Happy 4th of July--UK style...

Jill says....No matter how well you have things perfectly planned, you need to have a sense of humor. I was to arrive this morning at Gatwick at 7:30 am, with Bethany flying in from Indiana an hour later. (In case you don't know, London has several airports, and that's where our plans begin to fall apart). I will let Bethany fill you in on her flying adventure. Mine was uneventful. Then I landed..........

Bethany says....I was so super excited to get started on my adventure in London. Upon arriving to the airport, I went through the security and went to get my magazine and water. I sat down and watched the planes, people boarding, etc. I flipped through my magazine and before I knew it they are calling my flight! YES! I board the plane sit down and the guy behind me was laughing and telling jokes about the luggage crew and how he better have his luggage! The pilot gets on the intercom and very matter of factly tells us that the engine is leaking oil... but this is normal, should be in the air in a half hour. People around me are moaning and groaning, and I think to myself, "I am going to London, and its either a half hour here or a half hour in the Atlanta airport on my way to LONDON, oh well! " The half hour passes and the pilot gets back on the intercom and states that... "Not only is there oil leaking but that the tire is flat. Sit tight." I am starting to get a little worried... long story short I was put on 5 different flights... my luggage was lost in one of the planes... We got to London and arrived to the hotel and we were told that our room was under repair! We were tired and a little upset. And then... we realized that the hotel that we would have to stay at was 1-2miles away where we had just come. Luckliy we were able to have a bell hop carry JILL's luggage to the hotel!

We were not going to let all these things get in our way of having a good time so we went to a corner pub and reminded ourselves that we were here to have a great time--no matter what! And so we did.

Jill says....Next we are off to our hostel. It is an hour and a half hot bus ride to get into London, and by the time we arrive, we are beyond exhausted and sore. We get our oyster card and hit the tube (underground). After walking 1-2 miles through the city with our luggage, I mean my luggage, we finally find our hostel. All we want is to take a shower and collapse into bed, and we are so relieved to finally have made it to the hostel after all the chaos of earlier. Finally, our bad luck has ended.

I approach the counter, with the biggest smile I can muster and assure the friendly girl that yes, we have a reservation. She finds it, and then leans over to tell me in a low voice that unfortunately there are some problems with the private rooms and they have checked us into another hotel for the night, but our room should be ready by tomorrow. She prints me out the directions to the other hotel, and to my dismay, it is 1-2 miles back to where we came from. :(

I remind myself to breathe..........Bethany and I can barely walk, and I am not very happy that we have to go all the way back to where we started. As nicely as I can, I ask the check-in person who is going to carry our bags all the way to other side of Bloomsbury, because we are not. She finds someone for us, and he helps us with our things, and we follow behind him fuming. Luckily they do have a room for us--for the night. Tomorrow we will pack up our things and haul them back to our original hostel, keeping our fingers crossed that our bad luck is over, and that our room is ready.

We finally mustered up enough energy to head out to dinner. There will be no fireworks for us this July 4th, but hopefully there will be a good night's rest for tomorrow and some better luck.