Traveling: Gatwick

Well, fine then. Challenge accepted. I had planned to regale you with tales from Gatwick airport, but the whole I-can't-plug-my-computer-into-the-wall thing kind of dampened that. And there was the Polish family...eh, we'll start at the beginning.

Sunday night, I went down to Mass with all of my traveling kit on my back. After Mass I went across the tracks to the Macky for a cheeky pint and watch some NFL to get me in the Muhrican mood. Instead of eating alone I ran into three Cobras who were just there chilling for the evening. So I sat with them and we reminisced about all the happenings of the previous week. You know, the, "My liver hurts, who did we fight on Wednesday, were you there, where were you last night" tales. After a while though it was time for me to go catch my train, and this may sound odd, but having someone to say goodbye to made it kind of tough to leave. I know I'll be back in 8 days, but I'm gonna miss the lads.

So I walked back to the train station at Cathays, managed to avoid stacking it on the icy sidewalks, and waited on the platform for the train. It took me to Cardiff Central, another short wait and I was on my regional train, bound for Reading. I caught a few z's, and listened to music. At reading we had a miserable wait on the cold platform for the train to Gatwick, which was not well sealed, hence not much warmer. So for the next hour and a half I froze to death. At gatwick the south terminal was a bustle of people, the shops were open and every one was walking around...at one in the morning. I caught the shuttle to the North Terminal, it was the complete opposite, it was essentially a campground, different groups all spread out and traveling together.

I found a sneaky cubby behind a check-in booth along the back wall, I climbed i nto this little 3 foot wide nook and slept next to a pillar for a few hours. I woke up in the morning just in time to go queue for checking, went through security, bought myself a fine bottle of Welsh Whiskey at the duty free shop...heh heh, duty. Soon enough our gate was called, and we boarded our plane. Yadda yadda, it's all the same. Then we landed in atlanta, but that's too much to write right now, jetlag+ chunder dragon=sleepytime. will try to keep up better. Cheers.

-jk