Friday, 30 May 2003

The Way Home, Part I


Tuesday was my last day in Aberdeen, and was mostly spent trying to get money issues figured out. But that got resolved with an hour or so left before I had to catch the bus to the airport. So, Brett and I talked for a while, and as I got on the bus he made a comment that he'd be keeping up with my travel notes, to which I replied that the trip was pretty much over and there would probably just be one more entry, to which he quipped that I still had the road home, and that's always an adventure.

Jinxed me he did.

Although the way to London wasn't too bad.

Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare after lugging my monster bag through Aberdeen to the bus station. The plane was a bit late taking off for some unexplained reason, which put me at Luton at 10:30.

There were several people going to the bus station, so we all got on the shuttle including an exchange student who needed to get to Manchester. It took 3 bus drivers to figure out a route for him. (Resisting the urge to make a Tootsie Pop joke)

So we were finally off to the train station (Luton is WAY outside of London), and got a ticket for the next earliest train, 11:15. This meant I didn't get to London until midnight. At this point, I was quite hesitant to try and take the underground back to the hostel/B&B, since I didn't know the system well, nor did I know about it's reputation after dark. So I drug my monster luggage over to the main Kings Cross Station (the Luton train arrives into Thameslink)--pretty shady.

They did have a taxi queue, and I was off to the Windsor House, same place I stayed the first time. I had confirmed my reservation with them the first time I checked in and told them that I would probably not be arriving until 11:00pm on the 27th. They made a note and said that would be fine. Granted, I didn't get there until half past midnight, but I didn't think that would be late enough for them to cancel my reservation.

Yup, they cancelled my reservation when I didn't arrive at 7pm.

They had one room left, but it was twice as expensive as the one I had reserved. Had it not been nearly 1am I would have found some place else. As it was, I talked them into reducing the higher rate since I had indeed confirmed the reservation earlier. So, I get up to my room, get ready for bed, and fall into it exhausted. . .

with insomnia

Ick. I think I finally fell asleep around 3am, and my alarm went off at 6:45.