Transferring

I'm battered and bruised, but I'm in Dublin. I look like I got into a fight with my luggage, and I did. It was three against one, so not exactly fair. I had three suitcases--one gigantic, one medium-sized, and one small. I hooked the medium and small ones together and hauled those in one hand with my gigantic suitcase in the other. I set out with a little trepidation at my ability to wrangle so much luggage and quickly learned that these fears were well-founded.

To my dismay, I'd discovered the day before that the Willesden Green Tube station two minutes from my house was shut down for refurbishment at the weekend. The replacement bus service they offered went to a station in the opposite direction of where I needed to go to catch my train to the airport. This made my trip longer and, more significantly, meant more lifting. Instead of bringing my luggage to Willesden Green and lugging it down the one flight of stairs at that station, I had to haul it onto the bus travelling to Dollis Hill, then off the bus, then down two piddly flights of stairs (with just enough steps to make me unhook my connected suitcases and lift them down) connected by long walkways, then make three trips up one huge flight of stairs. I'm fairly certain London hates travellers.

I needed to change Tube lines at Green Park, which involved more flights of stairs. In between these flights of stairs, my suitcases had the annoying habit of flipping over when I was going around corners or slipping out of my hands and biting me on the back of the leg. At the platform, I was in a frenzy trying to lift all three suitcases onto or off of the Tube before the doors closed and either took one of my pieces of luggage away without me or took me away without one of my pieces of luggage.

I finally made it onto the train at Victoria. When I reached Gatwick Airport, I discovered that the terminal I needed was another train ride away. The floor of this train, helpfully, was level with the ground, so boarding it required no lifting. I finally checked in at one of the electronic kiosks in the designated departure area and queued up at the bag drop-off counter. I'd prepaid for my second checked piece of luggage, and neither bag was overweight. I felt that was a small victory and happily took my carry-on bag over to the security check point. It was a relief to have only this single piece of luggage left in my possession.

As passengers leaving the UK are allowed only one piece of hand baggage, I'd initially packed my laptop bag in my suitcase. Early on in the journey, I'd taken it out and slung it over my shoulder to distribute the weight in a more manageable manner. I paused to repack the laptop just outside of security, pleased at how successfully I'd handled the luggage challenge. The security personnel visually sized up my bag and made me put it in a metal rack to determine whether it would actually fit in the overhead compartment. It was about an inch too large and sat suspended over the basket. I pushed it a bit, but it refused to slide in. All I could do was sigh wearily in response to the attendant's helpful observation of "It won't fit."

I unpacked my laptop again, went back to the bag drop and stared a bit mournfully at the long queues that would almost certainly make me miss my flight. I explained the situation to a staff member and he let me bypass the crowds by going to one of the VIP lines. There I checked in my third suitcase and was sent to the customer service counter to pay the money (30 pounds) to check that as well. I brought my laptop bag on with me, forgetting that my iPod and camera were in my carry-on bag until it was too late. In my rush, I'd forgotten that my iPod and camera were in my carry-on bag until it was too late. The story does have a happy ending, though, as all my luggage made its winding way back to me on the conveyor belt and nothing that I've yet discovered is broken.

Thankfully for me and my broken body, Mimi and her Scottish flatmate Stef picked me up from the airport in a car. Things immediately turned around from that point. They've both been absolutely lovely. Despite my knee literally being covered in bruises, I'm thrilled to be in a new city. And I'll be shipping some things home before leaving it.