| John and I anxiously waited for the
beginning of S2K by counting down the months. This was John's first
trip abroad since a youthful experience in Egypt during middle school. As
you might imagine, he could hardly contain his glee in spending nearly 3
weeks traveling around Europe with his roommate, yours truly. We arrived without incident and were met at the airport by our lovely hosts, Vickie and Tony. Like an old married couple, they were late due to arguing over driving directions to Heathrow. Regardless, we were thrilled to see them and to officially begin S2K. |
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| We made a short trip to a lovely
area of London called Madison. It's almost like a resort on the outskirts
of London with a narrow river running through it. There's lots of
popular shopping in this area as well but we were a bit drained from the
flight. So, after a brief lunch and look around, we returned to Tony's
flat for a nap. That evening, we went to the West End for some authentic club hopping with a full crew of Brits and had a great time! Riina, a friend of a friend from Finland, also met us out that night. Around 3 am, in a taxi traveling through London, we were fortunate enough to drive by Big Ben with a whisp of sunlight across the horizon. It is a memory that I will never forget. |
| Due to our jetlag and long evening
out, we didn't wake up until after lunch. Like being late to your
first day of class, we quickly dressed and made our way to central London. It was a spectacular day without a cloud in the sky. I had spent 2 full weeks in London before and never had a day even close to this. Buoyed by our good fortune, we walked all around to see the sights and snap some great photos. London is quite an impressive city but I wonder what it was like before the war... Nevertheless, we had a fantastic day and saw Big Ben exactly 12 hours after our first glimpse. |
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With incredible luck, we happened
to be in London on the night England played Germany in the pool play for
the European Soccer Championship. England had a poor history of losing
every time to the Germans for 30+ years so this was a huge match. John, Tony and I met Matt, Steve, James and Jimmy at the Hobgoblin to watch this epic derby. The atmosphere was tense an hour before the match began and as the beer flowed, the crowd was more restless than a 5 o'clock friday traffic jam. The match was a see-saw affair until late in the game when Alan Shearer headed home a long range free kick to stake England to a 1-0 lead. The English fans erupted in unison as 30 years of tears were wiped away with one fell swoop. After the match ended, we were in a jubilant mood and continued our evening at a club called Mass. There were 6 stories in this building and each one had a dance floor. We spent the first few hours in the same room talking to a variety of people but as the round count increased, common sense was decreasing at a much faster rate. |
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| Around 4 in the morning, I stumbled
out of the club alone and found numerous taxi drivers as well as Mass patrons
relaxing on the lawn. My world was spinning like a top and I couldn't
find any of my cronies so I found a nice bench to park myself on. The sun was quickly rising and I was a little disoriented. After an hour of alternately snoozing and scanning, I spotted Tony exiting the club. I raced across the park and joined him in a taxi for the short ride home. Neither of us had seen John in quite a while. In preparation for just such a situation, we had each taken Tony's address written on a business card so there was a good change that John was thinking clearly enough to find his way home. As we reached Tony's front door, our suspicion was right on. John was sleeping on the stairs, curled up into a fetal position. With a punch in the gut, John jumped to his feet. After a few minutes of harrassment, we all went to sleep. |
| By the time we rose from our post-club
sleep, it was already noon. Another beautiful day was passing us by
so we gathered the troops and made our way to the pub for a brilliant sunday
brunch. Spending our remaining hours in London leisurely eating brunch turned out to be a mistake. What we didn't know at this point was that all 3 major airports in London were shut down the previous day due to a software problem. This caused mass havoc at all the airports when flights resumed that Sunday morning. Another mistake was trying to catch a train to the tube to reach Heathrow in 2 hours. This was nearly a disastrous decision |
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| By the time we reached Heathrow, it
had cost us over 40 pounds, which is what a taxi would have cost, and we
were 15 minutes from our flight's departure. Unfortunately, the lines
were ridiculously long and British Airways had long since before given our
seats to other passengers. Because we were catching a midnight train
from Oslo to Tronheim that night, we were in quite a pickle. If we
missed that train, we would also miss our connection to the coastal steamer
for the trip to Bergen. We paced the airport for about 3 hours trying to receive seat assignments on the sold out 8 pm flight. We were persistent in asking the gate agents about the status of the flight. A glimmer of hope shone when we learned that a group of 15 had not checked in yet, therefore opening many seats for the stand by customers. About 20 minutes before the departure time, we were given seat assignments. Shortly thereafter, the group of 15 arrived at the gate but were turned away as their seats had been reallocated. What comes around, goes around! The trip was saved and we would not make such a mistake again. |