I lead a charmed life: Part I

Over the Atlantic
On the afternoon of July 19, I made it from my house to the Virgin Atlantic gate at Dulles airport in about 45 minutes.* That was only the beginning of my good luck. On the plane, I was seated next to a very nice recent graduate of UVA in Charlottesville (and future med student at Johns Hopkins). We both talked about our plans to sleep on the flight but I don't think either of us slept more than thirty minutes. Between chatting about Charlottesville and watching all of the on-demand movies,** there wasn't much time left for anything else. I had a lot of interesting movies to choose from, but I finally decided on Tristan & Isolde because it was the movie I was least likely to rent.*** I am such a sucker for cheesy romances even though I know I shouldn't be. Tristan & Isolde was highly enjoyable and James Franco was ridiculously good looking.^ Those were the highlights of my flight. Virgin Atlantic was fabulous, as usual, and some day I hope to fly to London in one of their upper class cabins.

London, July 20-21
London is known for dreary weather. When I arrived, it was sunny and the perfect temperature for capris and a tank top. Christina was a great host. She let me nap for a bit and then we walked from London Bridge to the Tate Modern to see the Kandinsky exhibition. Later, we had Korean food near the Tottenham Court tube stop. We were the only non-Koreans in the restaurant and it took several tries just to get our drink order, but the food was so good that it was well worth the trouble.

We arranged for a taxi (from a service that took credit cards) to pick me up at 4:30 the next morning and went to bed, lying head to foot in a smaller-than-a-twin bed. I didn't even know I had fallen asleep until the cabbie called and woke us up. I threw on my clothes and made it outside in less than five minutes. I was expecting to find a yellow taxi on the street but the only car waiting was a Jaguar. I still don't know how much that ride cost me but the driver assured me that I was paying the same as I would have for a regular taxi; he helps out when there are no calls for an upscale taxi.

Wizz Air
The taxi took me to King's Cross tube stop, where I caught a train to Luton airport. On the train, I befriended a woman and quickly learned that we were on the same Wizz Air flight to Croatia. She was Croatian and named Jagoda, which means strawberry. We hung out at the airport, ate some breakfast, and shopped to get rid of our remaining pounds. Over breakfast, she asked me how old I was; I think she was surprised to learn we were the same age.^^ We sat together on the plane and then she kindly showed me how to get to Primosten. A few hours later, I would learn that my new friend had tacked on at least an hour and several dollars to my trip. Since I am leading a charmed life, I wasn't bothered by this. The only downside was that Lana was waiting for me at the bus stop. When I arrived in Primosten, I explained to Lana what had happened and the extra time was forgotten.

And now, Lana is waiting for me so that we can have dinner and go out. Stay tuned for the next installment, where I tell you all about Croatia.


*This is especially shocking since post 9/11 airport security usually takes forever.
**I LOVE VIRGIN ATLANTIC!
***I was also interested in Brick, Failure to Launch, Syriana, and V for Vendetta.
^I have a thing for (more like an obsession with) the Cupid and Psyche story. To all filmmakers interested in bringing Cupid to life on the big screen: please, please, please cast James Franco.
^^People almost always think I am younger than I am.