Sometimes, things happen that are completely unexpected. Sometimes, events occur that no one could have ever planned for. Sometimes, there is a snowstorm in London.
Because London (England) is rather poorly equipped to deal with such occurences, British Airways (which transfers via London on pretty much all flights) cancelled EVERY flight that friday night, January 18th.
My father, boyfriend, brother and I were halfway to Toronto before my dad (who has family in England) metioned the snowstorm. Boyfriend made the executive decision to check online for any details, whereupon we discovered that flight 98 to London-Delhi was indeed cancelled.
We went to the airport anyway, just to assure ourselves of a rebooking done nice and properly.
One hour later, we're waiting in line while four staff tend to a huge queue of people, taking about 20 minutes per person. Ugh.
After all the waiting, I was booked on the next available flight: Toronto-Frankfurt-Delhi on Lufthansa, departing on the 19th at 6:30. So pretty much bump up my departure time by 2 hours and delay it by a day.
Finally, I leave. I'm next to a lovely man named Enoch on his way to Seychelles for a buisness meeting. We chat for a while, and I try in vain to sleep. For some reason thjough, I can never sleep on my first flight, an aspect of myself that I am coming to loathe (especially with a 5-hour layover, where I couldn't sleep else I risked missing my transfer!).
After we spent about 1 hour de-icing the plane (note to fellow travellers, DO NOT fly via Frankfurt in the winter if you need to get somewhere on time, or if you mind being delayed by at least an hour), we finally took off. On this flight, I was seated next to a lovely Indian family going on a 6-week trip to visit family in Punjab. The daughter, Jocelyne (8 years old) and I chatted throughout the whole flight (when I wasn't alseep, anyway). She had never been to India, and seemed thrilled by the idea of coming to a new land and meeting her family.
In Delhi, I was met by my friend Tanuvee's mum Amita, whom we stayed with over Diwali break (see this post: Diwali in Delhi!) If you're reading this, Amita, THANKS A MILLION for meeting me at 3 am!
So we got to the house, I unpacked and re-packed for the South (land of 30+ degree weather), and got to sleep around 5 am, to be awoken at 8:15 and taken to the Blue Stone Hotel. There I was met by Annabelle, Caroline, and Maggie, as well as Cythina and Minda (Annabelle and Maggie's mums) and Mark & Annie, our tour guides from Woodstock.
Thus, the No Regretz winter tour of South India was begun
Because London (England) is rather poorly equipped to deal with such occurences, British Airways (which transfers via London on pretty much all flights) cancelled EVERY flight that friday night, January 18th.
My father, boyfriend, brother and I were halfway to Toronto before my dad (who has family in England) metioned the snowstorm. Boyfriend made the executive decision to check online for any details, whereupon we discovered that flight 98 to London-Delhi was indeed cancelled.
We went to the airport anyway, just to assure ourselves of a rebooking done nice and properly.
One hour later, we're waiting in line while four staff tend to a huge queue of people, taking about 20 minutes per person. Ugh.
After all the waiting, I was booked on the next available flight: Toronto-Frankfurt-Delhi on Lufthansa, departing on the 19th at 6:30. So pretty much bump up my departure time by 2 hours and delay it by a day.
Finally, I leave. I'm next to a lovely man named Enoch on his way to Seychelles for a buisness meeting. We chat for a while, and I try in vain to sleep. For some reason thjough, I can never sleep on my first flight, an aspect of myself that I am coming to loathe (especially with a 5-hour layover, where I couldn't sleep else I risked missing my transfer!).
After we spent about 1 hour de-icing the plane (note to fellow travellers, DO NOT fly via Frankfurt in the winter if you need to get somewhere on time, or if you mind being delayed by at least an hour), we finally took off. On this flight, I was seated next to a lovely Indian family going on a 6-week trip to visit family in Punjab. The daughter, Jocelyne (8 years old) and I chatted throughout the whole flight (when I wasn't alseep, anyway). She had never been to India, and seemed thrilled by the idea of coming to a new land and meeting her family.
In Delhi, I was met by my friend Tanuvee's mum Amita, whom we stayed with over Diwali break (see this post: Diwali in Delhi!) If you're reading this, Amita, THANKS A MILLION for meeting me at 3 am!
So we got to the house, I unpacked and re-packed for the South (land of 30+ degree weather), and got to sleep around 5 am, to be awoken at 8:15 and taken to the Blue Stone Hotel. There I was met by Annabelle, Caroline, and Maggie, as well as Cythina and Minda (Annabelle and Maggie's mums) and Mark & Annie, our tour guides from Woodstock.
Thus, the No Regretz winter tour of South India was begun
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