Luggage Struggles

 The transatlantic plane ride was long and just a smidge uncomfortable as I was the middle of an aisle section. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch a wink of sleep on the flight but the flight did make up for it by having flash little flat screens on the head rests letting the passengers watch recent film releases. I was quite excited to watch the Avengers again and I sat through some of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory.

We finally touched down at Heathrow on Tuesday morning and we taxied for a further ten minutes before we filed out of the airplane. Up to that point I was starting to get some idea of how multicultural London was going to be. I mean I read all the stats about the place and I understand that it is when of the larger cities on the planet. I must say, however that Heathrow was like landing on Coruscant. A reference that most Londoners seem to get, which I will expand upon momentarily. My first true hit of cultural shock was I did not hear a word of English until about an hour into our escape from the airport. That may read a bit harsher than I may intend but for me it was quite a change from my comparatively small hamlet.

After we collected our luggage we had some herculean tasks ahead of us. First, we had to get out of the effin' airport. Second, we had to make it to our apartment and check in. Third, we had to sleep the sleep of the dead. Jet leg was creeping on us both and it showed in the most obvious ways. Getting on the tube proved challenging . We had four failed attempts at receiving our Oyster cards thanks to the peculiarities of the dispensing machines. Right when I was about to unpack our suitcases and craft a lean-to out of some of my shirts and ties, Elizabeth got out of the line she had been stuck in for half an hour with a ticket to Stockwell.

So, we got on the train near 11 and the train ride was a further 40 minutes. By twelve we made it to our neighborhood. I had previously told our landlords that we would be checking in at 12 but that clearly wasn't going to happen as I immediately got Elizabeth and I lost. I had only ever google mapped our apartment building so I had a great idea where the landmarks were from a bird's eye view. I knew it was right next to Larkhall park. I mean, how hard could it  be to find a large park in London? Apparently, difficult enough that I hadn't the foggiest idea on how to get there. I lead Elizabeth about 20 minutes past the right turn we needed to take. A grievous error as we were both literally dragging at that point. Elizabeth's luggage wheels broke so we were slowly grating the bottom of it into a fine black powder.

All this was exacerbated by my stubborn insistence that flagging down a cab would be a worthless expense. Since, I knew "it was right around here". I began to ask passerby if they knew where the park was and surprisingly every person I stopped and asked was either "not from around here" or "didn't have any idea but it sounded familiar." After the fourth non-answer I took the hint and walked a bit further on where a sales assistant in a local mattress supply store looked up the directions on her IPhone.

Twenty minutes back and a further ten up the road and we found the park and managed to check in at around two.