So for those of you who don’t know, I WENT HOME!
Ok so I didn’t go home for good, but I did go home for a few days for one of my best friend’s wedding. I had knowledge of this before launch, but I didn’t book my flights until the second week of Nepal. The whole adventure of heading home has felt like blink, over in an instant and now back to life in India.
When I booked my flights, I ended up getting a really good deal with Kiwi.com. Granted, most of the layovers were short, but for the price I couldn’t pass it up. The flights were Imphal to New Delhi to Dubai to London to Boston. On the way back it was Boston to Barcelona to Kiev to New Delhi to Imphal. So a lot of layovers, a lot of flight hopping, a lot of travel and time changes.
My flight to Boston didn’t exactly go as planned. Online check-in was not an option for any of my flights, so that meant no boarding passes until I checked-in in person. Every time I switched flights I would have to leave the airport, sometimes switch terminals, check-in, go through security, and find my gate. It was a long, physically and emotionally wearing process.
On my 9 hour layover in Dubai, my plane ended up getting delayed three hours. That meant that my 4 hour layover in London just turned into an hour. The entire flight there I prayed and prayed that I wouldn’t miss my last flight home. I think I scared the passenger next to me with all my twitching and sweating. When the plane landed, we were delayed another few minutes because a paramedic had to come on the plane to help a passenger. Once the doors were opened, I booked it to check-in. Like those crazy people you see on television running in the airport so they don’t miss their flight, that was me. I had to switch terminals and in order to do that I had to call a bus because the busses to terminals stopped running after 2pm. Then I had to run to customs and then check-in.
I missed check-in by two minutes. Two minutes.
In my flip flops, orange stripped pants, puffy jacket, sweat, and baggy eyes from not having slept in two days, I sank to the ground and ugly cried. As one would do if they missed their final flight home. The only flight to Boston that was reasonably priced was for the next day at 4pm. I ugly cried some more. I called my parents to see what I should do and they told me they would contact kiwi on my behalf. I had an hour to decide on the plane ticket before the price went up to the full price, so I inevitably bought the ticket. After I bought the ticket, my parents hear back from kiwi and I got a place to stay for the night, money for food and a free flight.
So there, my 4 hour layover in London turned into 25 hours.
I didn’t end up adventuring in London. One, because I just spent all my money on a plane ticket home and two, was because I think I slept most of it. But by the looks of London, I definitely want to go back soon.
To sum up my time in London, I will put it like this: It was like being in a BBC movie with no subtitles. Beautiful, but hard to understand.
Stay tunned for another blog about my time actually being home!
