4 August 2008

We made it back to London yesterday and tried to find a flight – any flight – back to the US. We had no luck. Last night we slept at Heathrow. We weren’t sure if we would get in trouble, then the guy working the bus information counter told us we should.

Newspapers are warm. Yes, this one is pink. No, I don't know why.

Newspapers are warm. Yes, this one is pink. No, I don't know why.

We slept on a bench with our backpacks locked together in-between us. I might have gotten 2 or 3 hours of sleep.

This morning at 6:am we started our quest again. We tried every airport with flights to Washington or New York and all the flights were full – except business class ($6,000 each!!)

Our tickets out are for Gatwick Airport. The bus shuttle was $40 each, but we found a metro way to get there for $23 each.

It’s like we’re leaking money and the only way to stop the leak is get home, but we can’t.

—

We’ve had no luck at Gatwick.

We’ve been sleeping a little on a bench in an area called Gatwick Village. For an extra $500 each, we could have flown home tomorrow. We decided to try our luck living in the airport, to not lose more money.

[beyond-the-journal notes]

Gatwick isn’t as friendly an airport as Heathrow. I don’t know what I mean by that, but that was the impression I got. It seemed much smaller. There were less ‘hiding’ places to sleep. Everyone slept in one or two large areas. By everyone, I mean everyone. As it got later, people would start claiming areas to sleep by spreading our their things. No one ever asked us why we were there, if we had a ticket out, or anything.

At Heathrow, we found a small alcove with a thing that looked like a public phone, but would send email or text messages for .20pence. It turned out that the text messages never got through, but the emails did.

Full-metal keyboard

Full-metal keyboard

The train station in Frankfurt was better than Gatwick Village – more shops, better variety of food sources. At the train station, we got a piece of cheesy bread for £1.80. It was big enough to share. There was only a Burger King, a Dunkin Donuts and some expensive restaurants at Gatwick.

We found it hard to waste time. There was nothing really to do once we’d explored the airport. Gatwick is very far from London proper, so it would have cost a lot to go off and come back again. We mostly wandered about.