(no subject)
I left Ireland way too early this morning and am now in London. I was supposed to fly to Aberdeen yesterday to visit 2 friends there and then continue on to London, but there was a bit of a snag with that which was out of my control (they emailed me the night before and simply said, "don't come." and that's all I know as of now). SO not taking those 2 flights cost me €80 plus another €50 to book a new flight right to London today. I could have still gone I suppose, but it would have basically been flying for the sake of flying - just to get to Aberdeen and find a place to stay the night. I really had nothing to do there except say hi to my friends, so I opted for another day in Ireland and a straightforward journey to London.
Straightforward it was not, however, as my bag got routed to Stansted airport instead of Luton. Luckily, being more or less in the same city, they were able to locate it quickly and send it my way. One of the zippers came open along the way but as far as I know nothing is missing. I left the airport and put my bag on one of the shuttle buses that takes everyone in to London centre. I boarded the bus and went to pay for my ticket but the driver told me I needed to change my £20 note, so I ran across the street and back in to the airport terminal to find a Forex. In the meantime, the bus with my bag on it left without me and a new one pulled up in it's place. I didn't see this happen, and the drivers looked very similar (and forgive me, it was 9am. and I had been up since 5am.) so I didn't even notice. I got to Victoria Station to see that my bag was definitely not on the same bus that I was...
Luckily (again with the luck, as things could have gone a lot worse in either of these baggage situations) the bus that had left Luton slightly earlier was parked in front of the one I was on, waiting to fill up and drive back out to Luton, so I was able to grab my bag off of that.
I'm in Camden town now, wasting a bit of time and enjoying the sunshine - London is really surprisingly warm right now. Almost sticky. In an hour or so I'm making my way to a conference that I'll be at until Sunday. It's an introduction to an NGO that works internationally to combat poverty. The idea being that you come over for the weekend to learn about the organisation, and then can apply for a 3 month internship in London, before getting a one or two year contract overseas. Should be quite interesting.
I will be calling British Airways within the next day or two to change the return date on my ticket to either September 5th or 6th, so I can nip back to Ireland for Electric Picnic - www.electricpicnic.ie
A big weekend full of good music, camping, and my friends. I've got so much going on in the next 4 months before that, but I'm still looking forward to it immensely.
And now (because I'm still bummed about having left), a list of things I will miss about Ireland:
*the massive consumption of tea
*Cadbury's (it tastes better here)
*good pubs
*Guinness
*Kev and Ross constantly reinventing my idea of what drunk men are capable of
*beer ninjas
*grocery shopping with Rob
*using the word craic ("crack") to describe good times
*being able to drive to the other side of the country in 3 hours
*Arus Na NGael in Galway
*the living room at Laverna
*being teased for hours on end re: my pronunciation of the word "about", Celine Dion, and Brian Adams
*Mongrel magazine
But just so I don't get too sad, I'll add a few to the list of things I WON'T miss:
*no central heating
*cold feet
*the Dart train (and always missing it by a minute and having to wait an hour)
*black pudding
*brown sauce
Straightforward it was not, however, as my bag got routed to Stansted airport instead of Luton. Luckily, being more or less in the same city, they were able to locate it quickly and send it my way. One of the zippers came open along the way but as far as I know nothing is missing. I left the airport and put my bag on one of the shuttle buses that takes everyone in to London centre. I boarded the bus and went to pay for my ticket but the driver told me I needed to change my £20 note, so I ran across the street and back in to the airport terminal to find a Forex. In the meantime, the bus with my bag on it left without me and a new one pulled up in it's place. I didn't see this happen, and the drivers looked very similar (and forgive me, it was 9am. and I had been up since 5am.) so I didn't even notice. I got to Victoria Station to see that my bag was definitely not on the same bus that I was...
Luckily (again with the luck, as things could have gone a lot worse in either of these baggage situations) the bus that had left Luton slightly earlier was parked in front of the one I was on, waiting to fill up and drive back out to Luton, so I was able to grab my bag off of that.
I'm in Camden town now, wasting a bit of time and enjoying the sunshine - London is really surprisingly warm right now. Almost sticky. In an hour or so I'm making my way to a conference that I'll be at until Sunday. It's an introduction to an NGO that works internationally to combat poverty. The idea being that you come over for the weekend to learn about the organisation, and then can apply for a 3 month internship in London, before getting a one or two year contract overseas. Should be quite interesting.
I will be calling British Airways within the next day or two to change the return date on my ticket to either September 5th or 6th, so I can nip back to Ireland for Electric Picnic - www.electricpicnic.ie
A big weekend full of good music, camping, and my friends. I've got so much going on in the next 4 months before that, but I'm still looking forward to it immensely.
And now (because I'm still bummed about having left), a list of things I will miss about Ireland:
*the massive consumption of tea
*Cadbury's (it tastes better here)
*good pubs
*Guinness
*Kev and Ross constantly reinventing my idea of what drunk men are capable of
*beer ninjas
*grocery shopping with Rob
*using the word craic ("crack") to describe good times
*being able to drive to the other side of the country in 3 hours
*Arus Na NGael in Galway
*the living room at Laverna
*being teased for hours on end re: my pronunciation of the word "about", Celine Dion, and Brian Adams
*Mongrel magazine
But just so I don't get too sad, I'll add a few to the list of things I WON'T miss:
*no central heating
*cold feet
*the Dart train (and always missing it by a minute and having to wait an hour)
*black pudding
*brown sauce