begining of a new trip
Travel Location: Edinburgh,United-Kingdom
We all decided it was safest to get to the airport the afternoon
before
Tony’s 1:30pm flight, just in case there was some difficulty getting
the bikes to the station. We started the day on the Craigs and
headed our way to the bike shop that had disassembled and boxed our
bikes and the majority of Tony’s belongings. I was craving
breakfast, so after attending morning mass at St. Patricks Church we
marched our way to a good looking pub and all enjoyed an enormous
English Breakfast. Nate was entranced by the
Liverpool/Manchester football game and requested to hang out until the game’s end.
Tony left in search of his sunglasses and we planned to meet in front
of the Library around 3.
The game ended, I barely paid attention, so I don’t remember who won or what the score was. We met Tony
and the three of us meandered to the bike shop where we picked up our
bikes. To say the least, they had lost their convenience in the
packing. We carried the two bikes between the three of us.
The box that held my bike was heavier due to the enormous amount of
random things we managed to pack into the box, so there was one person
walking in front carring my bike’s box behind and to their side, the
second person carried the back end of my bike box with one hand and
then front of Tony’s bike’s box with the other, stumbling and such but
making headway. The third person was at the rear of the caravan
carrying Tony’s bike box and trying to assist the middle man by not
letting the box nip his or her heels on the way. We made it a
good 7 blocks before the box handles began to tear. We tried
repairing with the remnants of my electrical tape with no avail.
Thank God for my Dad’s insistance on packing for all kinds of
emergencies. I whipped out two 25 foot lengths of rope and did my
best to wound one around each box in order to create handholds for our
journey’s continuation. We didn’t get far before realizing that I didn’t tie the
ropes tight enough. As we began to resistuate a Frech exchange
student studying business at the Edinburgh University offered to help
us. With four we made wind and arrived at our destination in a
fraction of the time we had allowed. I did some talking and got
the three of us, along with our two enormous boxes onto a shuttle to
the airport. We all shook our heads as the shuttle retraced our
path and came to a stop only 10 blocks from our bike-box-adventure’s
destination. We arrived at the airport with a good 19 hours to
spare. I’ve had some pretty long layovers, and even spent a night
or two in an airport, but time began to do funny things in that
concrete fortress. Luckily we scored some free sandwiches and
enormous cups of coffee.
Morning came and Nate and Tony said
their goodbyes, a bit of a heart break since they may not see eachother
for a couple years from now. Nate’s train left from Edinburgh to
Manchester at noon, whereas mine didn’t leave until closer to
5pm. I stayed with Tony until security prevented me from doing
so. Words don’t quite capture how hard it was to just let go, but
that’s another story altogether. I took the shuttle back to city center and visited
the museums we never found time to go into and tried to widdle the
remaining hours away until my train left. It was a very odd
feeling, traveling alone again, despite the fact that I knew it was
temporary it was an unsettling feeling that I was looking forward to
ridding myself of. It was my first time on a train and it was absolutly
amazing. As I looked out the window I wished for my bike,
peddling up and down the rolling hills rather than racing past
them. I nearly missed my connecting train to Manchester but
thanks to a kind attendant got on just in time. I arrived just as
Nate approached the gate to greet me. He walked me through part
of the city and it was interesting to note that Manchester had been his
home for a good month and a half. He knew it well, my
navagational skills were no longer needed. We arrived at the
squat and I was introduced to the residents and another way of life.
