EuroTrip 2011 Not-So-Kick-Off

well, 30 to 30 has sorta kicked off... for those of you who don't know that's 30 days of celebration until Elaine is 30 years old. I arrived in Baltimore on Tuesday with no luggage and departed Thursday after a 3 hour wait in the airplane for the whole 18 minute flight to Philadelphia. Once in Philadelphia i was panicking, because we arrived at... 9:49... and my flight to London departed at...9:50... no worried. i didn't miss it. it was cancelled due to airline maintenance. so after standing in one customer service line for about 20 minutes i got sent to a terminal on the other side of the airport. So me and my new on-her-way-back-to-dublin counterpart began making our way to terminal A. while walking through the airport she turns to me and says:

you know this never happens to James Bond. AND no matter what country he goes to they speak english...

so of course i busted out laughing across the terminal and we bonded... which was important becase we were about to spend the next 3 hours in the next service line together. we all bonded, the two girls visiting dublin before their seminar in france started, the woman going to meet her husband on an 8 day tour of ireland, the james bond dublin grandma who i loved, the man from manchester behind us... there was cookie sharing, spot holding for drink and potty breaks, we were a family. after hours of waiting and hoping and hopping and hunger...it was my turn and miraculously the lady didn't care at all... she hadn't even been around dealing with the 200+ other grumpy customers! the earliest flight that could get me into heathrow would get me in at 10 am saturday, 24 hours exactly after i was supposed to be there. mind you all... i only had about 72 hours in London to being with! that didn't get me down thought... but aside from not being too helpful with a flight... my lovely helpful agent let me know that oh there weren't any comp hotels left so i could just sit and wait for 24 hours until my next flight at 9:50 p.m. I let her know that that wouldn't be happening if there wasn't a 24 hour bar across from her podium and proceeded to find my own hotel room. I didn't find one. adam did though! he sent it to me and off i was. I have a great entourage of helpful people that care in oklahoma - my mom was researching flights and adam found me a GREAT hotel room for the price US airways even wanted to pay! aside from the unkind agent, i was in good spirits. I had no reason not to be, i mean, sure i was missing a third of my london trip but the guy behind me was missing his chance to see his best friend get married in liverpool - i was missing a hair cut... and i couldn't let that get me down. thats rude and this was an adventure! after pacing around for a while longer, i made it to the cabs and got to my hotel that i prayed was decent. it rocked. it was just a motel but it was one of two of the cleanest comfiest motel hotels i've ever been in. i snuggled up in my king size bed with 6 pillows and slept far longer than i should have. waking up i decided it was time to discover how sunny philadelphia really is... it was overcast. BUT THAT didn't matter! it was such a cute place! I got all around by train and walking around and when i was finally overwhelmed by guilt for how stinky i was going to be for my overseas flight neighbor and i couldn't walk with my bag anymore... i decided it was finally time to get back to the airport. so... london... here i come (i hope)

one last thing:

dear U.S. Airways. I wont fly with you again... except for that free ticket i'm going to make sure you give me to compensate me for missing my first time in london and a champagne tour around the city. jerks. oh, and you're paying for my taxi, room, and food for today too. because you were mean. i understand mishaps. but you were mean. and i don't like mean when i've been the chipper-est person in your line over a 4 hour wait.

love, mary.