Well my flight touched down at 9:36am local time. The flight lasted 8 hours and 11 minutes. It would have been about 25 in faster if it wasn't raining in London. When it rains they slow down the number of flights going into Heathrow airport which caused my plane to circle the airport for a bit. When the plane made it to the terminal, I had to wait an additional 15 min before they let anyone off the plane. Apparently the set of steps the airport personnel had brought to the plane did not work and it took tie to find a working unit.
There weren't any problems getting through customs or finding my bag. Ayman and his friend Brian came to pick me up from the airport. They decided that I needed to have some breakfast and took me to a local Syrian/Lebanese place where we ate Fataveh. After breakfast, we went back to Brian's place, which is in London, to relax for a few hours.
Ayman and I were supposed to catch a coach to Manchester at 4:30pm. Brian tried his hardest to get us to the bus station on time. I have never been in a car with a more aggressive driver. In all fairness, Brian knew exactly what he was doing. I really believe he could be a professional get away driver in London (he attributes his driving skills to having to drive in Syria where one has to expect the possibility of having another car land on top of the one that you are driving). After, flying through London's narrow traffic filled streets, oncoming traffic, shortcuts, barley avoiding getting sandwiched between 2 buses, and pissing a lot of people off, we arrived at the bus station at 4:30pm (this description still does not give justice to the experience of being in the car with Brian at the wheel). For some odd reason the coach actually left on time, which is rare I a told, and we missed it by about 1 minute. It just wasn't meant to be.
We got tickets for a later coach. To pass the time we went to another local Syrian/Lebanese place for dinner. There I tried both a chicken and lamb Shawarma. Bother were good but i recommend the chicken one. To ensure that we got on the next coach, we decided it would be a good idea to show up a bit early. This idea seamed to work out because both Ayman and I got on the coach after parting with Brian.
About 4 hours later we rolled into Manchester. Ayman's dad and brother picked us up from the bus station. We went back to Ayman's house for some food and played some video games of course. This is where I will be spending the night. All in all it was a great day, and could not have started off the trip any better.
*Having issues posting pics to the blog at the moment. Attempting to fix this prob.
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Brian,
ReplyDeleteIMPORTANT THING TO KNOW!This was something I meant to brief you on before you left:
"Getting pissed" means something very different in the U.K. than it does in the U.S.
sightseeing with your ancestor General Sir William Green (1725-1811) William Green is your Great, great, great, great, great, great, great,great, grandfather. He was the chief engineer at the seige of Gibraltar(1760-1783) You can visit him at the ROYAL ENGINEERS MUSEUM,(www.remuseum.org.uk/index.htm)
ReplyDeleteTHE GUILDMALL ART GALLERY-London, check out the painting called the "defeat of the floating batteries at Gibraltar 1783" artist John Copley -william is in this painting.
THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY -London (ROOM 14) check out the painting "the seige of Gibraltar 1782" artist -George Carter. William is in this painting . this painting is actually a sketch for a much larger painting at ...
THE NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM- london
not only is William in this painting but his aide and grandson the future Major General Sir Charles Holloway(1749-1847) is also in the painting. ( charles is your 6th great grandfather.)
aunt Robyn.
Sightseeing with your ancestors- Louisa Holloway and Jasper Still . Louisa Holloway is the daughter of Major General Sir Charles Holloway and she married Jasper Still January 1 1795/6. you can visit the church where they married- it is a popular tourist site.
ReplyDeleteST. MARY'S CHURCH- Hampshire England. (www.brittania.com/church/studies/histbasg.html)
Louisa and Jasper are your 5th great grandparents.
I believe Jasper was an also an engineer while he was helping to build the prison at Cork, Ireland- your 4th greatgrandfather Major Charles Jasper Still was born- thus our irish roots. Charles Jasper Still is your ancestor who immigrated to Canada.... thus our Detour relatives and Grandma TuTu.
Aunt Robyn
Sounds eventful already!
ReplyDeleteDid ayman get his hot fries in good condition? haha. I'm glad you're having a good time, but hurry up with those pictures, Bri. Lol.
I never realized how much I love the united states when ur not in it.... I hear the recession is going to end since ur gone.... Stay there for ooo I dunno, perhaps forever??? Or until my death.
ReplyDelete