Day 1 - Depart Vancouver

Prologue:
I've been wanting to see Europe ever since I can remember. But my travel plans never seemed to work out, and I didn't think I would ever be able to save enough money, or find a decent travel companion. None of my friends had a big enough interest in traveling (that I know of) or the determination to save enough money. One day I decided that enough was enough and I decided to set all my fears aside and join a tour group. I immediately knew I would go with Contiki, as I had heard great things from my travel agent/friend and I knew I'd feel more comfortable and have more fun travelling with others my age. So in January 2010 on the spur of the moment I made a trip down to the travel agency and decided to book the European Horizon tour for that May. At this point I had no money saved and I had a very limited period of time in which I could take my trip, because of the small number of supervisors at my work. This specific tour would be whirlwind, but I knew I could handle it, and it would give me a chance to decide what places I'd like to come back to. I booked the trip at the beginning of February and then spent the next few months reading as many travelogues as I could find, and poring over the Contiki forums. I had a very neutral attitude about my trip until about a week before when all of a sudden I realized...I'm going to EUROPE! It was a long, slow week of work, but eventually the time came, and my adventure began...

The day had finally arrived! It was strange that I didn’t start to feel really excited until about a week before I left, even though I had booked my trip months in advance. I woke up at about 3 am, and immediately had butterflies in my stomach. I was so nervous! I couldn’t believe that I was off to Europe alone, and it felt very strange. I was worried about getting homesick, but I knew two weeks would fly by. I got ready, packed my remaining items, and my parents and sister drove me from our home in Duncan to the ferry terminal in Nanaimo. I live on an island on the west coast of B.C., and basically any flights from Victoria (the main city) are ridiculously expensive, so it was cheaper to travel by land (and sea) to Vancouver and fly from there. It seemed complicated at first, but it was actually much easier than I thought to get to the airport. I stopped at my work (Tim Hortons) to say goodbye and get breakfast, and an hour later I was buying my ticket to walk on the 5 am ferry. There was about five others walking on, and I’m sure we were about the only ones on the ferry. I just napped with my new travel pillow (so comfortable!) and soon enough we were docking at Tswassan terminal in Vancouver.
Unfortunately, this is where all the little things that would go wrong started. Nothing serious, just little things that pile up and eventually make you so exhausted you just want something to go right! I couldn’t for the life of me find the walk off exit. In my defense, I wasn’t the only one. Me and another girl searched every side of the ferry and eventually found it right in time. I easily found the bus stop right in front of the terminal and took a 45 minute ride to Bridgeport Station in Richmond. The weather in Vancouver was amazing today, and I hoped it would be nice in London as well. At the station I transferred to the skytrain Canada Line to YVR. Unfortunately, the bus doors almost closed on me while I was trying to lug my ridiculously heavy suitcase off, which was embarrassing. Then I had to maneuver around the hundreds of business people attempting to run on to the skytrain like the busy people they are, while I lugged my suitcase in front of them, clearly getting in their way. Eventually I made it on to the skytrain and arrived at the airport. I entered the lobby…and immediately was lost. There was only some chairs, a currency exchange, and some food outlets. There were stairs to another level but the sign said that was for domestic flights. So I sat around for about an hour, trying to figure out how to get to the main airport, and eventually decided to just go up the stairs…to what is actually the main airport, international flights and all. Damn misleading signs! I wasn’t feeling too bright at this point. I was still too early to check in, so I just got some food and read my magazine. I was travelling a direct flight with Thomas Cook Airlines under Air Transat. In about an hour I was able to check in and then went through security and made it to the gate. I forgot to put my liquids in a bag, but nobody even noticed. Makes you feel safe, don't it!

I found it really interesting to see and hear all the people talking at the gate, especially listening to their accents. I chatted with one lady for quite a while – she was from England but living in Canada now with her husband. She was on her way back to surprise her family with a visit. She gave me some sightseeing tips and told me how to not get ripped off by the cabs. (Try talking in a British accent and acting like you live there - but that would've been impossible for me). We also talked to an older couple who were taking their granddaughter on a tour of England for the first time. Eventually we all realized we were somehow waiting at the wrong gate, so we gathered up all our stuff and headed over to the right one. I was starting to get really bored, and after waiting for what seemed like forever, we were finally allowed to board the plane. I hate flying. I like airports, because of the anticipation of traveling, and I don’t mind the actual physical discomfort of being stuck on a plane for hours on end, I’m just terrified of crashing. It doesn’t seem right that this object will be in the air for that many hours and stay up! I just try to remember that thousands of planes fly all over the world every day and it is much safer than driving. I had requested a window seat, which in hindsight was a bad idea, because I was cornered by the wall, and I felt bad asking the older couple next to me to get up and let me out. We had to take a detour north of England, circling around Norway and into London from the east, because of the recent eruption of the volcano in Iceland. It seemed silly to me because we flew directly over Iceland, but I'm sure the pilots know better than I do. It was pure torture, sitting in that airplane seat for 10 hours, without getting up. I was hungry, thirsty, tired, yet I couldn’t sleep, and I just wanted to GET THERE. I suppose it’s my own fault for not getting up. I had a mini panic attack about 2 minutes after we took off, because the plane was turning left and I was sure it was crashing and these were my last moments on Earth. The lady next to me helped me calm down The flight was really boring, I just watched some episodes of “The Office” and the movie "The Invention of Lying" and tried to sleep. Even though I wasn’t feeling great, I was so excited to finally almost be in London!