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Entry tags:
I should make a travel tag
Hello LiveJournal. I am on a bus, which is sitting outside of Penn Station, New York, and about to depart for Washington DC. I am also very, very tired. In a happy way, though.
I got up at 5 am GMT to catch a bus out of Southampton at 6:45 am. Went to Heathrow, tried to get on my plane, but the plane hadn't arrived yet. Or at least that's what they told us. I think that the delay was actually caused by some sort of security scare, because the thoroughness of security on that flight was ridiculous. Either that, or it was because I was traveling with US Airways. They did a security check before check-in (yes, that was before I dropped off my bag; I boggled), then there was the normal security check, and then there was another security check at the gate, where they went through everybody's carry-on luggage. I've never traveled with US Airways before; are those kinds of security checks normal on their flights?
They were also really suspicious of me both at the pre-check-in check and at customs and immigrations when I'd finally arrived in Philadelphia after all. (The plane ended up taking off with about an hour delay, but we arrived only seven minutes late. I think we had good weather conditions.) Anyway, they really didn't like the fact that I was a German citizen traveling from the UK to the US. The woman at Heathrow airport asked me for an ID issued by the UK. What? I'm an EU citizen. I have an EU passport, issued in Germany, since that's my country of origin. I also have my German ID card, but I am not a citizen of the UK. I'm not even a permanent resident. So why would I have an ID issued by the UK?
Turned out my student ID was enough. There's a picture on it, but not my complete last name. My uni always insists of putting all three of my names on all documents, and Martha Barbara Sophie takes up the width of that little card, so my last name is only half on it. But the airport lady was happy, so I was happy as well. Until the guy at customs and immigration in Philadelphia wouldn't stop eying me and asking pointed questions that basically boiled down to "what the hell are you doing back in this country so soon after you left?". I was like, um. Visiting a friend? Really, I don't plan on staying. I just want to see this friend of mine. Please?
Well, he let me through eventually--with about 10 minutes left to catch my connecting flight; which left from Terminal F, while I'd arrived at Terminal A. I hate running with suitcases. I hate it even more when you run, manage to rush through security--oh, by the way, despite the super-thorough security, both security checks; the one in Heathrow and the one in Philly, missed my insulin pump. Seriously, that thing gets missed 70% of the time. Kinda scary.--so, you've run through the airport, stuffed your belt into your back instead of put it back on after security, and you arrive at your departure gate just in time for your flight, and then you find out that your flight is delayed. That has happened to me so many times already. But you can never risk not running, because the one time you do, the flight won't be delayed. Obviously.
Anyway, so my second flight was delayed as well--also due to the aircraft arriving late; but this time, I actually believed it--but we did get to board eventually. And then got to sit in the airplane for about an hour and wait. Due to weather conditions, La Guardia, my destination airport, had to close one of their runways--apparently, there were very strong winds today, and I think they were worried that the planes might get blown into the ocean, or something--so there were delays all over the map. This annoyed me a little bit, because the flight itself shouldn't have been longer than maybe half an hour--and it's actually a horrible detour, going via New York if you want to get from Philly to Washington. It was cheaper this way, though.
So eventually, I arrived in New York, got off the plane, and found my bag. By that time it was around 8 pm--local time; so since I'd gotten up at 5 am London time, I'd been awake for 19 hours at that point. And I hadn't slept. For some reason, I wasn't able to sleep on the plane at all this time around. I caught the M60 bus and the W train to Times Square where I met![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
onceforluck. Yay! I met her last September, and she's a lot of fun to hang out with. She bought me dinner, which I was eternally grateful for--for some reason, the two ATM's I'd tried refused to take my card, so I was living on the 10 bucks that I'd still left over from my visit in September, and ten bucks isn't much if you're having dinner at Times Square. So, dinner, at an Italian restaurant with a very fast-talking waiter and blinky sparkly Times Square in front of the window. The sparkliness still does impress me. And onceforluck is still fun to talk to. Thanks for the evening! :)
Then I walked down to Penn Station to catch my bus, and now I'm somewhere on my way out of New York. It's 11:30 pm, I'm very tired, and won't be arriving until 3:20. BUT WHEN I DO I WILL FINALLY GET TO SEEmind_the_tardis. You know how you get moments when you're doing Epic Journeys like this when you just want to slap yourself for not staying at home in your comfortable, familiar flat? Well, every time that happened today I just thought of the fact that I'd get to see mind_the_tardis at the end of this, which never once failed to cheer me up. Cheesy, but true. <3
. . . I will sign off now and try and get some sleep. Sorry for the incoherent ramble. Feel more than free to skip. The gist of it is really, I'm in the US and I will get to see my girlfriend in about four hours, which are both good things. Good-night, everyone.
comment on LJ
I got up at 5 am GMT to catch a bus out of Southampton at 6:45 am. Went to Heathrow, tried to get on my plane, but the plane hadn't arrived yet. Or at least that's what they told us. I think that the delay was actually caused by some sort of security scare, because the thoroughness of security on that flight was ridiculous. Either that, or it was because I was traveling with US Airways. They did a security check before check-in (yes, that was before I dropped off my bag; I boggled), then there was the normal security check, and then there was another security check at the gate, where they went through everybody's carry-on luggage. I've never traveled with US Airways before; are those kinds of security checks normal on their flights?
They were also really suspicious of me both at the pre-check-in check and at customs and immigrations when I'd finally arrived in Philadelphia after all. (The plane ended up taking off with about an hour delay, but we arrived only seven minutes late. I think we had good weather conditions.) Anyway, they really didn't like the fact that I was a German citizen traveling from the UK to the US. The woman at Heathrow airport asked me for an ID issued by the UK. What? I'm an EU citizen. I have an EU passport, issued in Germany, since that's my country of origin. I also have my German ID card, but I am not a citizen of the UK. I'm not even a permanent resident. So why would I have an ID issued by the UK?
Turned out my student ID was enough. There's a picture on it, but not my complete last name. My uni always insists of putting all three of my names on all documents, and Martha Barbara Sophie takes up the width of that little card, so my last name is only half on it. But the airport lady was happy, so I was happy as well. Until the guy at customs and immigration in Philadelphia wouldn't stop eying me and asking pointed questions that basically boiled down to "what the hell are you doing back in this country so soon after you left?". I was like, um. Visiting a friend? Really, I don't plan on staying. I just want to see this friend of mine. Please?
Well, he let me through eventually--with about 10 minutes left to catch my connecting flight; which left from Terminal F, while I'd arrived at Terminal A. I hate running with suitcases. I hate it even more when you run, manage to rush through security--oh, by the way, despite the super-thorough security, both security checks; the one in Heathrow and the one in Philly, missed my insulin pump. Seriously, that thing gets missed 70% of the time. Kinda scary.--so, you've run through the airport, stuffed your belt into your back instead of put it back on after security, and you arrive at your departure gate just in time for your flight, and then you find out that your flight is delayed. That has happened to me so many times already. But you can never risk not running, because the one time you do, the flight won't be delayed. Obviously.
Anyway, so my second flight was delayed as well--also due to the aircraft arriving late; but this time, I actually believed it--but we did get to board eventually. And then got to sit in the airplane for about an hour and wait. Due to weather conditions, La Guardia, my destination airport, had to close one of their runways--apparently, there were very strong winds today, and I think they were worried that the planes might get blown into the ocean, or something--so there were delays all over the map. This annoyed me a little bit, because the flight itself shouldn't have been longer than maybe half an hour--and it's actually a horrible detour, going via New York if you want to get from Philly to Washington. It was cheaper this way, though.
So eventually, I arrived in New York, got off the plane, and found my bag. By that time it was around 8 pm--local time; so since I'd gotten up at 5 am London time, I'd been awake for 19 hours at that point. And I hadn't slept. For some reason, I wasn't able to sleep on the plane at all this time around. I caught the M60 bus and the W train to Times Square where I met
onceforluck. Yay! I met her last September, and she's a lot of fun to hang out with. She bought me dinner, which I was eternally grateful for--for some reason, the two ATM's I'd tried refused to take my card, so I was living on the 10 bucks that I'd still left over from my visit in September, and ten bucks isn't much if you're having dinner at Times Square. So, dinner, at an Italian restaurant with a very fast-talking waiter and blinky sparkly Times Square in front of the window. The sparkliness still does impress me. And onceforluck is still fun to talk to. Thanks for the evening! :)Then I walked down to Penn Station to catch my bus, and now I'm somewhere on my way out of New York. It's 11:30 pm, I'm very tired, and won't be arriving until 3:20. BUT WHEN I DO I WILL FINALLY GET TO SEE
mind_the_tardis. You know how you get moments when you're doing Epic Journeys like this when you just want to slap yourself for not staying at home in your comfortable, familiar flat? Well, every time that happened today I just thought of the fact that I'd get to see mind_the_tardis at the end of this, which never once failed to cheer me up. Cheesy, but true. <3. . . I will sign off now and try and get some sleep. Sorry for the incoherent ramble. Feel more than free to skip. The gist of it is really, I'm in the US and I will get to see my girlfriend in about four hours, which are both good things. Good-night, everyone.
comment on LJ
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Trips like this one are always a lot of waiting around and queuing, except for when you're running for connecting flights. >_>