Getting There: Day 1 and a Half

Flying to England from the east coast of the United States is really not that bad if you can get a direct flight from Boston, which I did. But I don’t live in Boston, so I had to get a ride from a friend to a bus station in Maine and get on a bus that took about 3 hours to get to Boston. Then I had to wait a couple of hours for my flight to board. And then I made it to my window seat in row 25.

I have learned my lesson about flying across the sea on a red eye flight. Don’t eat the food on the plane. Eat beforehand. Get a bottled drink to take on the plane. Take some kind of drug to make yourself sleepy. Get on the plane. Sit in your seat. Take your shoes off. Put your eye mask on. Put your noise canceling headphones on. Put your neck pillow around your neck. Get your pillow (in my case a Squishmallow axolotl) ready for optimal comfort. I also wore compression socks and a compression sleeve.

So that’s what I did to get some rest so that I wouldn’t be a zombie when I arrived in England at 6:30 a.m. I departed from Boston at 6:40 p.m. There is a 5-hour time difference between UK time and EST time. In the past I was wiped out when I arrived in England, but this time I felt rested (even though I wouldn’t say I was sound asleep when I flew) and ready to go. I didn’t even have jet lag this trip. It was amazing.

I swear it took me about 5 minutes to get through the UK border/customs check. I didn’t even talk to a person: I just walked up to a machine, put my passport in it, had my photo taken by the camera on the machine, and walked out. My bag took about 20 minutes or so to arrive in the carousel. I was ready to find my bus.

Somehow I managed to follow signs to an elevator that had another sign telling me where the chartered coaches were. I had bought a ticket beforehand, so all I needed to do was find the waiting area. I did that and actually hopped on a bus earlier than the one I scheduled. The bus line is called The Airline, and it takes you from Heathrow to Oxford–my final destination.

The airport’s wifi worked. The wifi on the bus worked. I had coordinated with Adam to meet at a certain bus stop in Oxford. I was good to go. I felt like I had about the best travel day I could imagine, and I was doing it alone, which kinda scared me.

Things were A-OK until I got to Oxford and missed my bus stop. I actually saw Adam running after the bus! I waved as the bus driver stopped for a half second and took off. Was that my bus stop? I thought. Yes, it was. Fine, I thought. I’ll just get off at the next one. Well, same thing happened. The bus driver stopped quickly and took off. FINE, I thought. I’ll just get off at the next stop, but I noticed we were now traveling quite far from my original stop. I realized that I was the last person on this bus and the driver was not going to stop unless I started pounding the STOP button, which I did. 🙂 I told him that I missed my stop, and when he asked which one and I told him, he helped me figure out how to get a local bus back to my original stop. He was helpful, and I appreciated that.

So I got on the 15 bus and got off at the correct stop, but Adam was gone! There I was with my backpack, Squishmallow, and large suitcase sitting at a bus stop wondering where he was. I had to eventually activate a travel pass on my phone so that I could text him. I did that and waited some more. Finally, I saw him coming my way! He thought I had gotten off at the next stop so he walked down a ways to find me. When I wasn’t there he turned around and headed back to the original stop.

From there we walked to the room he had been staying at in an Air BnB. He was checking out that day, but at least I got to take a shower and change clothes before we vacated the room and went to check on our lodging for the next six days. We got an Uber to the Lady Mary’s Hall dorms, left our luggage with the porter because it was too early to check in, and then walked to find a laundromat so that Adam could wash his clothes. Little did we think to ask if there was a laundromat on the premises (and later we found out there was).

We must have walked 3 miles to find a laundromat that was open. It was hot, and I had my heavy backpack on me. While we were waiting for the laundry we walked to a department store that has a coffee shop in it. I had an iced cappuccino and some tea. I really don’t know how people drink hot drinks in this weather. After doing the laundry I decided we would take a bus part of the way back to the dorm. We did that, checked in, and found our room.

Our room is a double dorm room: two twin beds separated by a nightstand. Adam decided to push the beds together and move the nightstand. Our room was hot, and we opened the windows, but still it was really hot. We had to chuckle at the size and design of the bathroom. I have never been in a shower so small. I have to stand sideways to shower, and I keep knocking my elbows.

I also was confused as to what this silver dish in the sink is. An ashtray? A soap holder?

After I took a second shower that day, we had our first dinner in the dining hall that night and met some of Adam’s colleagues. The hall is nice. The food is ok. We also have breakfast every morning there until we check out on Friday.

You might be wondering why I called this post day one-and-a-half. Well, that’s because I had a full day in England but missed a half day due to my travel and the time change. It’s really more like 2 days: one in the US and one in the UK, but with all the traveling and time changing, who knows!

I’ll post the next blog when I have time! 🙂