I slept so good last night you guys. I had to force myself to get out to of bed at 9. I took a shower then ate some leftover airplane snacks for breakfast (a banana and grape tomatoes) and hung out with MJ while she finished up a school project thing. Sam came over around 11.
I was texting one of my friends who lives in Tallahassee and it turns out she was going to a softball practice at this park that was a 5 minute drive from the Peltier house. So we decided to meet up!
It poured rain around noon. Mary Jo gave me a rock that gives you wellness and grounding or something like that.
I could use some wellness! We left the house at a quarter after and went to Tom Brown park. There I met up with Ally!
Ally and I haven't technically met in person before. I met her through another friend and I've only spoken to Ally on Skype. That was really cool. She is shorter in person. We're hoping we can meet up again on my way back through Tally.
We left the park and did some driving. We stopped at a Hardees and I got a sandwich for lunch. It cost like $5.
Funny enough, Michael and Kry were in Orlando over the weekend and going back to Tally while we were going to Orlando. So we met up! We only spoke for maybe 5 minutes before we had to hit the road again.
It's a 4 hour drive from Tallahassee to Orlando and our flight boards at 7:90. Turns out traffic was terrible today. It was stop and go. I was internally trying not to freak out because we might miss out flight (we still had to get gas, drop off the rental car, go through Orlando security, and arrive an hour early for international flights). We were all sweatin' it.
It rained throughout the drive.
We got to the airport at 5:20 and dropping off the car was simple and quick.
Before we went through security, we had to check in. We showed our passports and visas but the counter lady didn't like the looks of Sam and Mary Jo's visa (she had printed hers from the email, I had a more official looking one with my picture). So they made a fuss about that and that lady was kind of bitchy. MJ asked if she may ask a question and the chick was all "Another one?" all cocky. Bitch, let us in.
The bitch let us in! Their visas checked out. Then we went to security. It was fairly quick and painless. Not to brag but I'm just a champ at going through TSA. Everyone wearing metal, putting their shoes in a bin, forgetting to empty their water bottles, step aside because I got this. I estimated this would take an hour and it took 15 minutes.
We found our gate and were an hour and a half early. Hallelujah!
I sat next to some annoying british children while we waited to board. Their names were Charlie and Alice (I know because their parents kept yelling at them). Aren't those the most british names you've ever heard?
Finally we boarded. I wasn't sure what to expect. My flight to Ireland 2 years ago was pretty good. We found our seats next to the flight attendants station.
We had the complimentary blanket, pillow, earplugs, headphones, toothbrush and toothpaste, and pen in our seats.
I was excited about that!
Then we chilled and the plane took off.
We would be flying over New York, the Atlantic, Ireland, then landing in London.
We were offered complimentary drinks which included beer and wine. I had myself a mini bottle of chardonnay.
The TVs had movies and games and shows like most flights. But this flight had a chat room as well. I joined and gave myself a proper nickname.
After harassing fellow passengers, I watched Alien to pass the time.
At 9:50 we got food. We had the choice between a pasta mushroom, chicken teriyaki, or spicy beef chili. I got the mushroom.
It came with a roll, cheese, red velvet cake, and cheese and cracker. Oh and they gave me another mini bottle of wine.
The pasta was good but I didn't have an appetite. All I wanted to do was drink the wine and eat cheese but I know what road that will lead me to (spoiler alert, it's Poop St.). and I don't want that on a flight. So I did the responsible thing. I drank all the wine and ate all the cheese AND finished my pasta. I gave Sam my red velvet because I hate red velvet with a burning passion of a thousand suns.
After 2 mini bottles of chard I was ready to take a nap. I did some typing and barely payed attention to the Alien movie. It finished around 11:30 and I turned off my lights and took a little booze snooze.
I drifted in and out for a couple hours. I wasn't sure if I was sleeping or not but at one point I thought phone chargers were called tories and that's dumb so I think I was dreaming.
I "got up", or decided to stay awake really, at 1:45 am which is 6:45 am London time. They try to trick our brains into not having jetlag and served us a light breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and a hot bread thing filled with jam.
It was whatever. Way better than that egg vomit I had with Maria flying to Ireland. Speaking of Ireland, guess what I flew over!
I'm sending my old tour guide Tom good vibes. By now it's 3 am Florida time, 8:00 am London.
We landed in London sometime between 9:00 and 9:30 am. I didn't see anything cool, we had to go straight to passport control. The line was huge and it took a solid 45 minutes. The guy that checked us in was very chipper which I'm not sure was annoying or not. He told us about how lovely India is and where he went and how nice the people are. We shall see.
My passport got a new stamp and we had time to kill before our bus arrived. We had a snack. It was coffee and a bacon sandwich. The sandwich wasn't really my thing but protein seemed like a good idea. They offered us ketchup or brown sauce with it. I wanted to know what brown sauce was and got that.
It taste like rotten steak sauce. MJ said it was like marmite, that Australian sin paste. We finished eating and hanging out around 11:30.
MJ had booked us a bus to take us to the next airport, so were going to Heathrow. I thought the bus ride was going to be fun but boy was I mistaken. It was an hour of driving through nothing but boring shrubbery to look at, then bland airport scenery. After ten minutes of this I took a nap.
We arrived at our gate at 1:00 pm. There we did some running around and found where we could drop off luggage. We left our 3 big bags at the airport, then we left the airport to go exploring the London Underground.
Sam bought our tickets for I think 6 pounds a piece. I thought this would be exciting as well but nope, it was not. The subway stopped every minute and was half underground and half in a boring part of some neighborhood backyards to look at.
We got on the one to Dillydally or whatever it's silly British name was. Picadally? Picadilly? It took an hour.
Mary Jo had a map and guided us around. I saw a lot of stuff in a short period of time and was not expecting most of it. First we went through some park and that was cute or whatever then we stepped right up to Buckingham Palace.
The Queen Victoria Memorial is right across the street. It's a sight to see!
We crossed a little pond and saw the London Eye. Every picture of me has the same exhausted expression.
Then we saw Big Ben!
We got closer to that ferris wheel. If it was night I would have rode it.
We walked around. There was a lot to see and I came unprepared and wasn't sure what I was looking at for most of it. I saw a statue of my boy Winston Churchill.
We stopped at a pub called The Sherlock Holmes to get a pint.
I got a diet coke instead. The three of us ordered fish and chips and this lamb pie dish. It was all really good!
After lunch we saw some more things. There was this big statue-
Some road that sounded familiar
It was almost 5 so we got back on the Piccadilly to take us to Heathrow Airport.
Bloody hell, the train ride was a bore! It took an hour and got crowded at parts.
Ten years later we got to Heathrow. We got our bags and went to check in.
Sam and Mary Jo got in fine, but there was an issue with my visa. Apparently they got it mixed up in Orlando, back when they thought Sam and MJ had the wrong visas. Anyways they said I could forward my visa acceptance email and they would print it for me. But I couldn't get connected to the wifi. Sam got out his laptop so I could print from that but as soon as we opened the internet the laptop died. Mary Jo gave me her phone because she had internet. So I tried to log onto my email from her phone, but my email account freaked out and blocked her because a strange device was trying to hack my email from the UK. BLOODY HELL. So I got out my kindle and that also wouldn't connect to the wifi. Neither my phone or kindle would connect, and I couldn't log on from any other device without setting off the alarms on my email security. It looked like my only option was to turn on roaming so I bit the bullet and switched my phone over.
I was able to forward my visa email to the check in security ad they printed it off. I turned roaming back off on my phone and wondered how badly I was about to be raped by AT&T for having roaming on international.
After that it was smooth sailing. We got through security quick. While waiting in line, I noticed we were surrounded by Indians. It sounds stupid, obviously we were on a flight to India. But it kinda hit me we (us 3) were the minority. It wasn't a bad thing or a good thing. Just something that surprised me. I don't know if I've ever been a minority for being white.
After that we chilled. Our gate wouldn't announce until an hour before we board so we walked around. Immediately after coming out of security you're hit with all these name brand, designer shops like Chanel, Dior, Tiffany & Co, Gucci. I sat outside a Swarovski crystal store and emailed my mum and dad. I got some blogging done and got up a the first post of the trip.
I sat there for like 2 hours before our gate was announced. We got on the flight fine and it's still Virgin Atlantic like the last, but this flight was nicer. Same free swag in our seats but the lighting was cool. It was purple and looked hip and my window had a dim setting so I could black it out.
We left London and we got to fly over it at night with all the lights on.
It was really beautiful. Something about flying over cities at night gives me an overwhelming feeling of being content. I'm satisfied.
We were given of dinner menu and mine was in some funky language.
But they had English for us whites
For dinner we had the option of a chicken pesto pasta, saag wala gosht with dal maharani (which is a spicy lamb in a mustard leaf sauce with rice), or palak paneer curry with dhal makhani (which in a classic dish apparently. It's paneer cheese in spicy spinach with cumin rice and black lentils and kidney beans). All three sounded good to me, so Sam, MJ, and I ordered 1 of each so we could taste all three. We also had more free wine but I gave mine to Sam.
The main dishes also came with a feta and pomegranate salad, some weird crackers with a spicy cold jelly thing, and some creamy yogurt white sauce I have no idea what it was, and pistachio kheer (which was rice pudding).
Everything was really good! Loved it all, honestly, even the lamb.
They also gave us mouth fresheners which were candy coated fennel seeds. I popped a handful of those bad boys in.
It was NOT candy and tasted awful.
The moonlight vibe going on in the plane made all my pictures look like I took them in a stripclub. It was kind of annoying after awhile.
I watched the movie Get Out and it was really good! It's part scary movie, part dark humor, and had a great ending I wasn't expecting.
Then I tried to sleep. I closed my eyes for a little bit and started to relax but then I got major anxiety. I started imaging what it would be like when we land in India and I don't know what's going to happen. I'm scared I'm going to get a culture shock, I'm scared I won't be culture shocked, I'm worried people will see this white lady and I'll stand out in a bad way, and I'm so excited I'm anxious for it to just happen and why can't we be there already and I'm anxious to land because I don't feel prepared. I got myself hyped and couldn't sleep.
So I journaled more. I got caught up to this moment. The sun is starting to rise and the skies are this rich purple pink color so I'm going to end the blog post here. It's been a long day, it's 3:00am London time, 7:30 am Dehli time, and 8pm Mountain time. God I hate time.
I was texting one of my friends who lives in Tallahassee and it turns out she was going to a softball practice at this park that was a 5 minute drive from the Peltier house. So we decided to meet up!
It poured rain around noon. Mary Jo gave me a rock that gives you wellness and grounding or something like that.
I could use some wellness! We left the house at a quarter after and went to Tom Brown park. There I met up with Ally!
Cally and Ally
Ally and I haven't technically met in person before. I met her through another friend and I've only spoken to Ally on Skype. That was really cool. She is shorter in person. We're hoping we can meet up again on my way back through Tally.
We left the park and did some driving. We stopped at a Hardees and I got a sandwich for lunch. It cost like $5.
Chik Fil A is better
Funny enough, Michael and Kry were in Orlando over the weekend and going back to Tally while we were going to Orlando. So we met up! We only spoke for maybe 5 minutes before we had to hit the road again.
It's a 4 hour drive from Tallahassee to Orlando and our flight boards at 7:90. Turns out traffic was terrible today. It was stop and go. I was internally trying not to freak out because we might miss out flight (we still had to get gas, drop off the rental car, go through Orlando security, and arrive an hour early for international flights). We were all sweatin' it.
It rained throughout the drive.
We got to the airport at 5:20 and dropping off the car was simple and quick.
Before we went through security, we had to check in. We showed our passports and visas but the counter lady didn't like the looks of Sam and Mary Jo's visa (she had printed hers from the email, I had a more official looking one with my picture). So they made a fuss about that and that lady was kind of bitchy. MJ asked if she may ask a question and the chick was all "Another one?" all cocky. Bitch, let us in.
The bitch let us in! Their visas checked out. Then we went to security. It was fairly quick and painless. Not to brag but I'm just a champ at going through TSA. Everyone wearing metal, putting their shoes in a bin, forgetting to empty their water bottles, step aside because I got this. I estimated this would take an hour and it took 15 minutes.
We found our gate and were an hour and a half early. Hallelujah!
I sat next to some annoying british children while we waited to board. Their names were Charlie and Alice (I know because their parents kept yelling at them). Aren't those the most british names you've ever heard?
Finally we boarded. I wasn't sure what to expect. My flight to Ireland 2 years ago was pretty good. We found our seats next to the flight attendants station.
We had the complimentary blanket, pillow, earplugs, headphones, toothbrush and toothpaste, and pen in our seats.
Free swag
I was excited about that!
Then we chilled and the plane took off.
Squad goals
We would be flying over New York, the Atlantic, Ireland, then landing in London.
We were offered complimentary drinks which included beer and wine. I had myself a mini bottle of chardonnay.
"It's about to get lit"-Sam
The TVs had movies and games and shows like most flights. But this flight had a chat room as well. I joined and gave myself a proper nickname.
After harassing fellow passengers, I watched Alien to pass the time.
Bros eating spaghetti
THE SPAGHETTI!
At 9:50 we got food. We had the choice between a pasta mushroom, chicken teriyaki, or spicy beef chili. I got the mushroom.
It came with a roll, cheese, red velvet cake, and cheese and cracker. Oh and they gave me another mini bottle of wine.
Looks like vomit but not bad
The pasta was good but I didn't have an appetite. All I wanted to do was drink the wine and eat cheese but I know what road that will lead me to (spoiler alert, it's Poop St.). and I don't want that on a flight. So I did the responsible thing. I drank all the wine and ate all the cheese AND finished my pasta. I gave Sam my red velvet because I hate red velvet with a burning passion of a thousand suns.
After 2 mini bottles of chard I was ready to take a nap. I did some typing and barely payed attention to the Alien movie. It finished around 11:30 and I turned off my lights and took a little booze snooze.
I drifted in and out for a couple hours. I wasn't sure if I was sleeping or not but at one point I thought phone chargers were called tories and that's dumb so I think I was dreaming.
Where the hell are we
I "got up", or decided to stay awake really, at 1:45 am which is 6:45 am London time. They try to trick our brains into not having jetlag and served us a light breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and a hot bread thing filled with jam.
It was whatever. Way better than that egg vomit I had with Maria flying to Ireland. Speaking of Ireland, guess what I flew over!
If you guessed Ireland, ding ding ding ding!
I'm sending my old tour guide Tom good vibes. By now it's 3 am Florida time, 8:00 am London.
We landed in London sometime between 9:00 and 9:30 am. I didn't see anything cool, we had to go straight to passport control. The line was huge and it took a solid 45 minutes. The guy that checked us in was very chipper which I'm not sure was annoying or not. He told us about how lovely India is and where he went and how nice the people are. We shall see.
My passport got a new stamp and we had time to kill before our bus arrived. We had a snack. It was coffee and a bacon sandwich. The sandwich wasn't really my thing but protein seemed like a good idea. They offered us ketchup or brown sauce with it. I wanted to know what brown sauce was and got that.
"Try the brown sauce, it's suspicious! Don't believe me? Ask the dishes!"
It taste like rotten steak sauce. MJ said it was like marmite, that Australian sin paste. We finished eating and hanging out around 11:30.
MJ had booked us a bus to take us to the next airport, so were going to Heathrow. I thought the bus ride was going to be fun but boy was I mistaken. It was an hour of driving through nothing but boring shrubbery to look at, then bland airport scenery. After ten minutes of this I took a nap.
We arrived at our gate at 1:00 pm. There we did some running around and found where we could drop off luggage. We left our 3 big bags at the airport, then we left the airport to go exploring the London Underground.
Train's a comin' down
Sam bought our tickets for I think 6 pounds a piece. I thought this would be exciting as well but nope, it was not. The subway stopped every minute and was half underground and half in a boring part of some neighborhood backyards to look at.
We got on the one to Dillydally or whatever it's silly British name was. Picadally? Picadilly? It took an hour.
Mary Jo had a map and guided us around. I saw a lot of stuff in a short period of time and was not expecting most of it. First we went through some park and that was cute or whatever then we stepped right up to Buckingham Palace.
That girl in blue is living for this
This girl looks dead inside
The Queen Victoria Memorial is right across the street. It's a sight to see!
I like this better than the Palace
We crossed a little pond and saw the London Eye. Every picture of me has the same exhausted expression.
Get the London look
Then we saw Big Ben!
We got closer to that ferris wheel. If it was night I would have rode it.
We walked around. There was a lot to see and I came unprepared and wasn't sure what I was looking at for most of it. I saw a statue of my boy Winston Churchill.
"If you're going through hell, keep going"
We stopped at a pub called The Sherlock Holmes to get a pint.
I got a diet coke instead. The three of us ordered fish and chips and this lamb pie dish. It was all really good!
Cheers mate
After lunch we saw some more things. There was this big statue-
Some road that sounded familiar
The West End
It was almost 5 so we got back on the Piccadilly to take us to Heathrow Airport.
Bloody hell, the train ride was a bore! It took an hour and got crowded at parts.
Ten years later we got to Heathrow. We got our bags and went to check in.
Sam and Mary Jo got in fine, but there was an issue with my visa. Apparently they got it mixed up in Orlando, back when they thought Sam and MJ had the wrong visas. Anyways they said I could forward my visa acceptance email and they would print it for me. But I couldn't get connected to the wifi. Sam got out his laptop so I could print from that but as soon as we opened the internet the laptop died. Mary Jo gave me her phone because she had internet. So I tried to log onto my email from her phone, but my email account freaked out and blocked her because a strange device was trying to hack my email from the UK. BLOODY HELL. So I got out my kindle and that also wouldn't connect to the wifi. Neither my phone or kindle would connect, and I couldn't log on from any other device without setting off the alarms on my email security. It looked like my only option was to turn on roaming so I bit the bullet and switched my phone over.
I was able to forward my visa email to the check in security ad they printed it off. I turned roaming back off on my phone and wondered how badly I was about to be raped by AT&T for having roaming on international.
After that it was smooth sailing. We got through security quick. While waiting in line, I noticed we were surrounded by Indians. It sounds stupid, obviously we were on a flight to India. But it kinda hit me we (us 3) were the minority. It wasn't a bad thing or a good thing. Just something that surprised me. I don't know if I've ever been a minority for being white.
After that we chilled. Our gate wouldn't announce until an hour before we board so we walked around. Immediately after coming out of security you're hit with all these name brand, designer shops like Chanel, Dior, Tiffany & Co, Gucci. I sat outside a Swarovski crystal store and emailed my mum and dad. I got some blogging done and got up a the first post of the trip.
I sat there for like 2 hours before our gate was announced. We got on the flight fine and it's still Virgin Atlantic like the last, but this flight was nicer. Same free swag in our seats but the lighting was cool. It was purple and looked hip and my window had a dim setting so I could black it out.
We left London and we got to fly over it at night with all the lights on.
Lovely
Brilliant
Smashing
It was really beautiful. Something about flying over cities at night gives me an overwhelming feeling of being content. I'm satisfied.
We were given of dinner menu and mine was in some funky language.
What
But they had English for us whites
Reading is fundamental!
For dinner we had the option of a chicken pesto pasta, saag wala gosht with dal maharani (which is a spicy lamb in a mustard leaf sauce with rice), or palak paneer curry with dhal makhani (which in a classic dish apparently. It's paneer cheese in spicy spinach with cumin rice and black lentils and kidney beans). All three sounded good to me, so Sam, MJ, and I ordered 1 of each so we could taste all three. We also had more free wine but I gave mine to Sam.
Chicken pesto
The main dishes also came with a feta and pomegranate salad, some weird crackers with a spicy cold jelly thing, and some creamy yogurt white sauce I have no idea what it was, and pistachio kheer (which was rice pudding).
Everything was really good! Loved it all, honestly, even the lamb.
Palak paneer curry was my favorite
They also gave us mouth fresheners which were candy coated fennel seeds. I popped a handful of those bad boys in.
Looks like candy!
It was NOT candy and tasted awful.
The moonlight vibe going on in the plane made all my pictures look like I took them in a stripclub. It was kind of annoying after awhile.
I watched the movie Get Out and it was really good! It's part scary movie, part dark humor, and had a great ending I wasn't expecting.
Dude get out of there
Then I tried to sleep. I closed my eyes for a little bit and started to relax but then I got major anxiety. I started imaging what it would be like when we land in India and I don't know what's going to happen. I'm scared I'm going to get a culture shock, I'm scared I won't be culture shocked, I'm worried people will see this white lady and I'll stand out in a bad way, and I'm so excited I'm anxious for it to just happen and why can't we be there already and I'm anxious to land because I don't feel prepared. I got myself hyped and couldn't sleep.
So I journaled more. I got caught up to this moment. The sun is starting to rise and the skies are this rich purple pink color so I'm going to end the blog post here. It's been a long day, it's 3:00am London time, 7:30 am Dehli time, and 8pm Mountain time. God I hate time.
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