My flight to London Heathrow airport was October 14, 2013. I departed from the airport in Addis Ababa at 10 am. My Canadian Thanksgiving was spent in the air. All in all not a bad thing as my final destination would be Southampton; temporary home of Allison and Kat. The flight touches down in Rome for 1 hour to re-fuel. An interesting fact about Addis Ababa is that due to its high elevation, planes are unable to sustain the weight of the necessary fuel to carry them for extended flights. So it's great for those people going to Rome, but for those of us going on to London it's a very necessary pit stop, even if it adds an additional hour to our flight. Having landed and re-fueled we were back in the air for the 2 hour flight to London Heathrow. We arrived there at local time 6 pm (8 pm in Addis). Customs was relatively smooth except that Ethiopian Airlines neglected to give us our Customs landing cards. I remember thinking that perhaps Heathrow doesn't require this paper work? Wrong, as it was the first thing they asked for. So I had to step out of the line and find and complete the landing card. Fortunately I had remembered to get Allison's address so completing the form was easy. No where on the form were any questions about declaring duty free items, so I briefly worried about this, before signing the form and getting back in line. I approached the Custom's officer and handed her the form and my passport. She asked me the purpose and length of my stay and where I would be staying, then stamped my passport and I was in. Well okay then, why didn't I buy more alcohol at the Addis duty-free?? Here I had thought a l litre bottle of Gray Goose and a bottle of white wine might have been pushing it, not! Oh, well live and learn. Now I needed to find the bus and train connection that would take me to Southampton. Heathrow is huge and crowded, but fortunately the signage is very good. Once retrieving my bags I just followed the signs for Central Bus Station. It was quite a ways, but once there I just went to the ticket counter and gave the woman my destination. Visa is accepted everywhere, well everywhere except Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a cash society, crazy for most North Americans who love their plastic. I had to think for a minute, when the PIN request came up as I have not used my PIN since leaving Canada in July. So I was extremely thankful that it worked (muscle memory when it comes to shopping is amazing) I of course would test that out on my first day of shopping and browsing in Southampton, but hang on I still had a 2 hour bus and train connection ahead of me. The bus to Woking was supposed to arrive a 7:01, but it didn't arrive till closer to 7:30. This worried me as I sure hoped that I would not miss the train connection. I kept asking people if they knew when the bus was coming, IF the train would wait and mostly, what is the name of our bus. I kept forgetting the name WOKING, go figure! Anyways it did finally arrive and we were off. Nice comfortable coach and they even have seat belts. We arrived at Woking station @ 20:06 and as I quickly scanned the board I saw that my Weymouth train with stops at Southampton Central was scheduled for 20:10. I quickly asked the attendant who said I needed to be on the other side. Okay, but how do I get there? Oh he says, pointing vaguely down the tracks on the side I am on, you just go up and over. Cool Story Bro! So I walk (fast as I can with two rolly suitcases) looking for this up and over ramp. I see the sign lift and realize that I need to use an elevator. You get in this corridor and there are numerous lift doors designated by Platform numbers. I do not know the platform number so I have to guess and given that I have less than 3 minutes to be right, I hope I am! Phew, it was the correct lift and I am standing on the right platform as the train approaches. I follow behind a girl which is fortunate because you have to press a button to have the door open otherwise I may have still been standing there, blank faced, waiting for the door to open. I sit down in a comfortable seat and slide my suitcases in. The train is not at all crowded which is nice since I need two seats for me and my bags. So after around 55 minutes the third stop is Southampton Central. I am so excited and I start to smile when I hear the announcement, "Mind the Gap!" Kat had written that in her blog, so it reminded me that "Yes, I have arrived and now I too will start living these English moments!" If there is right or wrong exit to go to, you can be sure I would choose the wrong one! Well, given how smoothly it was all going, yes of course I went out the wrong exit. I looked for Kat and knowing that the train was late, I was pretty certain she would be there. Well yeah, she was there, but of course it was on the other side. I determined this when I asked the attendant if there was another exit. He was so helpful and gave me another ticket so I could exit from the other side. That is one thing you need to remember, "Hold on to your ticket cuz you need it to exit the station!" I was no sooner heading towards the lift (not going to fool me again!) when I saw Kat coming towards me. She had suspected I might have gone out the wrong door and the equally nice attendant on the other side had allowed her access to come look for me!
We walked the short 2 minute distance to their flat. How wonderful to be so close to the train especially since Allison and Kat spend a lot of time on trains as they head to their teaching placements. After a mere 30 minutes after arriving at Kat and Allison's flat, Allison arrived home from school. Woot! Hadn't seen Allison (aside from Skype) since July so it was sweet! Allison's first comment, "Ma! You're here in our home!!"
From arriving at the Addis Airport at 8 am that morning to sitting in their |Southampton flat, I had basically been travelling for 12 hours. Small price to pay. I had arrived and my UK adventures were just beginning.
Stay tuned!
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