London Pt. 2
- Tara Larkai
- Mar 8, 2014
- 3 min read
This was my third time in London and I had never been treated like this before for any apparent reason. So I told him through school. Of course his follow up question was, “What school and where?” At this point, I was pissed off! I felt violated as he was treating me like a criminal. I asked him, “Are you serious?” Yes! He was serious! I unwillingly told him from Ghana with a noticeable frown on my face. He then stamped my passport and gave it back to me. I rolled my eyes and snatched the passport from him. I then said to myself, this is probably going to be my last time in London for a very long time.
This time around in London, Chloe and I did some touristy stuff since our previous trips to London were more of family and friend time. We explored the “tube” by ourselves instead of enduring London traffic. It was quite easier than we thought and people were helpful. We spent our time in London exploring attractions such as “London eye”, the famous Harrods and local eateries. It was fun times.
Chloe’s story…
The second leg of our trip was officially starting. After spending a few days in London, we were excited to leave for Barcelona. Our host had arranged for a taxi to pick us up and drop us off at Gatwick airport. After much debate on what time to actually head out, "I suggest three hours in advance", said the girlfriend of the host. "oh no, 2 hours is fine" said the host, we decided on three hours just to give ourselves enough time to beat any unforeseen traffic. The journey was going well till about halfway through the trip when I reached into my bag for a piece gum and realized, "Omg, I forgot my passport". I turned to look at Tara and the look on her face was that of indifference. Sorta like, you're in this alone buddy lol. What ensued after was a back and forth on if we should turn around, have someone go pick up the passport and meet us there and other very unlikely to pan out scenarios. Finally I decided to go the airport to drop off Tara so that if it turned out that I had to pay a new ticket the cost would be for one not two.
So we arrive into Gatwick, Tara goes in to check-in her bags. The ticket rep, delivers the bad news to me. Our flight was the last BA flight scheduled to leave that day. My other option was to fly out of Heathrow, and then he hit me with the final blow. I'd have to pay for a new ticket at a cost of 300 POUNDS (or some obscene amount like that)!!! Mind you, I had bought our tickets months in advance at a fraction of that. That amount seemed ludicrous to me. I had calculated money for incidentals but there was no way I was prepped for such an amount. I started getting anxious and thinking, I'll probably have to swim to meet up Tara in Barcelona at this point.
But no, I came up with plan B. ride back with the taxi driver to go pick up the passport, have him drop me off and then find the cheapest EasyJet flight out. Simple right? NO ! Nothing is ever that simple when it comes to travel. On the ride back, I kept thinking to myself, how could you forget your passport? How, How, HOW!! That's the most important thing you keep strapped on you at all times!! On the ride back, traffic was beginning to form, it had started to rain harder and the driver's persistent questioning on the where, why, hows was not helping matters or my mood. Finally we arrived into Woolich and I dashed into the house so fast. One, to get away from that pest of a driver and two to make sure the passport was intact at where I hoped I had left it. Luckily it was. Seems like an already eventful morning right? Well brace yourself, because my real hustle to get to Barcelona had yet to begin.
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