We’re Here

This is the obligatory post where I annouce our arrival to the new town, discuss the joy mixed with paralizing terror that is felt when you realize that you know litterally one person in an entire country and lay out a plan for our time in Dundee.

WE’RE HERE! Alright now that all that is taken care of, I’ll say some things about the trip. We got on a flight in Charlotte on Thursday sure of only one thing, that in 12 hours we would be on an island that neither of us had ever been on and that all we had once we got there was each other. (The “we” I refer to is myself and Grayson Hancock my partner in crime whilst abroad.)

Once we got into the airport, we had to go through security and all that jazz, which should have been no problem at all. I am however not the brightest colored plaid tartan in the country as it seems, and managed to walk through security with: my watch still on, fingernail clippers in my chest pocket, and change in my pocket that I did not know what there. So, needless to say, security took a little whille, as I was patted down and wanded until all these things were made known to me and security… this was not the beginning to the trip that I had imagined.

After the debacle that was security, we managed to find our gate without much problem, only to find out that: A. our flight was delayed almost an hour and a half, & B: despite the size of Charlotte’s airport, there is nothing to do there. Once we boarded the plane and were on our way, we managed to get stuck in a holding pattern over JFK airport and then got stuck on the tarmac for 40 minutes or so. This wouldn’t usually be much of a problem were it not for the fact that when we got to our terminal, our plane was already boarding all zones. So what should have been a leisurely break between flights became a mad dash from one flight to another only to sit for another hour on the runway waiting to take off.

After a sleepless flight over the atlantic, we arrived in Heathrow Airport, with no problems save our exhaustion. We made it to the hotel where we checked our luggage and decided to go find phones. Well, if you’ve never been to London, Heathrow airport is in actuality nowhere near real London, or anything for that matter. Grayson and I manage to find a T-Mobile store and set all our stuff up, and then go back to the hotel to “nap” which actually meant that we would be sleeping for about 6 hours before either of us woke up. Realizing that it was now almost 9pm we both went downstairs and grabbed a bite at the pub downstairs, and set up our cab to show up at 5am so that we could catch the 7am train to Dundee which would put us there at about 2:30 in the afternoon. The first leg of the trip was no problem at all, we made it to Leeds no problem, but when we got off the train we found out that our next train left in 5 minutes from the other side of the station… cue mad rush with 100 lbs of bags a piece across the platforms and up and down stairs, only to barely make it to our train and find that it is packed. Then to the short train from Edinborough to Dundee was no problem.

We make it to our dorm and find everything is alot nicer than we had expected, then get lost in Dundee, because my dumb ass thought I could find a shortcut home. We find our way back and decide to shower and go get a drink and some food after we unpack a little bit. After realizing that no place did food around us late, we had a couple pints (and they hit hard on an empty stomach) and staggered back to the flat to order some take out. Grayson ordered fried rice and I get Kung Pow Chicken, no big deal right? If you said right you would be wrong. It gets here, in a very timely manner I must say, and we get it and are starving because the last thing either of us had to eat was a tomato and egg baggette at Kins Cross at 5am. It is currently 11pm. We get into the kitchen only to realize that there is no silverware at all with our food. No fork, no spoon, no sticks, no nothing, not even a napkin. So we caveman a little food and pass out… and now we are here.