This seems like an obvious place to start my trip, considering it’s probably the lesson I personally need to absorb the most — and the plan for my day has pretty much gone to shit.
At this moment, I am sitting on a train in the middle of London… And the train is not moving. I hadn’t planned on being on a train at all today. I should actually be landing in Split in about an hour — on an airplane. But due to slow luggage collection and delays from Orlando, I landed too late to make my last connection. The best EasyJet could do to get me in today was re-book me through the Luton airport. So, I forked over more money and am now sitting comfortably in a Thameslink train from Gatwick Airport to the Luton Airport. I even successfully navigated a ticket purchase and getting to the right platform. Turns out everyone in England speaks English, making travel about 1000 times easier. Total transparency: I am still not entirely sure I am on the right train, but it appears to be going in the right direction.
I had a ton of anxiety about missing my flight out of Orlando yesterday. Waiting in line to get my ticket, silently prodding the passengers in front of me to Hurry… The Eff… Up. And then security and the shoes off and the bins and the laptop/tablet/monitor all out on the rollers, and the pat downs and the children hopped up on Disneyland and Sunday evening travel mayhem and getting dressed again after security — All of it totally anxiety-inducing and generally undignified. And my plane was supposed to leave in 15 minutes.
But the flight to Orlando was delayed, so all that anxious energy I burned waiting in line in Orlando was just wasted because I ended up posted up on the floor in front of the gate for 90 minutes, stuffing my face with snickers and chips, as I waited for boarding to start.
So, when I landed in London 8 hours later, I made a conscious effort not to care that my flight to Split was leaving in an hour and that I was probably not going to make it. I was sitting there in the baggage claim, waiting for my luggage to arrive, tracking my flight on my phone. I still had to get through customs and check into a new airline, and give them my enormous (likely overweight) suitcase.
Flight Status: On Time…
Boarding…
Last Call…
Gate Closed…
Departed
I just straight up missed my flight and watched it happen in real time through the magic of mobile technology. And somehow, I came to the conclusion that there was really nothing I could do about it but turn on some Ben Folds, pay for a new ticket, and watch London out the window.
Observations from London: Mostly the landscape looks like Ohio, but with older houses and more moss. Everything is brick here — sooty, painted, chipped brick houses, walls, streets, bridges. A few sharply glass buildings, but mostly everything seems old and weathered.
I keep hearing “Please mind the gap between the train and the platform!” from the loudspeaker, and I think I just rolled across the London Bridge. I’m definitely getting the 15-minute London experience.
We are flying out of the city now, past modern loft complexes and soccer fields and green bramble and farther out — thin curving roads and cars with round edges and green expanses dotted with sheep. This train is moving again. See you in Split.
