"Living in Heathrow airport.." a London Travel Page by Deus_ultima

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Let me go home....

After my "spectacular escape" from Holland, I arrived in London happy I was on my way back home. Also, I was basically coming back 2 days before the scheduled date, but was not telling my wife because I knew she was lonely and wanted to surpirse her by arriving early and going to pick her up at work. :)

Then..all hell broke loose..

First of all..it was the european spring break or something AND easter. (I didn't know about the spring break and don't really care for easter) At first,I tought..bah..I'll miss a flight or 2..but it became clear that all the stand-by passengers (like me) were in trouble because even paying customers were not making the flights...

Everyone was simply trying to go to Canada..ANYWHERE in Canada..east, west..nobody cared..as long as we could get out of here. Not only were we far from home..but we we're spending in British pounds which was affecting our wallets in a dramatic way..

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the FIRST night..

After missing all the Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto flights, it became clear that I was going to have to spend the night in London. Because my brother lives in Belsize Park (VERY far) and that the first flight out was at 8, I decided to stay because It just wouldn't make sense to do 1 hours of train, 5 hours of sleep and 1 hour of train AGAIN! So I decided to sleep at the airport..

Even thought I'm not too fond of being surrounded by strangers, I still don't like being alone. So I figured.. "Hmm..it would be nice to have someone to chat with at least?"

That's when I met Natalie.

I really liked her. Like all maritimers I've met she was very friendly and nice (even If she said I dressed like someone from Toronto!!) ;)

After chatting a bit, we figured we could probably find a nice comfy place in this huge airport that was costing us wayyy too much.

She was a bit worried about all her exra luggage and how much she would be overcharged, so, I figured..why don't I use a bit of my pull here..
;)

So I made a few phone calls and fixed everything up so that all her luggage could be already waiting for her in Halifax when she arrived..and at a very low cost! :)

(Ain't I a good friend?!)
;)

We then went to the restaurant and had a half-decent meal but were starting to enjoy ourselves. The busy heathrow gave way to a calmer environment that we were starting to like.

We later went to the bar, had a few drinks and then found ourselves a nice spot where we chatted and had fun a long way into the night. She eventually fell asleep, but being paranoid (we did have some stuff with us still) I decided to stay up and keep watch. Getting up once in a while to go and send emails and go on the web a bit..

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..and the first morning!

Eventually, she woke up, stretching like a cat..
:)

We found a place to have breakfast and then went to be first in line for the next flights..

I was becoming to enjoy her company..but unfortunately (for me) because she was a "revenue passenger" she got priority on me and took the first flight out. I was kinda sad so I just kinda left in a fairly fast manner. Here I was alone again in this stupid airport..

(Here's a pic of Nat saying: "You want to what??"
;)

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How Swede it is! (second night..)

After a very long and boring day...guess what?

I had to sleep at the airport AGAIN!
After walking around, I say this girl which looked like she was into backpacking or something. So I walked up and asked:" Are you stranded here too?
- Yes.
- Want to hang around
- Sure!

And that's how I met Martha! She's from Sweden. And she's definitely not blonde!
:)

So We got something to eat and then went back to the same spot I was at the night before. BUT Martha was very chatty. And she was loud.. So before we get attacked by other people sleeping around us, I figured we could find a better place were we could talk without disturbing other passengers.

So we went to a nice spot were we were alone. But, as we started chatting, the roof was starting to fall on our heads!!

Eventually a construction guy came and said. :
"We'll be working here tonight, sorry, better find another place."

Then, we found another great place. As we started chatting..some woman just came in our section, sat in front of us and started talking really loud (like they all do in public) in her F*CKING CELL PHONE!!

We just looked at each other and thought..:" Ok...let's find another place.."

We FINALLY found a nice spot where we were alone(for a few minutes)

Martha was really fun! She studied theather in some english College and was also into yoga and some technique to do with posture and everything..very interesting!
:)

We chatted and chatted half-way trought the night when we finally decided to sleep..

We got up and Martha took her scheduled flight...

Bye bye..
:(

That's when I said..ok...I've had enough..
So I bought another ticket (so I had one with Air Canada and one with United.)

I FINALLY got on a plane with United around 1 pm heading for CHICAGO! WAAAAAA!!!

Anyways..my hellish trip went like this:

Amsterdam (where I did my escape) > London (3 days) THEN!! ALL in the SAME DAY, I did: > Chicago > Ottawa > Toronto > Montreal..finally...

Let me tell you I was tired..physically and of flying..

I was happy to be hom.e.but let me tell you I could have done withouth all these adventures..

(The moral of the story, inform yourself on the local holidays before booking stand-by!!)