The Tea was worth it

So recap: RDU-->London (Heathrow)--> Nairobi, Kenya-->Mwanza, Tanzania.

Destination: Nykato, Tanzania (suburb of Mwanza, east of Lake Victoria)

There are 5 classmates who were already in Tanzania: Jade, Brittany, Daniel McMillan, Sylvia, and Amit. Courtney, Natalie, and I traveled together on June 30.

Let me apologize for my poor writing. It's July 9 and I'm writing about July 1. Go go go!

We left RDU on June 30 at 6:15pm and got to London on July 1, 6:55am. We arrived to Heathrow, London, where we exchanged some money for pounds, and placed our bags in airport baggage hold. We bought our mad expensive (32 pounds=$53ish) express tickets that would take us from the Heathrow airport to the Paddington Tube station in London. And off we went!

Our flight was at 8pm, so we had “plenty” of time to explore London. We minded the gap while stepping off the tube and headed for Victoria. We walked to Buckingham Palace. I was kind of disappointed that the guards were far away from the gates, but we did get to see them do their thing. I see you!!! Keke. We spotted the London Eye from the Palace and decided to go see Big Ben as well. London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament: check, check, check. Big Ben was kind of a disappointment. For some reason, I thought it was bigger, but beautiful none-the-less. Bah.

Next, since we decided to have lunch near primrose hill, we decided to go to Hyde Park first. We literally walked from one end of Hyde Park to another end. It was a beautiful day, flowers blooming.  And of course, we enjoyed the lovely British accents floating in the air. I found it amusing that people in London didn’t seem to picnic in Hyde Park, but you would find 3 types of people in the park: tourists who just arrived to London and were carrying their bags, walkers/rollerbladers, and people who would just plop down and lie on the side of the paths. The last group of people was the one I found the most amusing. It’s not like they would lie on their backs and enjoy the weather. Most would be faced down, lying on their stomachs, in an awkward, uncomfortable position. Odd. On another note, I love London trees! Big or small, each tree has an unique personality. Oh, don’t you worry, I will post those pictures when I get back to the States!

For lunch, Natalie’s friend suggested The Queens at Primrose Hill. Primrose Hill is a cute little area. Not as touristy, quaint, and a hip neighborhood. Ah yes, and it was coincidently Natalie’s birthday!! Yay! An unforgettable one it would be! Lunch was pretty good (see pics later!). After lunch, we climbed Primrose Hill to see a spectacular skyline view of the city. A nicely nakie (ahem. He was wearing shorts) cycler took our picture (don’t worry, I have a picture of him, too. Haha).

Last stop: Notting Hill to just see and for afternoon tea (you know it!). I believe if I lived in London, I would love to live in Notting Hill. I’m sure they’re crazy mad expensive, huh?  Such colorful rowhouses, cute cafes, and antique gifts. I was really excited about being in London and having afternoon tea (plus, I love cafes!). We end up going to Charlie’s. You walk through a outdoor path to a small outdoor seating area and an small indoor cafe. I ordered Chai tea and a lemon poppy seed muffin. I buy Natalie a piece of chocolate cake for her birthday. She ordered coffee and Courtney ordered tea. It was quite a lovely afternoon tea. We take our time, because we are only two stops away from Paddington Station.

It is 5:15pm when we leave for the express train. The reason we bought express tickets were because we wanted to maximize our time in the city and the express train only takes 15 minutes to get from Heathrow to Paddington and vice versa each way. Therefore, we thought we would be okay. But lo and behold, the train stops and we’re on the tracks FOREVER! Instead of 15 minutes, it takes 45 minutes!!! OMG! On the train, Courtney and I are passed out sleeping, while Natalie is starting to panic! As soon as we arrived to Heathrow, Natalie is like, RUN! GO! GO! GO! We’re both like eek! OK!

Here’s how it all happened…we will never forget!
We get off the express train at terminal 4 at around 6:20. We’re supposed to check in at terminal 4, BUT we needed to get our bags first. So we book it and ran to terminal 3 like crazy people (OMG, why are they so far apart!!!). We get to the baggage hold and they take FOREVER! Natalie and I really had to pee, but she’s like, “No, we gotta to hold it!” The whole time, we kept going back and forth- panicking and thinking we’re going to miss our flight or telling ourselves that we’re going to make it.

6:45 – we get our bags. Natalie and I had the large backpacks. Courtney has a rolling suitcase and we all shared an HEAVY, check-in duffel for our liquids. Lucky for us we found a lonesome luggage cart nearby. After we packed our bags on this defective cart, it seemed like everything was stopping us from getting to terminal 4. First it was little kids and then hugging people. We ran. Courtney pushed and Natalie and I held onto the sides. We must have been a spectacle! We ran like crazy! We get to the terminal transport train, only to miss the previous train as our cart couldn’t make it through the platform. We had to wait another 4 minutes (not to mention that there were multiple “lifts” along the way). By the time we got to Terminal 4, it was 7:00pm. Our flight departure was at 8:00pm. Stupid me! The whole time, I was thinking Oh, departure at 8pm, boarding at 7:30pm We can make it! I’ve never checked in less than 2 hours before for an international flight. So I did not know that check-in desks close one hour before departure time. FAIL!

We run the whole length of terminal 4 check-in desks and fail to find Kenya Airways. Why? Because the desk closed. We look on our itinerary to find the check-in area. We go to Area F. We put in our info electronically. It prints out a ticket that reads: REPORT TO DESK. Warning: THIS IS NOT A BOARDING TICKET. YOU ARE TOO LATE FOR CHECK-IN, THE FLIGHT IS BOARDING. My heart sank. OMG!!

Fortunately, there was a lady who directed us to customer service right across the other side of airport. We go there only to find Korean Airlines stewardesses. I ask in Korean if the Kenya Airways representative will be coming back to the desk. They point to a lady, who literally just finished closing the check-in desk. The reason we couldn’t find the desk earlier was because they already changed the computer screen to “closed” above the check-in desk. If we were there just 5 more minutes before, we would’ve have been fine. We go up to her to see what we can do. She says, “Sorry, but check-in desk is closed, come back tomorrow for another flight.” We all are in shock.

Then at that moment, she asked us a critical question: “What is your final destination?”

We say, Mwanza, Tanzania.

She says, “Shoot!” Okay, come come come! Next flight to Mwanza isn’t until 3 days from now.” At this point, it’s 7:15ish. THIS LADY SAVED US! She checked us in through first class check-in, escorted us through security and ran with us down to the gate. At the gate, she made sure that our checked-in bags were delivered to the plane in time. If it wasn’t for her, I’m sure we would have been stuck in London for 3 days. THANK you, Lady! Thank you, God!

7:40pm. We finally sit in our seats. My heart is still beating fast in a state of shock. I don’t think I really believed what just happened. Natalie jokes that perhaps we would’ve been safe if we have not have gotten afternoon tea. Nestled in our seats on the plane, I smile and say, “The tea was worth it.” But that bloody express train!

What an unforgettable day!