The longest day.

While I might have missed the Summer Solstice by 3 days.... June 24th was my longest day of the year.

Waking up from my nap on a bench at Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup I was off on a cross-the-world adventure back to the United States. Copenhagen, Denmark to Boston, Massachusetts but split between Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, to Gatwick Airport, to Keflavík International Airport, to General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport all in the same "10" hours because of timezone changes. Woo.. Four airports, four countries, 3 flights... and a lovely walk from the MBTA to my parents house.

Yup.... CPH to LGW to KEF to BOS.... and no missed connections!

(although I came close in London)

 Sweet, Norwegian Air Shuttle Flight 2511 with service to London Gatwick 

(and with free in-flight WiFi!)

 Once in London, it was off to my connection to Iceland via Icelandair...

That happens to be in the other terminal. International connections on different airlines booked at different times... Isn't so smart I guess (but doable, since well, I did it?)

Also.. Ew, Aer Lingus (NEVER Again)

 Ugh... So annoying... when you only have an hour layover. 

 The few of us making the connection from South to North got to ride a bus... One family was frantically trying to make their flight to Orlando (they missed it)

 And even worse... once on the other side.... I had to deal with this crap.

After calling.. and waiting.. and calling a second time.. 25 minutes later someone came along to give me my London-Iceland boarding pass.

 Woo, but I made it! Just as they were starting to load pre-boarding

Ok, bye London! Off to Iceland

 Damn... Ok.. Made it back to Keflavík. 

 The IKEA Airport <3

I had just enough of a layover to grab a bag of chips and a drink before jumping on my next and final flight of the day.

 Lovely cold and rainy Iceland <3

Everyone was pretty much running up to the plane as they called zones to avoid standing outside in the rain. Soon enough we'd be on our way to Boston <3

 And... home. Well, kinda. At Logan again at least.

Now to just clear customs and get my bus to the subway.

 Ah... The Blue Line... if I can just make it to State... transfer to the Orange and get home.. I can sleeeeepppppp.

Yaayyy! Back at Oak Grove! Now to just walk the mile or so to my parents house... Unpack my backpack... repack my suitcase I had left there at the start of this trip... pet my kitty... Sleep for a couple of hours.. get up super early.. and walk back to Oak Grove and head off back to the airport for my next flight. 

(up to 7 now, if you're counting)

I <3 Adventures

Bonus Twitter Stuffs -

World Travelin' - Tweet

First Tweet I've ever made in-flight! - Tweet

Gatwick's WiFi sucks - Tweet

Home - Tweet

The realization - Tweet 

Cool.

(Blah, London PT.2) The Eye, the Dungeon, & Sea Life

Hey look, I can do touristy things too!

So the plan was... Joey was gonna take me downtown and get me a *free* ride on the London Eye <3 (freeeeee!) but since his Merlin comps also worked at the Sea Life Aquarium and London Dungeon attractions also located near the Eye, I took him up on his offer and whored-out on culture. 

The idea was to spend some time at the Eye and surrounding area before hoping on a train and heading out to Adventure Island amusement park and picking up a few quick credits. Once getting my London attraction tickets in hand I was left on my own with a handy step-by-step map from the Eye to Adventure Island and back to Joey's place from there. Sweet, its like back before GPS and stuff.... 

So after a So/So day at Thorpe I thought to myself this London day would be a fun and easy going stress-free kind of day.

(hahaha)

So it was off to the train to Central London / South Bank area.

Woo

It was "stupid hat and dress combo" day or something in London... Pretty much every lady at the train station had on these terrible hats....

Ahhhhahahahahah

The easy to navigate London Metro, Oh... the Underground.

It amazes me that people can look at that and find where they wanna go... Yet at Disney World they cant figure out circular Monorail system with just FIVE stops..... <3

Oh man, GIANT Ferris Wheel!

But first I need my comp tickets for the other two attractions....

So lets move onto....

The London Dungeon

(Freeeeeeeeeeee)

The London Dungeon is a large haunted house attraction with a few rides within. Its one continuous haunt that tells some history and urban legends of London's past.

 It features a reversing flume ride, a mirror maze, a drop tower, and an audio sensory experience along with live actors and stuff. I was surprised at how long it turned out being and was actually amused by the whole experience (it even made me feel sick when they went into great detail on torture.)

Photos are not allowed inside the building... So that's all I have.

Next door to the London Dungeon is.....

The Sea Life London Aquarium!

(Freeeeeee!!!)

((Animals!!!!))

This..... is amazing <3

 Mr. Lionfish

Fish and stuff

Depressing...

(It lights up every few seconds)

Sea Horses!

Uh, fish

:D Cuban Crocodile

Turtles

Horrifying Crabs

And a happy little Gentoo Penguin!

Ah... and now for the Eye.

And because I was a single rider, I got right in via the express lane! <3

I wanted to ride the elusive Orange pod...

But I ended up in the pod right behind it...

"Never in America"

You just walk up and get in as the wheel turns slowly, miss the pod? You get to fall some 30 feet right into the River Thames!

A view inside the pod

(that featured WiFi)

Jubilee Gardens and stuff.

London Waterloo station, the busiest station in England!

"London"

St Paul's Cathedral and stuff

Woo, 440 feet up.

Now my second tallest ride.

Boats in the River Thames.

Stand here, take photo?

Hey look! Big Ben and Palace of Westminster.

After getting off the Eye I took a short walk around the Jubilee Gardens and stuff...

Street performer playing a Badger?

Some sort of bear thing....

And this odd looking golden carousel.

 That I took a ride on!

Neat little fountain + seagull playing "art"

Walked across the Golden Jubilee Bridges.

So I could get some typical London Eye photos.

(it was worth it)

Westminster and Big Ben again.

Love Locks on the Westminster Bridge.

Neat little pedestrian bridge that goes right into a building....

Oh hey, and now I'm back at the Waterloo Underground station....

(everybody start singing ABBA)

So now comes that part that should have been pretty easy and stress-free and turned into an amusement park adventure catastrophe. 

Adventure Island.

(never again)

Bonus Tweets

Tweet - Excitement

Tweet - Eye photo

And a big thanks to Joey for getting me into the 3 places <3

catastrophe

catastrophe