Hello again… I am now settled into my room at the University of Nottingham. Granted, all my stuff is still in my suitcases and bag and not one thing is in its proper place, but at least I’m here. And what a journey it has been. Let me tell you, reader, that travelling across the world is not for the weak.
On Monday the 22nd of January, I woke up from a very vivid dream of having accidentally destroyed my passport and along with it my tickets. After having showered off the fear of yet another thing that could go wrong, I prepared for the 30 hour trip.
My flight was at 9:30pm and, of course, my mum insisted on being there 4 hours early (which honestly was great and definitely worth having no lines to wait in). Now, mind you, reader, this was the first time travelling completely alone and I honestly thought I would be absolutely fine being by myself. Of course, this was true in all physical aspects – in regards to getting around with two big suitcases, a hiking backpack and a shoulder bag – but the big problem was being completely alone for an extended period. That’s what got me. On my flight, I couldn’t help but wonder why I was alone and who the hell thought that that was a good idea. I thought “does my mum know I’m alone right now?” Of course she did, but in my mind I’m still a little girl who needs to hold mum’s hand to cross the street and yet I was on a 12 hour flight all alone.
For those wondering how this all came to be, here’s a description of my travel process.
So, once we parked at the Sydney airport parking, we followed the path for departures and found the big board with all the flight numbers on it and checked what check-in letter we were. I think we were A. Once we got to the line, the security guard said only one person could go in and he must’ve thought I was having an anxiety attack because I turned pale and gave him such a frightening look that he said one person could go with me and help. For some context, at that moment I thought he meant that I would have to say goodbye then and there, but it wasn’t so. My mum explained that in line and we had a laugh.
Then, I gave my passport to the lady at the booth and she almost made me have another anxiety attack when she said that she had to call immigration on me. After seeing my face, which hadn’t fully recovered from before, she explained that it was because I had renewed my passport in Australia (I was using my Italian passport) and the old one had been made in Italy, so she just had to check that I wasn’t a felon or something. Anyways, a few moments later we were out of the line and we went over to where the rest of my family was sitting and I noticed one of those small souvenir koalas that clip onto stuff, most commonly clothes, and so I took him with me and he is currently on my desk. I thought he might’ve liked to see England as well.
We went to have dinner together in the airport food court and then it was time to say goodbye. I found it strange that everyone was crying except for me – even earlier when my best friend said goodbye to me it was the same. Through the excitement of travelling by myself, I missed the part where I should’ve been feeling sad or nostalgic. Don’t worry, it’s hit me now.
Now, dear reader, the rest of my travel journey is easily one of the most embarrassing times of my life so don’t laugh too hard.
I went through to the other side of the airport where my family wasn’t allowed to go. There were security guards at every corner and for some reason I thought I had to show them my documents every time, so I would slow down to see whether they would come up to me or say something. Of course, this would only end with very disturbing eye contact and angry people behind me. In fact, one person got so fed up with me that he sped walked right past me and I heard him sigh when he went past.
Next, was the document controls, which was the scariest part. I also thought that they had to check visas and stuff but they didn’t. Now, the last time I travelled was 5 years ago with my mum and sister and we were coming from Italy to Australia. In those 5 years they must’ve added some new technology because everything from what I remembered was different. There was a new machine that scanned your passport for you and took a photo of you, kind of like a self-serve counter. After that there were the bag checks. That moved along quite nicely and quickly. Thankfully they didn’t ask me to take all my piercings out (I have a lot).
After that I found my gate and just waited for boarding.
Unfortunately, this first flight, which was 10 hours to Shanghai, China, was quite uncomfortable for me. The flight and plane itself was pretty good, I was just experiencing cramps and nausea for most of the trip, which also impeded me from eating a lot. However, the second flight (12 hours to London Heathrow) was much better, especially food-wise, which I could finally eat. Unpopular opinion: plane food is so good and I love it. I got 4 full meals in total and I can confidently say that 3 out of the 4 were really good with lots of options.
Finally after 25 hours of flights and stopovers, I arrived at London Heathrow airport. Nothing much to do there except go collect my luggage, which was the absolute scariest thing ever! Everyone was crowded around trying to get their luggage and I knew mine was heavy so I kind of just waited until the crowd got smaller. By that time, there were some security guys in vests that were taking the luggage down for us to save time. Bless them! I took mine, got a little trolley and asked around for the bus stop until I made it to the tube. (I don’t actually know if they call it the tube but the sign says ‘underground’.)
Once again embarrassment set in as I tried to lug my 25kg suitcases over the metal bars of the tube (like the wiggly bike bars to keep bikes out of parks). Then, embarrassment as I carried them on because there’s obviously a space between the tube and the pavement and they wouldn’t just roll on. Being from Wollongong, where everyone smiles and is nice, I half expected someone to give me a hand, but no. Everyone just kind of watched as I struggled. This happened twice more when getting into the elevator that took me to the bus stop.
I finally got to the bus stop and thanked myself for changing the time of my bus. I had gotten a ticket for an hour after arriving at London – not merely enough time to get there.
If anyone reading is planning to travel across the world, I strongly suggest being prepared for the change of temperature. Thankfully, I brought my snow jacket with me on the plane in anticipation of the seasonal change and packed my gloves and beanie in my carry-on. I’m pretty sure they would’ve found me frozen to the bench if I hadn’t had warm clothes with me for how cold it was. I have lived in Italy and thought that the winter would be close to what Italian winter had been but I have never had to put my gloves on in Italy. The air was so icy cold and strong that it seemed like it could’ve snowed at any minute.
I found comfort in my situation when a lady came up to me and asked if I could watch her suitcase while she went to sort out her bus ticket. When she got back she was panicked because she couldn’t understand where to go to catch her bus. We sorted it out together and I made sure she got on her bus in time and she was very grateful. For some reason, seeing how panicked this lady was made me feel safe, like I wasn’t alone and helping her out reassured me. If you are travelling, dear reader, be assured that whatever feelings you may have are equally felt within everyone around you.
The bus ride was another 4 hours to the University of Nottingham. I didn’t really have a plan to get from the bus stop to the accommodation at 8:30pm but just kind of went along with it. Seeing as I hadn’t slept a lot on the plane, I kept falling asleep on the bus. You know when you kind of drift off and notice your head drooping down so you wake up startled and embarrassed? That happened so many times at some points I wouldn’t even notice myself falling asleep. For example, at one point I merely blinked slower than usual and I found myself asleep. In this extremely strong sleep, I dreamt that I was being fed some pizza (because I was also incredibly hungry again) and went to take a bite in my sleep and woke myself up. Thankfully no one was sitting next to me because that would’ve been incredibly embarrassing. There was someone sitting across from me on the other side of the bus but I don’t know if he saw me do it. I hope he didn’t.
After a few hours, I started to track where we were using my maps app. At one point the bus stopped and we were about 10 minutes from campus. Everyone on the bus got off so I got off as well, got my suitcases and ordered an Uber. I was in a bus zone so the Uber man texted me to come his way. I don’t know why but there wasn’t any footpath or pedestrian crossings on that street, so I had to walk in the middle of the street with my suitcases and bags coming off my shoulder – just to add to my embarrassment of the days prior. I finally got to my Uber and he was so kind. He helped with the suitcases and dropped me right in front of the reception which wasn’t marked on the map.
Once at reception, I checked in and the receptionist was also extremely kind. He called one of the security guards to come get me with his car which they both said isn’t something they usually do but they would do it for me as a one-off. Maybe I looked more tired than I felt.
Talking in the car with the security guard, he told me that I have a very thick accent that he caught almost instantly. Obviously, I don’t have an English accent but I never thought I had an Australian accent either, coming from Italy. Well, I embarrassed myself anyway because whilst he was talking and trying to make conversation, my fried brain couldn’t come up with any answers. Mind you, this is after 33 hours of travel so at least I have an excuse. I just ended up smiling and nodding for 10 minutes – you could’ve mistaken me for one of the penguins of Madagascar.
I met one of the roommates and settled into my room. Although the room is smaller than my one at UOW, it’s so cosy and warm.
Altogether, my trip was 33 hours and I’m definitely feeling jet-lagged.
I hope you enjoyed reading my travel journey and if you did make sure to catch next week’s column where I’ll be talking about my first day, things to do and getting settled.