Well, I finally made it!
Well, I made it to London in one piece. The flight was really great. It was on time, the meal was great (can you believe it, airplane food and the word "great" used in the same sentence)! The only problem was that there were 4 medical emergencies on our flight! The only bright side of that was that our flight was prioritized and we got into London an hour ahead of schedule. I had a rough time getting from Gatwick airport to my hotel because the bus ticket I was sold in Vancouver only got me as far as Victoria station, and not to my hotel as I had been told. Well, £11.00 and a 20 minute cab ride later, I got to my hotel! The hotel, I won't call it a dive but it isn't the Ritz. My roomate, however, is wonderful. Her name is Monique and she is a Parole Officer from Moncton, New Brunswick. She had done a ton of e-mailing before her trip with other travellers that were going on our tour, so needless to say we have quite the little "gang" assembled already. Tim is a Computer Programmer from San Diego, California and the separated at birth identical twin brother of Stephen Lazenby (minus the glasses). Meeting Tim made me feel right at home right away. Christina and Tracey are from Melbourne, Australia and the babies of our group at the age of 24 (ahhhh 24, I don't even know if I can remember that far back). Gino, poor Gino is all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil and had a hellish day today trying to find his luggage that Air France lost for him! He spent 12 hours on and off with Air France on the phone only to discover that they eventually found his bag in Paris. They will deliver his bag to him here in London tomorrow at about noon (just about the same time our tour bus will be arriving in Paris, go figure!). Poor Gino has to make his own way at his own cost to catch up with us in Paris tomorrow evening. He's pretty choked, and none of us can blame him.
I had better get going, my internet time is running out and it is now 9pm and I have to be at the bus at 6:30am tomorrow. It will be a tough one as I haven't slept in 28 hours now! I have set my 2 alarm clocks and Monique has done the same. Between the 4 of them we should be able to get ourselves up. Wish me luck! Good night and we'll talk to you again from somewhere in France (with any luck)!
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