June 6^th (Wednesday)

           It’s nearing the end of our first travel day, destination: Chitokoloki, Zambia. I started off yesterday from home in Englehart, Ontario. Dad drove me the 5 ½ hours to Newmarket to stay with Heidi and Oliver for the afternoon because Dad had to get back home in a decent time. This was so that he could get up for work early the next morning and my flight wasn’t leaving until 11:00pm. Heidi kindly offered to take me to the airport from her place. So I spent a few hours with them, Ollie was a bit fussy (or a “grumpus” as Heidi referred to him) but still extremely cute! Heidi and I decided to make stewed rhubarb and strawberries for the first time. We were unsure what the exact amounts were for the recipe. I texted Mum and she replied, “I just add enough strawberries until the colour looks right.” Well, I guess it’s not an exact science but something you inherently know… Heidi ended up creating a delicious stewed rhubarb sauce, although a little soupier looking than normal. We happily had the sauce on vanilla ice cream for dessert. This was how I was able to swallow (rather, ingest, as I actually had to crush) my first malaria pill.

I then met up with Fiona and Nicole and found them quite easily when I entered the Terminal at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. We breezed through security and got settled at the gate. We made sure to take pictures, we had all been instructed by numerous people to properly document our trip. We didn’t care that we were acting like giddy young girls like it was our first time travelling. In some ways it was a first for us. It was Nicole’s first flight of any kind, crazy right? Her first flight is a 7 hour trip to London, England! It was my first time travelling to a different continent (Europe and Africa), and it was Fiona’s first time travelling without her family. Off we flew in the British Airways plane, it was massive! We flew overnight and with the time change we arrived 10:00am London time. During the flight we marvelled when the cabin crew offered us a supper meal at 12:00pm our time (EST) and 5:00am London time. We were thoroughly confused by this midnight “snack”. Fiona was quite dazed as she had been awaken out of a somewhat restful sleep. Overall, we had a safe first flight.

We arrived at the Heathrow airport and went about purchasing tickets on the Heathrow Express train so as to reach central London as quickly as possible. We got to Paddington Station around 11:30am and made our way down the street to find the nearest Golden Trails bus office to redeem our tickets that we purchased online the evening before at Pearson. But when we got to the office we waited at least a half hour while another customer was arguing about the prices of the different tours they were interested in. Nicole thought it was strange that some people thought the prices were negotiable (she wondered aloud passive aggressively to no avail). Therefore, our frustration was evident as they finally concluded their conversation and we had watched our precious time tick away. After all was said and done at the bus office we were waiting for what felt like nearly an hour for the Golden Trails Hop-on-Hop-off bus to come to our stop. We were stuck spending the time people watching and taking in the sights and sound of a congested London street. We were thankful though in that moment. Thankful for a beautiful sunny warm day (20°C) with a wonderful early summer breeze. Despite the obstacles we were in high spirits once again and we thoroughly enjoyed our whirlwind tour of London on the top of the double decker Hop-on-Hop-off bus. We took lots of pictures and soaked in the sun, however, we didn’t quite have enough time to get off and visit the sites. We made sure to take pictures in front of the red phone booths that are nearly on every corner. They are so iconic we couldn’t pass up the opportunity, because did you even visit London if you didn’t take a picture in front of a red phone booth? We also JUST missed seeing Buckingham Palace (we were being responsible and had to return to the airport to make our next flight).

On the return to the Heathrow airport we took the cheaper way (6£) via the underground tube. We actually managed to navigate the known to be confusing underground train lines. We left Victoria station and transferred to Piccadilly Line at South Kensington station and took it all the way to terminal 5 at Heathrow. Once there we went through security once again. Other than forgetting to empty my water bottle we had no issues. However, Nicole discovered after we had picked up our carry-on bags we had left at a locker to keep for us while we toured London that she was missing her phone! So she went to customer services and only received minimal assistance to locate it. So they left her with a number to call later to check if they found it and a web address to fill out a form describing the lost item. We then went to get something to eat which ended up being food from an airport store. We each had a chicken tikka wrap and agreed that it was delicious and I think we were so hungry that nearly anything would have appealed to us so at least it was something of substance. Once the gate was announced for our connecting flight we made our way there. Later, it was revealed that our flight was going to be delayed 2 hours. That made us worry that we would miss the next connecting flight. //

P.S. On the tube during the journey back it was sweltering and we were hungry and tired. So much so that Nicole kindly shared her Clif bar (it was the only food that we had between the 3 of us). By “sharing” I mean that what we did was Nicole took a bite of her bar, passed it to Fiona who took a bite, and then passed the bar to me and I took a bite and so on until it was finished. We got some strange looks from people but we didn’t care, we were desperate.