A Missed Flight Later

April 20, 2018

Ah, would you truly expect any less from me if I didn't screw up somewhere along the line? Although I tried to stay up until 4 so I could just go ahead and leave the hotel, I mistakenly slept.. slept through my alarm and then the flight. When I woke up, I was thrown into an immediate panic attack and cried for twenty minutes straight before calling my mom to try and figure out what to do. I then called Margaret (with hopes she wouldn't be too upset), and we were able to reschedule the flight to leave out at 11ish. Because I missed the coach to the airport, I spent a whopping €43 for the one-way trip there, but I had an awesome driver named John, but went by Jack. He told me that he doesn't normally have very nice patrons, but that it was a pleasant surprise that I was so friendly. The ride to the airport was full of laughter and learning about the laws here in Ireland. 

Surprisingly, checking in for my flight was easy and I was able to get through security like a breeze. Once I found my gate, I finally purchased my first pop in Ireland, a Fanta, that's actually made with real fruit juice. And you know what? I truly didn't care for it, so I got a classic Diet Coke and decided that I was satisfied. The flight to London was very quick; it was only an hour long including departure and arrival.

Ireland doesn't really use Uber as much, but luckily, London does. Due to my duration in the London area being shorter, I decided to go to a Brazilian steakhouse in Crawley instead of going all the way into London. The meat wasn't too bad, but I definitely would not return to the restaurant, the lamb really threw me off and I was not impressed. After departing from the restaurant, I decided to go and check out the shopping mall and on the way there, I walked through a beautiful little park full of people, flowers, and trees. It was a pleasant view and then I found the mall. It was pretty typical walking through and it sounds rude of me to say that I wasn't impressed, but in general, I'm not impressed by shopping anymore. As soon as I could, I ran out of the mall and decided to explore a little more. 


I walked around and could hear water, so I walked until I found where the noise was coming from, and damn, did I miss out. There was a public square with a fountain where all of the children were running around and playing. It was 74 degrees in Crawley that day, and the kids were LOVING it! Once again, I heard sounds and began following the trail to find it. Surprisingly, I came upon a young musician named Tim Newman. He was 17 and had an incredible singing voice, so of course, I dropped some money into his guitar case and continued to take a video of him. If you want to give him a listen, check out this video. Letting other visitors surround him, I decided to walk on to see if the Lush was open, by no surprise, it was not. Stores close extremely early in the UK and Ireland, and the closing time is all dependent on what day it is. In my personal stupor, I decided it was time to head back to the Gatwick airport and settle in before my flight.