Departures & Arrivals

Hello everyone! I have finally made it to Brussels!! As exciting as this journey started out, it quickly turned into the worst travel experience of my life! So, I'll start at the beginning and try to keep it short!
This is what my trip should have looked like: Newport News (VA) to Alexandria (VA) to Reagan Airport (DC) to JFK Airport (NY) to Brussels.
This is what my trip ended up like: Newport News (VA) to Alexandria (VA) to Reagan (DC) to La Guardia (NY) to JFK (NY) to Heathrow (London) to Brussels (Belgium).

I left Newport News, VA on the Amtrak, at 9:10 in the morning on Sunday headed for Alexandria, VA which should have been a 3 hour train ride. If any of you know me well enough, you know I never wear a watch...first mistake of the day! I was sleeping on and off, and never kept up on the time (not like I could do anything even if I did know what time it was..) It was a lovely train ride, lulling me to sleep and very quiet in the car I was in. Unfortunately, Amtrak is the reason for the domino effect of my entire trip. I arrived at the correct stop, where I was to transfer to a Metro to take me to Reagan Airport, almost 2 1/2 hours late! The train stopped numerous times, for long periods of time to give way to freight trains that were late.

I took the Metro two stops down to the airport, lugged my 75 pounds of luggage around until I found the correct ticket line, and stood in line to check in while my flight to JFK (New York) was taking off. There was one lady checking people in at the ticket counter. With about 10 or 12 people in front of me, I knew I missed my flight and I had no idea what to do. I got up to the ticket counter around 4:00, and my flight had boarded at 3:45. I start crying, not knowing what to do..just telling the man I need to leave for Brussels today! He calls the reservation line and I get on the phone (for 45 minutes) to book another flight.

My flight out of D.C. should have left at 6:55, but of course it didn't leave until 9:45. We arrived at La Guardia at 10:20, and my flight from JFK airport was boarding at 10:35. I had to get my luggage from baggage claim, catch a taxi, and book it who knows how many miles to JFK airport. By this time my stomach was in knots like you would not believe. I was just praying that there would be some maintenance issues with the plane to London so that I would have plenty of time to get there. The cab driver was driving like absolute chaos on the freeway, with me sliding around everywhere on the plastic seats. I go up to the completely deserted ticket counter to check in, and the lady says to me "Honey, that flight's been long gone!" She called up the gate, and the plane was still there! I threw my bags up there to be checked and I was running through Security and down the terminal in no time! I arrive to the gate and there are tons of people just hanging out, not even boarding. We didn't leave JFK for another hour. Praise the Lord, right? There were maintenance problems with the plane. OH, and of course I have the kid( 12 year old!!!) behind me who thinks it's fun to play with tray in my seat. You better believe I told his father to tell him to stop it..I was in no mood to deal with that!!

So, I arrived at Heathrow right when my connecting flight was supposed to take off for Brussels. Luckily, it being their fault, I just booked another flight to Brussels later that evening. Got into Brussels at about 7:30, ended up having no luggage. Might as well happen, right? Everything else was screwed up..so why not have no luggage too?!

The whole time there was no way to get a hold of Zack, and so I ended up calling my mom and having her email or call Zack to let him know I would be late. He ended up checking my email account, which American Airlines had sent my new itinerary to, so he knew the whole time that I would arrive late.

Well, after all of that stress, I have finally arrived, and so did my baggage the next morning! Luckily, Zack and I will be traveling together when we leave here for Ireland.