We're Baaaaaack!

We arrived on the 6th of September, a gorgeously sunny English morning allowing us a clear view of the London Eye, the Thames, and Hyde and Regent's Park as we landed. Ahhhh, it's good to be home. Of course, our arrival home wasn't without a hitch. The night before our flight I tried to check-in online only to find that not only could I NOT check-in early, but that we were booked for a flight on September 25, not the 5th of September as we thought all along! Needless to say, we had a minor heart attack but luckily our round-the-world ticket which has been relatively trouble-free for all these months was easy to change with a quick phone call to British Airways. Also, because it was our LAST LEG of the flight, the check-in lady at Logan Aiport told us she was getting us "special" seats. I was psyched--she must mean we were getting upgraded! Sadly, this was not to be. What she meant was that on an almost full flight from Boston to London she gave us a row of 3 to ourselves while most of the other Economy class members were smooshed to the core. Kevin was thankful for any extra leg room at all. Overall, though, our ticket was wonderful...we were never charged extra to change dates, all the airlines on the OneWorld alliance we travelled with were safe and mostly efficient, and we NEVER lost a piece of luggage! Thank you for the memories BA and the rest of the OneWorld Alliance members!

Now that we are back and dealing with all the nitty gritty details of getting our London lives up and running (such as Internet, I sit in an Internet cafe as I write this and think back to those third world internet cafes we spent so much time in), I thought I should share a recent story about travelling on buses. I really enjoyed travelling by bus in South America. Kevin and I reckon we travelled around 3,000 miles throughout the South American continent and for the most part the buses were comfortable, on-time and smooth. Now, flashforward to the New York city Port Authority just one week ago. What a different story! I went to Greyhound bus with a ticket I pre-booked in order to attend a wedding in Providence, Rhode Island. Little did I know that my bus would also pay a visit to America's favourite pasttime...CASINOS. I was standing in line, waiting to board my bus when the ticket attendant said "Priority to all Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods ticket holders". A huge stampeded went PAST me and got to board the bus first, then she allowed people headed to Providence to board. Now, you have to picture the craziness which is the New York Port Authority. Not a pretty sight on any day, the place was a giant noisy, smelly and unfriendly place on Labor Day weekend. There was about 5 seats left after all the gambling people got on board meaning only the woman and her family who had been waiting 2 hrs for a bus got on board and all the rest of us were left behind! The only option would be to take a bus one hour later that would arrive 3 hrs late because it was a local bus that stopped everywhere. No sirree! I overheard from all the disgruntled passengers left behind that there was a bus by Bonanza leaving in 10 minute that was direct so I leapt on to it and got to Providence on time. But that whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth because a) I wasted $30 on Greyhound b) They won't give me a refund (and that argument with a screaming Greyhound employee is worth another story in itself) and c)Most American buses are tight and uncomfortable (if you can afford it, go by train!) and Greyhound has probably never heard of a semi-cama (a half bed)

Anyway, it was an eye-opening experience that proved, yet again, that the first world has some things to learn from the third world.