Travel to Southport

Sorry, not many pictures this time...

March 23 - On to England

The alarm was set for 4:15 am on Saturday so that I would be in the lobby in time to meet my 5 am taxi to the airport; sadly we were woken up even earlier than the alarm.  We got a call at 3 a.m. to say that the cab was here but as it wasn’t my cab we had to explain to the front desk that the cab was for someone else in our tour group and I didn’t need one until 5.  After that, it was a little difficult to get back to sleep for the hour I had left.  I made it down to the lobby before 5, said goodbye to my parents, and then headed off to the Dublin airport to check-in for my flight to London.

After arriving at the Dublin airport, I had a little problem figuring out where to check-in.  There were lines everywhere and the check-in desks were in lines in the middle of the lobby area, with little space to get around them to desks farther down the terminal.  The British Airways desk had a long line when I got there, but no one was there to check people in, just a row of empty chairs.  The check-in started a little after 5:30 while my flight was supposed to leave at 7:35 and I still needed to go through security.  They did move through the line quickly as they went from nobody at the desk to 5 people checking passengers and thankfully security wasn’t bad.  There was a bit of a walk to the gate but I still arrived with plenty of time.  We took off and landed on time at London Heathrow.

I would not recommend flying into Heathrow if you can avoid it.  The airport is a mass of five terminals that aren’t really connected.  I got off the plane and immediately onto a bus to go to the terminal to collect my bags.  It took about 30 minutes for the baggage to catch up with the passengers, but after that it was straight out into the main arrivals area.  I didn’t have to go through customs and didn’t get a stamp in my passport; they just passed us straight into the main airport.  From there, I then had to figure out how to get to my hotel.  There are people everywhere in the arrivals area, coming from all different directions and there are about 50 different buses and shuttles running around, plus the Underground and the train.  While there were signs seemingly everywhere, they weren’t really helpful as they often pointed multiple directions at once.  Additionally, I wasn’t really sure where I was or what transportation would be best to get to my hotel that was only about a mile away.

There was a kiosk for local hotel information so I went up to ask the best way to get to the Holiday Inn Heathrow and was then asked which one.  Which one? The Holiday Inn in Heathrow?  I was then informed, rather rudely, that there are 5 Holiday Inns in Heathrow, which one did I need…I didn’t know, my receipt said Holiday Inn Heathrow.  I then had to find Internet access so that I could look up my hotel information and in England internet is rarely free.  I went ahead and paid the 50p to access the internet to check my email and a few other things (to try to use the full time I paid for) to find the hotel address.  I told the lady which Holiday Inn I was looking for and she directed me to a shuttle service for multiple hotels (again not free) and directed me to the H4 shuttle.  I went over to the stop where they had a convenient list of hotels and which shuttle to get on and discovered she told me the wrong shuttle…not very helpful.  After the shuttle finally showed up I headed over to my hotel, thankfully the correct Holiday Inn, and went through early check-in as I was exhausted and just wanted a nap.

I got into my hotel room and did take my nap, a very long nap as I woke up some 5 hours later.  I ended up just grabbing a snack as food options around the hotel were extremely limited and the hotel restaurant very expensive.  I watched some TV (a lot of it American reruns) and tried to get online so I could contact the other student so we could meet up on Sunday.  Again, internet was not free so I paid for 24 hour access (it was cheaper than trying to pay for just a few hours) so we could arrange a meeting and so I could contact the pharmacist we would be working with for the next five weeks.  After all of that, and my nap, I still went to bed early as it would be a long day on Sunday.

March 24 - Getting to Southport

I finally got ahold of Matt and set up to meet him at Heathrow Terminal 4 since it was the closest Underground station.  This of course required paying the shuttle price to get back to the airport and fighting through the mass of people and confusion of Heathrow again to find him.  We did meet up and walked over to the train station that goes into London but they didn’t know anything about how to get a BritRail Pass (a train pass for a flexible travel multi-day pass for international travelers) so we went over to the Underground instead as it was much cheaper.  Thankfully Matt had an information sheet from when he bought a London City pass so we lugged all of our heavy luggage (and London isn’t big on elevators or escalators) through the London Underground to the Travel Information Center downtown to finally order our BritRail Passes.  There I discovered a problem with my credit card causing a lovely run in circles to get that straightened out.  After much trouble, we did finally get our rail passes and then headed back to the Underground to get to the train station.  We managed to make our first train, a high-speed train from London Euston to Wigan (about a 2 hour trip).  The train seats were comfortable with a little more space than your average plane seat, room above the head and below the seat for smaller luggage, and a luggage area for large cases.  We then had to change trains, waiting in the lovely cold wind for about 30 minutes, to get Southport.  This next train was much smaller, older, and much less comfortable.  We did make it to Southport without much problem, but we then had to find a way to the hospital, a taxi was recommended and ended up being pretty reasonable.

At the hospital, we slowly found our way to the office to get the keys to our flat (apartment for those not familiar with English terms) and walked across the street to the small building we would be living in.  The apartment is very…basic…I kind of feel like I’m back in a dorm.  There is a small shared kitchen, sitting room, and bathroom as well as the three individual bedrooms.  Sheets and towels were provided but there is basically no technology…no internet, no TV, just a phone.  It is going to be interesting to go back to living without everything at my fingertips; I didn’t realize how dependent I have become on internet access.

My room at the hotel supplied flat