Banana Splits...

Yes, I did indeed split (Credit for that brilliant title to Auntie Raelene). Somehow it's been both the longest and shortest 24 hours of my life: long because I haven't slept for real since I was in Regina and short because for some reason all that travelling seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. And now here I am in my little Preston hotel room trying to stay awake until bedtime in order to (hopefully) prevent death by jet lag. We'll see how that works out. Anyway, suddenly finding myself halfway across the world is starting to make me question what's real and what isn't. And the lack of sleep certainly isn't helping.

I'm in Britain, right?

Well, looking out my window I see two old church spires; clusters of brick buildings; a sign that says "St. Georges, Avenham, Winckley Square;" people driving every which way on the left-hand sides of the roads; and a definite lack of snow. Sounds like Britain to me.

Backing things up a bit,  I left around 11:30 AM Regina time. (I'm skipping the part where I said goodbye to everybody because I'd rather not think about it too much.) My first flight was to Toronto. Highlights: Pat Fiacco was on my flight too. And the lady sitting beside me who seemed familiar at first glance turned out to be the school nurse from my elementary school. Small world. I landed in Toronto on time, and after enjoying one last last all-Canadian Timmies lunch I made my way to my next gate. Which took at least an hour to get to, if not more. I had to take a train, go through security again (the lineup was unreal) and walk A LOT. That airport is so big that it has more DAVIDsTEA stores than Regina. But eventually I got where I needed to be.

My next flight went to Keflavik Airport. The Icelandair flight was so fancy. I was given a chilled bottle of water when I boarded, there was a little pillow on each seat with an Icelandic lullaby printed on it, and the flight attendants wore cute little flight attendant hats. And hearing all the announcements in Icelandic was a definite bonus! It's a beautiful language. Unfortunately, I did not get to see any Icelandic landscape. I arrived at Keflavik at 6:45 AM and left about an hour later, and it was completely dark and rainy the whole time. Once we arrived in Iceland we had to go through security again (my third time within 24 hours) because apparently the EU has different security regulations. And it did seem a little more extensive than my previous security checks. Keflavik airport was quite different from any airport I've ever experienced. The floors were all a lovely hardwood. And I noticed right away that it smelled quite nice in there. The bathrooms were interesting: Each stall was its own little room. It lit up automatically when I walked in to reveal an all white interior. And the faucet on the sink doubled as a hand dryer. Not that those details are important in the slightest. The layover was less than an hour and soon enough, I boarded the same plane again. I knew it was the same one because its name is Hekla, which is a volcano in Iceland that is said to be the entrance to hell. Because that's a nice comforting thought to ponder while one is being chucked across the sky in a metal tube.

But I digress. Ideally I would have slept on the flight to Keflavik since it was dark the whole time AND I had a whole row of seats to myself so I could stretch out. But I hadn't been able to fall asleep. So by the time I was on my way from Keflavik to Manchester, I was exhausted. It was 2 in the morning Regina time and I could barely keep my eyes open. But I did, because I got to witness a gorgeous sunrise from up in the air. I've never seen the sky such a vibrant reddish-orange colour. I tried to take photos with my new fancy camera, but none of them do it justice. You will just have to take my word for it. I saw lots of pretty clouds too. Unfortunately they obscured my view of the ocean. But you can't have everything in life.

Finally, feeling a little bit dazed, I arrived in Manchester. The clouds made it hard to see the countryside but what I could glimpse looked green and lush. We landed and I got through customs as a student visitor without a hitch. Despite my exhaustion, I thoroughly enjoyed being surrounded by so many wonderful British accents. It's hard to stop myself from eavesdropping just to hear the way people around here speak. I'll just say it's "linguistic research."

I then bought myself a ticket for a train that would stop in Preston. Unfortunately, the train system made absolutely no sense to me. The platform number wasn't even printed on my ticket. (It was 2, not 9 3/4, by the way.) Luckily I asked around and managed to jump on the right train shortly before it left. I couldn't let myself fall asleep lest I miss my stop. So that was my opportunity to see some landscape. And wow, is it ever pretty. All the trees here look so different somehow. Same with the grazing livestock. If you think about the approximate number of cows one sees when driving through the Canadian prairies… That's about how many sheep I saw. Fields full of them. And 90% of the buildings are made of brick. Very cool, in my opinion. It's hard to believe multiple cities can be so close together. It took about an hour for me to get to Preston, maybe less. That's just not something you see in Canada. I managed to disembark in Preston without a problem. The Preston railway station is very pretty. I would have taken photos but I was so intent on getting to my destination that I decided to push on. Some kindly train station workers and random locals helped direct me to the taxis. My hotel is walking distance from the station, but my suitcase is HEAVY. So is my carry-on. Plus I didn't want to get lost. The taxi driver managed to get me there in one piece, which is surprising considering how everyone around here drives with no apparent regard for where the lanes really are, or the rules, for that matter. The lanes aren't even marked half the time. I find it scary but so far I haven't witnessed any accidents. I made it to my hotel and checked in. And here I am.

Looking back on my journey, it went very smoothly. Many good things happened:

None of my flights were delayed more than half an hour.

I had a window seat on every flight.

I didn't have to sit beside anyone for 2 out of 3 flights.

On the one flight that I did sit beside someone, it was someone I kind of knew.

I didn't miss any connections.

My baggage didn't get lost (I was quite worried about this when I realized I didn't pack any extra clothing in my carry-on.)

The train I needed to catch was right there when I needed it.

There were only a few negatives:

I had problems with uncomfortable pressure in my eardrums.

It's hard to hear my iPod over the sound of the engine.

My one hour layover in Iceland wasn't enough time to find Of Monsters and Men, Sigur Rós and Björk so that each of them could play a song for me.

Really, I can't complain.

But now, I have things to do. I'm going to do a a little bit of exploring before lunch and see what I can find. I'll post again when something interesting happens. I'm missing all of my favourite Canadians, but at the same time I'm so happy to be here.

xx from the UK,

Anna