Travel Day

Tuesday, October 20th

The day we left Nice ended up being a lot more complicated than it was meant to be; all we had to do was get back to London. Nelly and I were planning to fly directly to Heathrow, and Emily and Katy were going to take the train to Paris, followed by the Chunnel to London. Though at 9:00 AM when Nelly and I were just about to go out for our last French espresso and pain au chocolat my phone rang; it was Katy calling from the train station. It turned out that there was a rail strike and none of the trains were running that morning. Nelly and I passed the phone back and forth trying to calm Katy and Emily down and problem solve about what they should do. It was possible that the trains were going to start up again in the afternoon, but then there wouldn’t be assigned seats and everyone in the station would be wanting to get where they were planning to go. Plus, since the train would be leaving so much later, Emily and Katy wouldn’t have much time to catch their Chunnel to London. After deliberating about flights versus trains, Nelly and I hung up with Emily and Katy deciding to try the trains regardless.

Continuing our morning, Nelly and I enjoyed our last French espresso and pain au chocolat, checked out of Hotel Wilson, and walked to the bus station at which point I looked at my phone to notice 4 missed calls from Katy. Quickly calling her back we found out that they had decided to go to fly after all, they were currently getting a taxi to the airport and were going to try to get tickets on our flight that we had looked up earlier. Nelly and I took the bus and met them at the airport; we were so happy to see them safe and personally I was glad that they weren’t stranded somewhere in the middle of France. It was a relief to sit down together and hear Katy and Emily vent about stressful morning, exacerbated by the fact that Katy’s luggage got pooped on by a pigeon. In the end I think we were just all happy to know we were going “home” to London.

I have never been so excited to get on a plane before! I was absolutely ecstatic to hear the flight attendants of British Airways speak English! Our flight actually ended up being really turbulent, which the pilot repeatedly apologized for as he tried to fly both above and below the currents, but he couldn’t avoid it. However, I think I was so enraptured with the fact that I was returning to a place for the first time in over two months that I didn’t really care if the plane ride was bumpy; the destination was perfect. When we arrived at Heathrow airport, Emily and Katy told us a story about a “plane angel” they had sat next to and met on the flight (Nelly and I had seats separate from them) who ended up being a Christian and was really encouraging to Emily and Katy and wanted to bless them. When Emily and Katy had walked off the plane and were waiting for Nelly and me behind them this woman passed them again, gave them 20 Euro and said they should buy themselves coffee. So fresh off the plane we all went to Costa to have a coffee and a piece of chocolate cake, compliments of the plane angel, and were able to hear all the detail about Katy and Emily’s story.

We were able to take the tube directly from Heathrow airport to Russell Square, which is the tube stop right around the corner from the Celtic Hotel. It felt so good to be back in a familiar setting; and who knew I would ever feel that London was familiar and comforting! Once we settled back into the Celtic Hotel, Katy and I ended up going to Pizza Hut for dinner, which reminded us of our first night in London when we went out for to Pizza Hut with DR. So many times I wanted to say “bonjour!” or “merci!” but then happily realized my brain didn’t have to work so hard anymore; it felt good to be home. When we got back to the Celtic after dinner I picked up a package that a friend of mine had sent me from the US and it totally made my night. It was the perfect welcome “home” present and end to a long day.