This is actually it!

In the departures lounge. Have valiantly avoided all lipstick/perfume/sunglasses/alcohol stands and are sitting on sofas surrounded by sleeping passengers and children with backpacks I am jealous of. I wish mine had flowers on!

Ollie has just about forgiven me for getting my debit card eaten by a cash machine yesterday...luckily we have another one otherwise our money would have been trapped! Which would have hindered our travel more than just a little!

We said goodbye to Mum, Dad, Danan and Dandad about half an hour ago. Dad and Dandad got told off twice for taking photos although I don’t think that deterred them! A big thank you also to Dandad at this point for telling Ollie and I two terrifying aeroplane stories just before we left. I only hope OUR flight doesn’t get struck by lightening and we don’t have a crazy passenger freaking everyone out on board!

I managed not to cry as we said good bye but just the other side of the partition Ollie did have to calm me down. Especially when I shouted ‘I’M STUCK’ whilst trying to remove my belt for security checks...the man in front looked a little nervous! I am practicing ‘being quiet’ at the moment in the best interests of everyone around.

* * * *

I won’t go into details about our flight. There was Bejeweled and I rocked at it as always. That’s all anyone needs to know!

We landed at half past six and left the airport an hour later. Ollie got increasingly annoyed and inpatient but I didn’t mind. I’ve never had my finger prints taken before! Perhaps Ollie was on his best behaviour after breaking his pen and flicking it into the Boarder Control Officer's  crotch! This was especially awkward as at the time he was telling us off for not filing out part of our declaration and interrogating us on why we had no addresses of places to stay! There may have been a smile but I'm not sure! We took a bus to the Subway, got packed onto boiling hot trains and made our way to our hostel. This was NOT a novelty but more of a reminder of the Underground! We asked directions (that later turned out to be rubbish) and walked for about a mile around about four blocks. After a taxi ride in a circle we finally pulled up outside the Hostel. Of course. It was full. Exhausted and looking like a snail that’s chosen to larger shell I begged Ollie to just let us go to a near by Guest House.

So we payed far more than our budget to ‘Victor’ and settled for one night of vaguely decent accommodation. There was free Wi-Fi after all! A ‘Wendy’s’ had to do for dinner.

5/10/11