of those planes you see as a speck, and think 'that's not a plane, it's a space rocket'. The clouds are dense (enough to give the impression they'd quite easily hold your weight if you wanted to get out and have a look round), and mashed potato like and have quite a fascinating landscape. I suppose landscape isn't the right word; airscape? The white ones are higher than the black ones and the black cloud over Manchester makes the whole thing look like The Grand Canyon. Quite freaky.
 
I need to say here that I'm very disappointed with the cabin crew. I thought it was a pre-requisite that they all had to be tall and glamorous? All in matching orange make-up troweled on. And that's just the men. Well not anymore. It's all terribly PC and they clearly employ anyone who can actually do the job now, rather than those who look the part. Tch - come on British Airways, sort it out. What am I supposed to look at?
 
You'll have gathered by now that I did manage to save up enough money for my flights

Yotel

. I think I left off in February when I'd just received my Work Visa Authorisation and was therefore definitely going to Canada. I toyed with the idea of booking the BUNAC flights for £650.00 but decided I'd go and do a bit of research first - my credit card actually hurt when I tried to write the numbers down to book with BUNAC.
 
I tried with British Airways direct through their website and found one for £1500.00. A bargain really... One day I was wandering along Eastgate and happened along STA travel - who I'd like to say here and now - are amazing. The nice man had a look on his computer, and found a flexible flight for £450.00!!! I restrained myself from leaping over the counter and ravishing him, and booked it and now here I am. Amusingly - on British Airways anyway. Hahaha.
 
Many guidebooks later - I've decided to spend the winter in Halifax, Nova Scotia and then get the train across Canada in the spring to spend the summer in Vancouver. Originally I thought about spending the whole year in Vancouver, but apparently it doesn't snow there in the winter - only rain. Obviously I've not seen nearly enough rain this year but not having any snow at all put me off somewhat. No point in going all the way to Canada for exciting weather then not getting any. -25◦C for 6 months sounds a bit extreme to me so after a bit of research I found that Halifax on the East coast has an average winter temperature of 0◦C but still gets 90cm of snow. Excellent.
 
I'm on my way to Toronto now as I have to attend an orientation in the morning, where the Canadian equivalent of BUNAC will help us open bank accounts, fast-track our Social Security Numbers (National Insurance) and generally hold our hands until we get our bearings. After that - we're free to go.

Slideshow Print this entry Share London hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry