I woke up this morning and was excited about getting to go home, and sad about leaving. I wouldn’t change any part of my trip or the people I met. It’s one of the things in life that causes you to grow and learn. But of course after being in another country for 6 weeks I’m ready to get back to my normal life and food. Also I thought about how long today was going to be and home much I had to carry. I got up about 6:45 and got ready and packed the last of my stuff up and then got checked out and headed to the tube about 7:45. I was actually ahead of the schedule I set out for myself. But that was a good thing. Heading back seemed a lot easier than arriving here. I ended up having to pull my bag which was about 55 lbs (I was concerned about this) and then carrying two bags that totaled about 50 lbs. It made the walk to the tube seem like forever but I made. I had to go down 17 steps which wasn’t too bad and then I got on my last tube ride. I arrived at Paddington (went up two escalators) and ended up catching the 8:33 train, planned on the 9:33 train, and then it was about a 25-minute ride to the airport. The train was pretty cool and I’m glad I got to ride it at least once here.
After arriving I headed to the lift and went to departures and found my gate for United Airlines. It really didn’t take to long to make it through. You do the self-check in and get your boarding pass printed and then you continue to the baggage drop line and while you are in it you do the immigration process. Then you continue to check in. I got to the counter and I was concern about my baggage weight but it didn’t seem to matter. I was done within a minute and moving on to security. I will say security at this airport is extremely efficient because I made it through within 10 minutes. They have baggies at the beginning in case you forgot and various bins for the items that are not allowed. For the detector you don’t have to remove your shoes unless there is metal on them, which is pretty nice. And the people just seemed nicer and not like they were trying to rush you like I’m used to back in the states.
Because of everything being so efficient, I ended up making it to the gates by 9:45am and my flight isn’t until 3:20pm. This just meant I had plenty of time to eat and relax. Having to race against the clock was not something I wanted to do today so I didn’t mind having to wait a couple hours. Additionally it also meant the tube wouldn’t be crowded with the tourist on the tube and make it more challenging with my luggage.
And after sitting in the airport for a bit I realized how big the airport actually is. In terminal 1 alone there are 90 gates. In the airport there are 5 terminals overall. And you have to actually take a bus to get to another terminal. But for terminal 1 being at gate 1 and needing to get to gate 77-90 it is about a 20 minute walk. Easily beats out Wichita airport.
So during my extra time ended up writing this blog and then I went to the exchange counter but I ended up not having enough change to be worth exchanging, but the lady gave me larger coins because I mostly had 1 and 2 pence. Then I wondered around to find some food and just look around. I ate at a place called Giraffe and it was actually pretty good. Then I found an area to sit down because I still didn’t know what gate I was at, and I read and people watched for a bit. Then I figured out my gate number and headed down there. It took me about 10 minutes to get there because it was clear on the other side. Then I waited for the gate to open and about 2:45 I boarded the plane to head home. The flight went pretty well. I ended up watching Fast Five three times because I didn’t have much else to do. I ended up having the pasta and it wasn’t too bad. Also I sat next to a girl that was the same age and from Michigan who studied abroad in London as well. So we had plenty to talk about for the flight. I would say I enjoy the flight back more.
The flight was supposed to be about 8 hours, but we managed to make it to Chicago 45 minutes early. I then had about a two hour layover. But when I got to the airport we first had to go through immigration which didn’t take very long, then we had to grab our luggage and go through customs which didn’t take long either. Followed by re checking our bags and the lady would tell you what gate you needed to go to. I was at terminal 5 and had to get to terminal 3, so I got on the cta train that goes around the airport and got to terminal 3. Then I had to go back through security and I was finally back into the airport. It was pretty easy to find my gate so I decided to grab some food from McDonald’s that was close by. One thing I learned in London is not all McDonald’s are created equal.
After being on a plane for 7 hours, the 2 hour flight was a breeze. Just before 10pm I landed in Wichita, I found my mom, and we grabbed my luggage and headed home. And I had her bring me a Gatorade, which is one thing I really missed from here.
Overall I would say it was a pretty successful trip and I really enjoyed it. And thank you to everyone for reading my blog!!
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