London in review

While shuffling through my piano bench, I found a long-discarded note to a former boyfriend. It details the first four days of my trip to London in 2003. Obviously, I did not give this note to its intended, which probably means that I re-wrote the letter and found the second attempt more satisfactory. Go figure. At any rate, it contains minor details that I had forgotten...mainly the sequence of our travels. I remembered things being much more spaced out, but apparently, they were not. I will now relate the letter.

(While in my hotel room at Thistle: Charing Cross...seated at a desk, glancing occasionally at the window and listening for the sounds of the new year)

“It’s the fourth day of our trip, and I FINALLY have time to write. I will save the details of the horrible plane trip until I get home. I’m positive it will still be very vivid. Stop reading here for details...”

(Details: It was my first time flying, and I was a little more than nervous. We flew from Atlanta to Chicago and then boarded a United Airlines 777 bound for London. Thirty minutes into the flight, dinner was being prepared, and I began to think that perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad after all. Above Lake Michigan, the map that showed us the plane’s location suddenly switched off. Stewards began bustling around with a nervous air. Was dinner burning? From his seat at the end of the aisle, Dad could see attendants crawling on the floor. They were feeling for hot spots. We heard a stewardess phone the captain and tell him to make an announcement...the passengers knew that something was wrong. Apparently, the cabin in first class was filling with smoke from an unknown source. We were going to fly back to Chicago and make an emergency landing. I was terrified...especially when the plane began dumping fuel for the landing. I remember an Indian woman on my left...Dad on my right...and Mom across the aisle. My closest friends were scattered intermittently through the plane. Kristin’s face was nervous. Cassandra was overly optimistic. I remember putting my head on Dad’s shoulder and crying. A steward stopped to ask if I was okay, and I mentally screamed, “NO, I’M NOT OKAY! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” Instead of heading back to Chicago, we made an emergency landing in Grand Rapids Michigan. The small airport was not equipped to handle such a large aircraft, and our plane cracked the runway when it landed. I will never forget the sudden lurch of the plane as it ground to a halt. It was amazing that something so large could stop so quickly. I realize now that we were fortunate it did...and have always been thankful that we had a good pilot. The stairs we used to de-board the plane were covered in ice. The airport did not have accommodations for so many people and ran out of food. We lounged in chairs and waited for our new plane to arrive. My friend’s Dad was a helicopter pilot in the army and had been tracking our plane’s progress. When the craft dropped off the radar, he was sure we had gone down. At 2:00 am, another 777 arrived to take us back to Chicago’s O’Hare. We spent the night in a dingy hotel, but I never even thought to look at the sheets. No clothes. No toothbrush. I was just glad to have my feet on solid ground. Our next attempt for London would leave the following day.)

“The second attempt was a very smooth flight. It was as if someone somewhere went out of their way to make things as comfortable as possible for the frazzled passengers. I couldn’t sleep on the plane. We arrived at 6:30 am London time...zombified, but alive. A full twenty-four hours after the arrival of our peers. Most of us were running on four hours of sleep within fifty-eight hours. Doesn’t that trigger hallucinations? When standing still, I felt like I was moving. “
(Note: I remember very little about our first day in London, and my letter does not provide details. I know that we boarded a large, smelly bus. I was annoyed that Ben ignored our arrival and further annoyed by the fact that Jeff stood grinning at us in the lobby. We later discovered that our classmates had not been fully informed of our ordeal. The rest is a blur until we attended a concert that night. I vividly remember my view of the stage and the inability to keep my eyes open. Mercifully, our little band of travelers was allowed to retire early. Nothing else exists in my mind before falling into bed and experiencing the deepest sleep of my life.)

...”We finally got into bed and woke up to the fire alarm! Stop here for more details.”

(Details: A drunk woman on the third floor pulled the fire alarm in the wee hours of the morning. We woke to the annoying sound, but dismissed it and fell back into undisturbed slumber. We were finally jarred awake by Mrs. Hayes banging on the door. Cold and weary, we gazed up at our hotel from the street. I remember hearing stories of the homeless man who got bumped around in the fray. He didn’t appreciate being disturbed by the Yanks who had invaded his area. We were eventually allowed back into the building and fell back asleep. When someone prank called our phone an hour later, Jessica thought that it was our wake-up call. She stumbled to bathroom and took a shower before realizing her mistake.)

“Yesterday (Monday), we visited Hampton Court - the old royal palace. It was beautiful I took lots of pictures. Today (Tuesday), we went to Westminster Abbey, saw the changing of the royal horse guards, ate at the original Hard Rock Café, and walked across Abbey Road. We also took the tube, which is London’s subway...and visited Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. I had my picture taken with several wax figures, including Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, and The Beatles. It’s New Year’s Eve. We stayed at the party in the hotel lobby until 10:00, and it is now 11:45. I can hear people down in the street, but of course we’re not allowed to go out. I hope that you have a good holiday. I tried calling you, but I couldn’t get through. I’ll either try again or email you tomorrow from the internet café. We have to march in the parade tomorrow morning, so I’m retiring soon. Goodnight.”

The parade was cold and wet, but much shorter than our trek through New Orleans the previous year. I might look back through my old ticket stubs and itineraries and try to remember how the rest of our trip played out.