Travel Day

September 12th & 13th, 2013

My first time flying alone wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, however I experienced quite a bit of turbulence in my journey. We'll start with the night before. As I was finishing up my packing and weighing everything to make sure it wouldn't go over the limits I found that I had to remove a few things from my bags because I was near 10 pounds over. Advice to travelers: use airspace bags for your clothing! It will save so much room! Anyways, we finally figured out the things I would leave behind. The next morning I woke up around 6:30, showered, and left for breakfast and the airport with my mom, Leah, and MK. We went to eat at the Dutch Haus, and headed to Pittsburgh International Airport. I had quite a few layovers in my flight, which made me nervous, but not as nervous as the weight of my luggage. My first bag weighed in at 49 of the 51 pound allowance and the second bag weighed 48 of the 50. After saying I'll see you soon to my sisters and my mom I made my way through security and the terminal where I had to wait for my flight. My flight was set to take off at 9:50, I had a whole hour and a half to wait before it took off so I just sat around. My first layover was in New York JFK for nearly 7 hours. 7 HOURS! That was the longest wait of my life. Once we finally boarded the airplane we had a rain delay for 2 hours!! This put me really behind schedule for my second layover at London Heathrow. After the overnight flight I had to run through the airport, barely making it through customs without missing my flight. I made my flight with 3 minutes to spare, even though everyone else was already boarded. Once I arrived at Newcastle International Airport I was supposed to collect my luggage and meet someone from the school to get a taxi to the university. Can anything ever go right with near two full days of travel? Of course not. I collected one bag and stand there for nearly half and hour before finding out that they airline lost my second bag of luggage. Luckily it was returned later that evening. I got in the taxi and headed for university check in where I was given my key and shown how to get to my room. Once I got to my flat I had to lug my bags up  4 flights of stairs to my HUGE bedroom, where I promptly took a nap. So far, I was the only person living in my flat. After the exhausting flight earlier that day all I wanted was a nice shower, however being that I had just arrived I had no towel and no soap or shampoo. Finally worn, I went to bed.