Boston Bound (and actually leaving!!)

Ok so the Friday and and Monday will probably be of most interest to ya'll on here but i'm trip reporting for the whole deal ;)

Thursday 29th March

Mad morning rush with an assignment due, packing still to finish, books to return to my tutor, cab to call and a train to catch. The assignment got in (!), the books got given back (!), the packing was my worst job ever (but plenty of space to bring lots of goodies home hehe), the cab turned up on time but the traffic was bad and every traffic light turned red in front of us to boot and this evented in me missing the train :( the staff at the station were far from helpful, when i got to the station (on crutches with luggage) the train was still there and they recommended that if i ran i could get it, yea right was i running anywhere :( this meant i had to buy another train ticket :( but as i hadn't yet got a return ticket i turned this a little to my advantage.
Fortunately the next train was non stop to London (from Leicester) so i got to London a mere 15 minutes after i was originally due :)
The staff at the station there were much more helpful and provided a wheelchair and assistance to the underground, the tube from Kings Cross to Heathrow is a direct trip, normally it takes an hour but there had been signal failure which meant it took around an hour and a half :/
Was slightly panicing when i reached Heathrow with half an hour left to check bags and an hour and a half before the flight, i was offered help when getting off the train but they warned me they were busy and i might miss my flight, so i had to hop and pull my suitcase at the same time, so not a good look!

I'd checked in online so i just had to pick up my boarding pass and check my bag, i'd rung up on the Tuesday and asked for assistance at Heathrow and they were good with providing this. The only downside was that i had to wait in the area for special assistance so i was unable to get a bottle of water for the flight, gum or sweets for takeoff/landing or anything for travel sickness.
They were also pretty busy and i was the last person to board the flight to Boston which i felt a little bad about but the cabin crew assured me not to worry and to take my time hopping through the cabin.

I was sitting next to a family group, a mom and her two eldest daughters, they were really nice and i could not have asked for better seat companions!! :)
The flight was completely full, there was a group of 90 school boys onboard heading to Maine to go skiing, but for such a large group they were pretty well behaved no less than anybody else on board

The flight was pretty good, we got lunch about an hour after takeoff, for airplane food it was pretty good, Virgin Atlantic have improved on their services in Economy and Premium Economy since i last flew with them and they now give a menu out so you know in advance what the choices are and what meals to expect in flight, big improvement!!

We suffered a little turbulance  but i combined that with having a nap and slept for around 2 hours, waking up nicely for afternoon tea ;)
We arrived in Boston on time which was nice and assistance was waiting when i got off the plane :) but a big shock with the temperatures!! i'm so used to leaving a colder UK and arriving to a warmer USA and this time the temperatures were completely in reverse!! I may have to go shopping for some warmer clothes lol

Fastest track through customs that i have ever experienced, between getting off the plane and getting a cab, thanks to my lugagge getting off the plane quickly took no more than 20 minutes!! I'd hate to think how long it would have taken had i been on my own two feet!

I'm staying at the International Hostel in Boston, its fairly nice, only slight problem is no elevator, i thought wistfully of the International Hostel in Washington DC which does have a elevator but fortunatelyi only have one flight of stairs to go and for Sunday they are trying their best to ensure i'm on the first floor :)

I went out in search of a CVS and was interested to see that The Christian Science Reading Rooms are about 2 minutes walk from the hostel :) It took a little while to find the CVS after i walked in the wrong direction twice (yes you may ask haha) plus i stopped at Wendy's for dinner, oh have i missed it

Struggled along to about 10pm Boston time (3am UK time) chatted to Nina (erosenplatt) she'd sent me a easter parcel which was happily waiting at the hostel on my arrival as well as a map of Boston, although i'm thinking i may now have to take a lot of cabs :/

I have two days in Boston to visit the exhibition and a weekend stay in NYC, will post what is now today's blog entry with all about Ginger later!!