The updates begin

So, I have tons to say, but I'm going to post them in a few different updates just to spread things around a bit. Starting from where I left off at the Calgary airport...

After I got off my laptop, I decided I had to get a last Canadian meal, so I went to Tim Hortons (making it really more of a snack).  I got a maple pecan Danish just because I thought that sounded extra Canadian. Then I also treated myself to a magazine and an ultra travel pillow (it has an extra bit to blow up) because I figured it might be nice to have one for while I’m trying to sleep on trains and such.

My first overseas flight was pretty boring, which I guess is good. I slept a lot, got bored, ate some of the mediocre food they gave us (although the tiny piece of chocolate cake was quite good), and enjoyed the complimentary pillow and blanket. I was better taken care of that I had expected to be. The people sitting beside me (I was at the edge of the middle row) didn’t seem to speak English very well because they never wanted to put their bags under the seat even when the flight attendant came around to ask them to do so. The plane wasn’t as big as I was hoping it might be, I think it was just an Airbus 330.

The worst part about the flight was when I had switched over to the map on my TV screen for the last part of the flight. Our plane got within 11 miles of London, then started doing circles. It went back up to 23, back down to 11 a couple times. I just wanted to land!

This wasn't supposed to be the world's most accurate depiction of  the travel map I was looking at, but it actually turned out looking a lot like it. Circle, circle, circle, then zip out east and sharp turn back. The part that is most wrong is the colours. The original map was green and the plane was white.

Luckily I was already at the right terminal when I got to Heathrow. Good thing because that place is insanely huge, and I had to go through security again! Once I got through security, I was in the giant area that basically resembled a high-end mall. There was even a store selling electronics, although it’s beyond me why anyone would want to buy a 20 inch Mac at the airport. There were also stores like Chanel and Prada and Paul Smith.

My flight was a little delayed leaving London, but it got to Oslo straight away, and I had no problem going through customs. All they did was stamp my passport, and ask me a couple quick questions, but to get into the UK, you have to fill out a form! At least I know now so I can find the address of where I will be staying before I get on the plane.

Next up - OSLO!!!!

On my way!

So I boarded my flight and left town at 2:35 pm after shuffling things around in my bags a little (too big and heavy for them to let me take on!). Now it's a little after 5 (local time) and I'm writing this from Calgary. Not much interesting has happened, the flight went well, and the only funny thing was that a bunch of passengers had to shuffle to the back because the front of the plane was full and the back was empty. I was happy though because there was no one sitting beside me, so I got to have a window seat!!

Unfortunately I had sky-checked my big backpack (with my big camera), and then I found out that my little camera's batteries had died. I still got a couple quick shots as we were taking off, and now I've found an outlet in a corner, and I'm totally pirating the Calgary airport's electricity. The sketchiest part about it is that I had to plug my charger into my international converter just to be able to get it to fit (there's sort of a cover around the outlet). To get the free wi-fi here, I had to sign in through Facebook. It seemed a tad dodgy, but whatevs.

I'll be here for a bit (I'm thinking they'll start boarding in a little over an hour), and then I'll be on my 8 hour flight to London. I've never been on a flight this long, so I'm expecting this plane to be way bigger than any other one I've ever seen. It'll definitely be a little different from the good ol' Dash 8-100's that I am so used to taking (no more moving passengers around to distribute the weight properly!).

Picture time!!