11 September 2012 - A good day to fly?

First day done and I was quite tired by the end of it, must admit.

I managed to pack my bags over two hours before I was picked up from home. That was some sort of record for me. Usually I’m just closing my bag as I’m supposed to leave home. But all went better than I had expected. I didn’t go to school which ended up being an extremely wise decision considering that the teacher was an hour late and all they did was browse through PowerPoint presentations.

Self-service baggage drop, I’ve now tried that. We were picked from the queue and asked to try it. The trick was that they filmed us doing it and asked some questions afterwards. It was pretty simple. The machine was very helpful and since I still have my luggage in one piece and with me here in London, I would say it worked better than I had expected. But like I told the guy holding his iPhone 4 on my face, it would not have been the first time by bag goes on a detour without my permission. Sooner or later it always finds its way back to me.

Maija came to meet me at Helsinki-Vantaa and brought me a card and a rye bread ultimate snack. Maija’s cards are always awesome. Getting a card from Maija is something everyone should experience at least once in their life! Well, since we had difficulties to say the final ‘see you during Christmas time’ - we tried maybe 4 times before succeeding – I ended up just going through the security and passport control and rushing straight to the gate and into the bus and eventually into the plane. I had no time to do any shopping at the airport which meant that I had no time to buy anything to drink either. This proved to be a very bad thing.

You can buy stuff while flying but I find it a strange thought that I would pay for anything they offer to eat on planes. I understand that I do pay for it anyway when flying more expensive airlines. It’s just a matter of principle, that’s all. BUT they have free WiFi on Norwegian airplanes! I was so stoked. It took quite a while before my laptop connected but it did eventually and I managed to check my Facebook in the air! I was a little disappointed that, even though I updated my status, it didn’t tag me anywhere. Swedish airspace for example…

The flight went fine nevertheless. We got our bags at Gatwick and found the train station very quickly. The Gatwick Express is very easy way to travel between the airport and London Victoria. From the train station we walked to our hotel. It wasn’t that far away but it’s not nice walking with 30 kg extra on you.

We walked down to a pub nearby and ordered some supper. I had a chicken and mushroom pie. It was tasty but after three bites I was full… Sorry. I meant that after three bites I had reached my elegant sufficiency. Oh man, I’m soo thirsty.