A Very Lucky Girl

To refresh your memory, our flight from Prague to Amsterdam was cancelled so we were en route back to London to make sure we would make our flight on May 1st. We landed at London Stansted Airport shortly after midnight, which really shouldn't even be considered a London airport seeing as it's 40 miles outside of London proper. At this point all public transport into London had stopped running and the first train was scheduled to depart at 5:30 AM. We were exhausted, starving, and freezing. We addressed the middle problem first. Burger King was the only open restaurant in the facility so we begrudgingly got in line. Jordan's nuggets appeared as though they had been sitting in a warmer since 8 AM and my burger was doused in mayonnaise to the point of in-edibility. We managed a few bites before focusing on our next problem: exhaustion.  Since Stansted was so far outside of London we weren't able to get a hostel and resigned ourselves to an airport slumber party for 2....

Our journey began bright and early on Thursday, April 19th. Per usual, airport security at Will Rogers took approximately 7 minutes and we quickly found our gate by 5:30 AM. Our initial flight was delayed by a couple of minutes, an omen of what was to come. Keep in mind that this was Jordan's first flight EVER and we were flying Southwest Airlines to Denver. Just the day before social media was inundated with the story about the woman who died on a Southwest flight when the window popped open. I nervously hoped Jordan hadn't watched the news. She had. However, our flight was uneventful and Jordan took 8 billion pictures of the wing outside of her window seat.  We landed in Denver at 7:30 AM and made breakfast at Chick-fil-A our first priority. Starbucks was my next stop as we struggled to stay awake. Our flight to London didn't leave until 2 PM so we had loads of time to kill. Around the lunch hour, we grabbed a sandwich at Subway and filled up our water bottles in pre...

My sister-in-law and I recently returned from a 13 day adventure around Europe and I couldn't think of a better avenue to share our experience. We both received a multitude of questions of how we planned, executed the plan, and saved $$ for the plan. Do you sense a "plan" theme? Stay tuned, not very much actually went according to plan once we were in motion.  Jordan and I talked on and off about making this trip a reality, but it honestly came together fairly spontaneously. Jordan ordered her passport in January and we booked our trans-Atlantic flights in February, with only about 2 months to go. We decided on April 19th through May 1st, strategically celebrating Jordan's 23rd birthday in the middle! Once dates were selected, destination decisions were made. With this being Jordan's first out of country trip (and her very first flight!), I wanted her to pick most of the places. I had 2 places on my wish list: Nice, France and Budapest, Hungary. After stud...

10 countries. 5 currencies. So many different languages. My head is still spinning and I may possibly need another nap before I write any more words.  It feels like I've been gone from Dundee for years, but at the same time the 23 days passed in the blink of an eye. Before I fully comprehended what was happening I was on a plane in Denmark heading to London and tomorrow I'll be on a bus to Dundee. The greater European adventure of my semester abroad is almost over. It seemed like it took ages to get here, seeing as I've been planning since November. But it finally came to fruition on a chilly night in early April when Laura, Kylie, and I ventured into the unknown.  It's hard to believe it's really me who went to all of those places and had so many amazing experiences. It feels as if I've woken up from an exotic dream where I watched someone else do everything I've always wanted to do. But no. It was me. I walked the dusty streets of Auschwitz and saw ...

After my first night in London I finally wised up and slept with my ear warmer on in order to block out as much street noise as possible. I still heard some but it was more muffled and I slept much better, even on a mattress worse than my one in Dundee. This was Kiera and my last full day in London and we still had several places to go. We mapped out our attack via the tube and started first at St. Paul's Cathedral. Because we went to the service, we didn't have to pay an entrance fee. The sneaky pictures I again tried to take are no match for the real thing. Even if you aren't religious, I urge you to visit St. Paul's just for the art and architecture. I was completely overwhelmed, and although the service itself was beautiful, I could hardly pay attention because of the gorgeous detail everywhere I looked. It was sunny for the THIRD day in a row and the sunlight streamed through the stained glass in entrancing patterns.  After the service we hopped back on the tube w...

As I mentioned before in my first post about London , our hostel was absolutely not conducive to sound sleep. Therefore, on Saturday morning I woke up at 5 AM, almost an hour and a half before my alarm was scheduled to start singing. I used my extra time to Whatsapp Tyler, considering it was only 11 PM in Oklahoma. We weren't even in the same day yet! Eventually I crawled out of bed and located my clothes by flashlight, trying desperately to not wake up Kiera. Today was our split up day, bringing out our equally nerdy tendencies with different tours. I booked a 10 hour bus tour to Windsor, Oxford, and Stonehenge, while she was jetting off to Warner Bros. Harry Potter tour later in the afternoon. I didn't see a single sign of the continental breakfast that was promised on the hostel website so I headed straight to the tube station. I took the DLR to Tower Hill before I transferred to the Circle Line and landed at Victoria Station. The entire travel time took about an hour. I sna...

Last weekend I ventured off to London, England with Kiera, a friend who hails from Ontario. In the days leading up to the flight I played Joey Tribbiani's voice saying "London, baby!" over and over again in my head.  We took the train to Edinburgh on Thursday afternoon because most flights to major cities leave from Edinburgh for the cheapest price. Our flight left at 6:20 AM on Friday so we stayed with Kiera's family on Thursday evening. We read books to young Kate before turning in for bed around 8:30 PM without shame. Our cab was scheduled to come for us at 4:45 AM.  The ride to the airport is a blur and we both passed out on the flight. We arrived at Gatwick airport, south of London. Our welcome included completely armed security personnel meandering with AK47s and dogs. We exchanged glances and hurried to the train station.  We sat on a train for an hour before it decided to begin moving, due to a broken down train north of the station. We finally left Gatwi...