We drove through Holland, Belgium, and France to get to Calais where we went on the Channel Train. We drove to London and it took at least an hour to get from the edge of London into Victoria Coach Station, an hour and a half later than scheduled. I booked the next coach to Gloucester and let my grandparents know what time I was leaving. It was really nice to see them again and in their own place. I met Snowy, their little dog. She was very sweet.
On Saturday, the 16th of August, I left with my grandparents from their place at 0700h to get to Gloucester for my coach to Heathrow at 0800h. I was on that coach and on my way quite easily and arrived at Heathrow about 1115h. Then I had to find the Air Transat desk, which wasn't too complicated. I put my checked luggage through and then went up and through security and then had to wait to find out what gate to go to.
My flight was scheduled to be boarded at 1300h and leave at 1400h. At 1300h, the flight schedule was saying delayed and then, finally at 1430h, people on flight TS545 were called to go to Gate 1 immediately. The queue was massive. While in the queue I met two ladies who were also headed for Toronto. One of them was headed for Caledonia and the other, for Lindsay, the same as myself.
We finally got to the front of the queue and by that time we had guessed that there was some sort of problem because people were walking back the other way. As it turned out, there was a technical problem with the plane and they were fixing it. The next information would be given at 1600h and we each received a 20 pound refreshment voucher. The three of us found a restaurant and sat down for a cup of tea and a chat.
Just before 1600h the flight information changed to 'Next Info 1800' and then 'Next Info 1700' and then back to 'Next Info 1800'. By 1630h we decided we better eat our dinner and so we went back up to the restaurant and spent the other two vouchers. We were getting along fine with no more information from the airline when suddenly we get told 'Everybody needs to evacuate NOW.' The restaurant cleared out quickly and we all started moving down to one end of the terminal. The line kept going for a while but then it stopped and so we stopped. By that time we had new information on the flight schedule. 'Delayed to 2000' it said.
We were standing outside of an electronics shop and one of the guys working there started humming a tune which made me laugh. We kept standing there for a while and then some seats across the walkway became free so we got to sit down. We still had no more information by 1930h and were beginning to despair yet again when suddenly there was a little cheer. Everyone looked up at the schedule. 'Go to gate 18' it said. There was a great cheer, and a mass of movement towards Gate 18. We were finally getting somewhere.
We all got through the gate and then had to board a coach to get to the plane. I was on the last coach load to get on the plane and we were settled quickly and began our journey to the runway within 5 minutes. We were now going to be making a stop in Montreal because the crew were not going to be able to fly all the way to Toronto.
I was just so glad to be on my way. It seemed to be that this was the longest trip I had ever taken. The flight was rather uneventful except for the stop in Montreal. When we arrived in Toronto I went through customs, grabbed my luggage and went to find out who was picking me up. My brother was there with his flatmate Fraser to take me to their flat for the night. My parents would come down in the morning to pick me up.
It was 0300h by the time I climbed onto the couch at my brother's flat to go to sleep, and I was awake again before 0700h. Life as a world traveller is not all that it's cracked up to be.
