I will get to that Icelandic guy part later but let’s start at the beginning of the day. The time on the clock was showing 1:45 am and I was already awake because the departure day finally arrived. I was at home for a few weeks already after my last trip to Southeast Asia and was already excited about going on a new trip. I already knew then that it will be a very long day. The shuttle company sent us details about our transfer to Vienna the day before. One thing stood out the most then. That was the time of departure.
I imagined that it will be quite early because our first flight to London was at 11:30 am. It is a general rule to be at the airport around 2 hours or so before your flight. And the usual travel time from Ljubljana to Vienna is about 4 hours. So after the van filled with some other passengers, we left right on the schedule at 3:10 am!
【If you are wondering why am I going on this trip check out my first post about this trip where I explained all about it.】
➲ 1st leg Ljubljana – Vienna
It was still pitch dark outside and we started the first leg of our journey to Miami. Shortly after we already fell asleep since most of us had just a little bit of sleep or not even that. The ride itself went smoothly and in the blink of an eye, we were already at the airport in Vienna. Two of us have already flown from this airport while for the other two friends this was the first time on this airport.
The time was showing around 8 am. Luckily, we did make a coffee/toilet break on the way because otherwise, we would have been at the airport even earlier. I mentioned in the previous post already, we did not travel with any check-in baggage. That is why we also did not have to wait for the check-in counters to open. Instead, we used the machines for self-check-in which were very easy to use. And before we knew it we were already on the other side of security checks. It was still quite early so the lines for that were not too long.
We spent some time in the main international area. We had a light breakfast and something to drink. That ended up being a good idea because of the events that happened later in London. After that, we soon went near to our gates which was really packed already and we were barely able to find four empty seats that were more or less close to each other. The waiting game began. Soon they finally started boarding people and so we got on the plane eventually as well. This was the first time I’ve ever flown with British Airways. If I’m not mistaken it was an Airbus A320 and it was completely full, meaning there were around 180 people on board (a bit hard to imagine at the time of writing this post).
Arrival in London ☑
After about two and a half hours we finally landed at London Heathrow airport. This was one of the two remaining airports in London that I haven’t flown to yet. So far I have been to Gatwick, Luton, and Stanstead and the only remaining one now is London City airport. There was a minor issue, though. We landed with a 10 minutes delay so we had less than an hour to catch our flight to Miami!
In normal situations that would not be such a big problem right? Well, we landed on Terminal 3 which is by far the biggest and busiest terminal on Heathrow. We started to proceed to the security check once again. Doing the same thing, as usual, getting out all electronic devices. We also had our toiletries in required sizes packed inside a sealed transparent plastic bag. We waited, we waited and the line was moving really slowly. I do not know if it was just the feeling or perhaps it was the slowest ever security line that I have been in at any of the airports so far.
The time was showing 2:40 pm and we still did not get through the security check. Luckily a few minutes later we finally did. Then the long-distance running started more or less. We saw where our gate is and it was already listed final call. The only thing that made me feel better at that point was the fact that I saw a lot of people running to the same gates. I knew that they would not leave so many people. We got to the gates just in time and people were still behind us.
➲ 2nd leg London – Miami
There was a thing that made my day instantly better. This happened when I saw what kind of a plane we will be flying with. That was Airbus A380-800 aka the biggest plane in the world. I was not aware that we will be flying with this plane because when I was booking plane tickets I did not see upper deck seats then which this plane has. Anyways, this was not my first time flying this superjumbo. I flew with one of Qatar Airways superjumbo when I went to Asia a year before.
The flight itself nor the service by British Airways were not anywhere near Qatar Airways, though. The flight was once again almost completely full and in this case, this meant that there were around 450 passengers on the board. I have heard a lot of Slovene people on the plane, there was really a lot of us from a country that only has a population of around 2 million. That is way less than the population of Florida. I am not the type of person who likes to complain but this flight was really something ”special”.
Ultra Miami festival is happening around that time in Miami as well so some people will go there. There was a group of people from Iceland in the middle rows that were among those who went there. At the beginning it was okay but then they started drinking more and more. The level of noise was getting higher as well. Everyone was able to see how much the flight attendants were annoyed by them already. I lost hopes of getting any sleep on this flight by that time already. The flight lasted for almost 10 hours for your information.
Emirates Airbus A380-800 was parked left of the British Airways plane which I only saw for the first time when I was boarding the plane on the jet bridge.
The arrival in Miami ☑
It got worse before it got better though. When the flight attendants were collecting trash one of the Icelandic guys sitting in the row next to me got so drunk already that he actually vomited on the flight attendant when she was passing by. In my language, we actually have a phrase for that and it is ”klicati jelene” which translates as calling deers. I can see why that phrase was invented and I can not imagine how bad that girl felt at that moment.
At about 8 pm we finally arrived at Miami International Airport. We still were not that close to our Airbnb and getting some sleep. The main obstacle at this point was the immigration control because the line seemed endless. Thank God that it moved much faster there than that security check line in London. I was in New York around Halloween the year before and I did find something peculiar about the airports in the US. That is the fact that the baggage carousels are located in a public area right next to the exit doors which meant that everyone could get inside. That is not the case in any of the European nor Asian airports where I have traveled through so far.
Once we got out we ordered Uber which arrived quickly and we were already on the way to our Airbnb. The host messaged us before the arrival that she will leave the keys under the doormat. After some time we finally arrived in Brickell and at our Airbnb. We found the keys straight away and went in. By that time we were all very tired already and wanted to sleep. At that moment the host comes by to say hi because she actually lives in the house next to the two cottages. We did not talk too much then but she seemed to be a very friendly lady.
This was a very long day and this is also the end of this post. The next post will definitely be more positive and you will also find out how in the world were we using mobile data completely for free there?! 💯
The entire flight map of that day
