leavin' on a jetplane.

I am officially home. And the journey here was a tremendous struggle.
But, I overcame the airport obstacles, and I am currently typing from my computer in South Jordan.

After frantically running to catch the one and only bus to the Prague Airport, the bus was over a half an hour late. Strange, because it normally runs every fifteen minutes. As we approached the airport, I realized I had no idea what terminal I was supposed to fly out of. Lovely. The terminals are quite distanced from each other. So, I played eenie meenie miny mo, and got off at the first stop. Unfortunately, this was an incorrect decision. And, led me to maniacally run from one terminal to the next, seeing as I only had an hour and half until my flight to London departed.

As I came to the British Airways lines, they were horrendous. I felt little comfort in the fact that they had six flights a day to London, because my flight to the United States left an hour and forty minutes after my first plane landed. So, I stood in the shortest line I could spot. I stood there for approximately fifteen minutes before someone told me that it was only for First Class travelers. [I don't know what to think of this. I was dressed nicely, did they think there was no possible way I could be a First Class Traveler? I guess they have a good sense of who is too student-like to be in a line of that sorts.] So I switched to the next shortest line. Which, after standing in for another ten minutes or so, I was informed was only a baggage drop. [please note, not one of the lines was labelled.] So I finally switched into the correct line, with about 47 minutes until departure. Yikes. Amazingly, the line moved swiftly and I made it to security with about 35 minutes to go. My plane was boarding, however. I made it through security without a glitch, and darted to my plane.

The plane ride was wonderful. Complete with a symphony of about 5 screaming babies.

Then comes the next obstacle course. LHR. [London Heathrow Airport.] As I was looking at the transfer track given to me by the nice lady at the counter in Prague it said: Please allow yourself at least 95 minutes for this transfer. Luckily, I had 60 minutes, or else I would be hyperventilating. [please sense sarcasm there.]

After taking a bus to the next terminal, and standing in line [35 minutes total] I arrived at the security check man. Who, scanned my ticket. And then proceeded to tear it up. I was horrified. Did that man truly just tear up my ticket to Seattle? Yes. Yes he did. I watched him, concerned and intently. He then pulled out another ticket and said, "You are travelling alone, correct?" Seemed like a pretty sketchy question if you ask me. Lowering my head, voice, and intensifying my stare I tightly replied, "yes."  He then handed me the other ticket and said, "Your ticket has been upgraded from 'World Traveler' to 'World Traveler Plus.'

I wasn't quite sure what that meant. But, I beamed at the fact he was handing me a ticket.

Then came security. [remember that time i told you a story about me buying a new laptop charger? okay. it was a universal one, and had many attachments.] I did the procedural moves. Took out my laptop, took off my shoes, coat, purse and so forth. As I walked through security, they said, "Ma'am is this your bag?"

Yes. Yes it was. And I had about 25 minutes before my plane left, so if they could please refrain from checking it, I would appreciate it. But all was resolved when they found out those were actually laptop charger attachments, and not chemical weapons. Phew, glad I forgot to pack those.

I then boarded my plane. Moment of truth. I was riding First Class. [a little bit of anger rose as I realized I could have saved myself panic in Prague, had I just stayed in the First Class line...] What? How did that happen? Seeing as I probably paid the least amount for my ticket than anyone, with a student discount and all. But, I will tell you what: I DIDN'T QUESTION IT.

Greeted with a glass of Orange Juice, smile, and a menu for lunch I took my place in a seat that reclined more than an inch, and had a foot rest.

Needless to say, that nine and a half hour flight was made more enjoyable. However, not so conducive to sleep, because I was next to a six year old girl who loved to talk to me. Which is fine. Because, I still was in first class.

Arrived in Seattle with the intention to explore the city again with my 13 hour layover. But, I then realized how utterly tired I was, and decided against it. I would for sure be able to sleep, correct? Well, unfortunately I was unable to check in. So I camped out in the Baggage Claim area. Unable to sleep, due to the lovely design of each chair having an arm rest, I watched people. Counting down the hours until 4:30AM when I could check in.

Check in came. Glorious.
Boarded my plane. Glorious. I was 2 hours away from home.
Plane stopped. Not so Glorious.
Plane didn't move for 2 hours. more than 2 hours away from home.
Deboarded plane. Scared for my coming home.
Sat in airport for 3 more hours. Changing my layover from 13 to 18 hours.

However. I finally made it home! And it was wonderful!
I have a DISHWASHER. And, the sun goes down completely.

That concludes, completely, the adventures of Kylie in Europe.
[however, I do keep this blog outside of travel blogging, so stay tuned if you want.]