An adventure begins!

So I figured that this would be the best way for me to keep in touch with friends and family regarding  my trip to Europe. And since it is my starvingartistadventures blog, I also thought it would be good for me to mention some of the food I'll be experiencing! So here we go:

After approximately 24 hours in transit, I finally made it to London! Everything is already green here, and the smaller communities outside of the city proper look exactly like stock scenes from an episode of The Tudors. Quite a change from the grey and white pallet of Snowy Dedmonton.

My flights and everything left and arrived without a hitch (well at least until untried to leave Gatwick airport, but more on that later). I have to say that I Am actually quite impressed with Air Transat. I had requested the dairy free vegetarian meal and the food was really well put together I thought. Lemon thyme pasta with white kidney beans, a green salad, multigrain bun and fruit salad. Balanced AND nutritious? Who'd a thunk? Breakfast was just as delightful with a blueberry muffin, orange juic and apple slices. Although I wish there had been peanut butter. But then I always wish there was peanut butter. The airline also had a strong selection of both English and French Canadian content in the on board entertainment. Coeur de Pirate, A separation, Bon cop bad cop.... Kudos Air Transat for supporting Canadian artists and filmmakers! I would definitely recommend them for your next trip.

Oh, and did I mention complimentary wine with dinner? FREE. WINE.

As for the gatwick story I mentioned before, here's what went down:

I was tired but coasting through each checkpoint on my way out if the airport. Security: check. Baggage: check. I was winning left right and centre. Until I got to the shuttle bus stop. I had bought my ticket online and printed off the email confirming my purchase. I pulled t out of my bag and started glancing around, realizing my sheet of paper did not look like other people's sheets of paper. I then read the email and came across that line of horror: "this is not your ticket."

...*facepalm*

So winning rachel turned into panicky rachel as she stopped at information to ask if there were computers with printers anywhere. Which there were, but they only accept change. Zap icky rachel then stops into a shop and buys a Star Bar (English wunderbars, *om nom nom* ) so she can get some change to print off her shuttle ticket to make it within the one hour window that her ticket allows. *sigh* Everything worked out fine, but it taught me the first lesson of my trip: Always read the fine print.