Long flights and London

For those of you with limited time, the basics of the trip so far are as follows:
We have safely made it to Johannesburg, South Africa, and depart in the morning for Livingstone, Zambia.

If you have a little more time, please feel free to read more about our travels. I promise that most other posts will be shorter and guarantee they'll be more interesting. I happen to have great internet access right now, so I'm taking for advantage!

After a bittersweet goodbye to family and friends (thanks for coming, Vicki!) we boarded the small plane to Chicago. Luckily, we were able to fly stand-by on an earlier flight. Waiting in the terminal, our new flight was delayed nearly an hour and paramedics met the plane at the gate as an elderly gentleman was suffering from chest pains. Not exactly the most comforting scene to see when beginning 2 months of international travel…

We did eventually make it to Chicago on what has to be about the quickest flight I’ve ever been on. After navigating the maze that is O’Hare and catching a quick bite to eat, we waited anxiously at our gate to board the flight to London. Just after 4:00 p.m., we climbed aboard the jumbo jet and settled in for the 8 hour flight. Luckily a good mix of movies and music kept us entertained. I was even able to catch a few minutes of sleep. Truth be told, the flight felt much quicker than I could have ever expected.

At Heathrow, we quickly passed through customs and tried to get oriented to our new surroundings. The first thing any US citizen is likely to notice in the UK is how poorly our dollar is trading with the pound. One must essentially double the posted prices everywhere to understand how much goods and services cost in US currency. Yikes! It was not pleasant to pay $40 just to store our luggage for a few hours. The irony of spending the Fourth of July in England wasn’t lost on me. Perhaps this the exchange rate was the Brits way of extracting some revenge on us Yankees.

In any event, we weren’t about to let a bad exchange rate keep us in the airport all day. We boarded the Underground and journeyed the bumpy hour into Central London. With no real plan, we just wandered the streets for a bit until bumping into Trafalgar Square. With a good landmark to find on the map, we were able to walk pass the famous Horse Guards and through St. James Park (where we were greeted by hungry squirrels, pigeons, and stunningly large pelicans) on our way to Buckingham Palace. While snapping pictures of the guards and the palace gates, a motorcade rapidly drove past us, and I’m 99% sure I saw Prime Minister Gordon Brown in one of the cars. It at least makes for a good story, even if it wasn’t him.

After Buckingham Palace, we walked more purposefully to Westminster Abbey. Not really knowing what to expect there, we were happy to receive complimentary audio listening guides for the Abbey. Perhaps complimentary isn’t the right word when we paid £12 each for admission (Test your math skills to figure out the US equivalent). Despite that financial hit, I must say the Abbey was quite worth the time and cash spent there. It is truly remarkable to see the tombs of such dignitaries as Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Chaucer, Darwin, and Isaac Newton. The Abbey is also the place where all monarchs are officially installed in Britain and hosted Princess Di’s funeral. If you ever find yourself in London, be sure to stop by.
By the time we left the Abbey, jet lag was fully setting in. We were only half-awake as we snapped pictures of Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye. We hoped a little food would wake us up, but it seemed like there were no restaurants to be found unless we walked for several blocks. During this walk, Leah and I concluded that London was disappointing to visit. The sights were nice, but mostly looked better in photos than in person. The people were anything but friendly, and the city seemed to lack any unique personality or culture. It did not feel at all like we had arrived in a new continent.

Feeling let down and exhausted, we slept through the entire Underground ride back to the airport. In our wisdom, we forgot to take note of what terminal we departed from when we left Heathrow. There are 5 terminals there, so finding ours proved to be difficult. When we finally found Terminal 1 and tried to claim our luggage, the staff only emerged with one bag. Gulp! They invited us to the storage room, and luckily Leah and I were better at their jobs then they were and quickly found our remaining luggage.

We smoothly checked in for our flight to Johannesburg and made our way to the gate. After just a short wait, we boarded the plane only to find out we were in Row 74, the very last row on the plane. Thankfully, the seats still reclined, and we enjoyed the relative privacy the back row offered. South African Airways also proved to be much more luxurious than United. The TV screens on our seats were larger and interactive with a huge selection of movies, TV, and games. Not that it really mattered, though, as I slept virtually the entire plane. I only woke up long enough to enjoy the supper and breakfast that was offered to us. I know airplane food gets a bad wrap, but both meals were spectacular. Curry chicken and basmati rice for supper and scrambled eggs with mushrooms and potatoes for breakfast were nicer meals than I will probably eat for several months.

After a remarkably smooth landing, I quickly realized my complaints about London not feeling like a foreign city would not be repeated in Johannesburg. From the jumbled and long queue at customs to the hectic mess at the arrivals terminal, we had no doubt that South Africa would be different. We exchanged some money for South African rand at a much more favorable rate than seen in the UK. Next, we requested a taxi to our overnight stop. While we eventually made it to our hotel safely, we were a little tense when our driver was stopped by the airport security on the way out of the airport and fined for not carrying his driver’s license. We decided, though, this imperfect situation might have been the best introduction to Africa we could hope for as we learned that we can easily handle minor problems that might come up.

Our short drive brought us to the quintessential image of deepest, darkest Africa…the airport Holiday Inn! Ok, so it’s not exactly anyone’s stereotype of Africa, but we were overjoyed to be greeted not only with a comfortable room, but a lovely breakfast buffet. Nothing could have been better after a long couple of flights. Rest assured, we've already peaked in terms of our accommodations for the next 7 weeks.

Unlike London, we have been very impressed with the friendliness of everyone we’ve met so far in South Africa. In this one small corner of the largest city, we’ve seen far more smiles than we did walking about the busiest neighbors in Africa. Though our first day on the continent won’t be remembered for anything but catching up on much needed sleep, finally getting to change clothes, and taking a warm shower, it’s a great relief to just be in Africa.

Tomorrow morning, we fly out at 11:00 for a short flight to Livingstone. We look forward to being greeted at the airport by African Impact staff and getting to see what we expect might be the “real” Africa.

For anyone wishing to email, please use zachary.ista@gmail.com or leah.b.gustafson@ndsu.edu. Remember, we are 7 hours ahead of Central Time in the US, so keep that in mind when anticipating replies from us. I have no idea how often we’ll have access to reliable email and internet access, but I look forward to more blog entries about more important topics than London tourism, airplane food, or Holiday Inns.

For now,
Zac