Halfway 'round the world: 4/1/12

Upon the dirty ground of London Town

Sitting Airport Alert is a very stressful experience. You and quite a few other people are sitting in the crew room around tables or in lounge chairs just waiting for the phone to ring. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. RING. Everyone's heart stops. Someone gets up and answers and then yells out a name. The chosen person goes to the phone and finds out where in the world they are being sent. The shift lasts four hours and you can either get a flight or go home with just four hours of pay. Generally, at the beginning, you are prepared to fly. Then time ticks on and you begin to think of all the things you could do later if you don't a flight and slowly you find yourself dreading the phone and not wanting them to call your name. The possibility to get a flight exists until the last second of your shift.

Last week, I was sitting airport alert and one of my classmates and possible roommate, Randi, happened to be there as well. We were talking, looking at apartments, reading, anything to pass the time. Randi did not want to get a trip, it was her boyfriend's birthday and he was planning to come visit her to celebrate. I however wanted to get a flight. If I wanted my weekend days off to be left alone, I needed a flight to depart that day and get back on Friday. The phone is ringing steadily and slowly everyone around us is getting assigned trips. Only about an hour left to go and Randi gets the call. She's going on a three day trip to London. She disappears to go check in and call her boyfriend and I continue to wait. Ten minutes later, I get the call and I'm going to London too! I know Randi was upset about missing her plans with her boyfriend, but I also know that we are gonna have an awesome time in London. Traveling the world is great and all, but doing it with a friend is a million times better.

We meet up on the plane and are both really excited about this trip. During the flight we figure out our plans for the day and get suggestions and advice from the other flight attendants. We decided to take a "hop on hop off" bus tour. You buy a 30 pound bus ticket and tour the whole city, getting off at the sites you want a closer look at and getting back on 10 minutes later when the next bus comes by. I am generally not a fan of bus tours because I feel like you see everything but you don't really see anything. However, when you only have 24 hours, and a good 12 of those are dedicated to sleep, standards are lowered a bit. Plus we decided that this will at least give us an idea of what we really want to see next time we come back. So here are my pictures from the bus tour. No hugely detailed information, because we didn't get to go inside any of the attractions and learn anything. Instead, we took pictures and made personal "to see" lists.