A diary of the events that happened between 10:30PM on 7/16/10 and 10AM on 7/17/10
Day 9 in London, and I still can’t adjust to the time here. I don’t know why that is, but for some reason I have been super energized since being here. And today is the first day I’ve had any caffeine since arriving. I got the caffeine not because I needed it, but only because I had the sudden craving for a Coke Zero.
Tomorrow we leave for a day in Dublin, Ireland. This is what I’ve been looking forward to most this entire trip. As if not being able to fall asleep before 3AM and living on only 3-4 hours sleep isn’t enough, our flight out tomorrow means getting up at 4:30AM to be out the door by 5 to catch a bus to the train to the plain. So I said to my friends as I took a sip from my 2 Liter Coke Zero bottle (I had gotten for a mere £1.69!) “Why go to sleep at all tonight? We should just stay up and have fun!”
After all, how could one measly hour of sleep make that much more difference than none at all.
So here goes: my first official attempt at pulling an all-nighter. After living the past 19 years and surviving my entire freshman year of college without having to resort to this, I was gung-ho to give it a whirl. After all this whole trip has been about experiencing new things…seemed fitting.
Yet the challenge also seemed a little daunting. Could I really go all night til the next morning with no sleep, having already been up for 18 hours straight? I wasn’t entirely convinced I could, but I wanted to try. So I popped across the street to the convenience store and loaded up on diet caffeinated soda and chocolate. Which by the way, British chocolates, even just their Kit Kats, are soooooo much better than American chocolates. Happy!
After about a fifth of my 2 Liter Coke Zero and a Kit Kat, I was feeling that giddy delirium I usually don’t start to experience til 2AM…a sign that miserably grouchy tiredness was just around the corner. Yet it’s only midnight. This should get interesting.
11PM—Took a hilarious picture of my professor drinking milk from a carton and thought to myself with a little photoshopping this could become a hilarious ‘Got Milk?’ ad. Twnety minutes later, I discovered I was TOTALLY RIGHT!
12 midnight—still not sleepy, but more placid than giddy. . Think it’s time for another swig from the Coke Zero and maybe some more photoshopping! I’ve got over 1,000 photos from this trip I can’t hardly WAIT to play with. And maybe I’ll put on my new Wicked soundtrack to try to drown out the loud motorcycles and crazy chanting pub-goers I hear outside my window. Yeah, that should help wake me up. Hmmmm…trying to decide if I should indulge and eat my Snickers now or save it for later. Decisions, decisions.
12:15AM—already 2 friends have bailed on the all-night adventure and turned in for the night. Poop.
12:20—crap! I’m already getting sleepy. Here I haven’t been able to fall asleep before 3AM since I got to London, and the one day I decide to attempt an all-nighter is the one day I suddenly feel sleepy. To sleep or not to sleep? That is the question. Grrrrrr…maybe I’ll try to finish photoshopping this batch of photos and reevaluate then.
12:45—Photoshop+Wicked Soundtrack+Coke Zero+Skittles (don’t tell my mom. Haha)=second wind of energy! Now we’re talking.
1AM—Second wind turned out to be more like a tiny fart of energy. It left way too quickly. This idea is starting to suck. I think all my friends must be smarter than I since they have proceeded to try to catch some zzzzzs. I’m kinda wanting to follow their lead.
1:02AM—Finished editing first batch of pics and I am giving up! It isn’t worth pulling an all-nighter to be miserably tired in Ireland. I don’t want to ruin the one day I’ve been so looking forward to. Two hours of sleep right now sounds lovely. Setting alarm for 4AM. Dublin, here I come! What really sucks is that this isn’t even close to my record for staying up. Blarg. Oh well. Gotta keep the focus on Ireland!
* * *
4AM—time to get up for Ireland! Soooooooooo glad I got three hours of sleep. Even though it was interrupted sleep due to blaring sirens, shouting drunks, and this fool who sits outside and whistles every night, all night. But even with all that, I do feel rested and ready for the trip to Dublin, something I’ve dreamed about ever since the first time I saw Riverdance on DVD!
4:30AM—dressed and ready to go. And can I just say again HOW GLAD I AM I GOT SOME SLEEP! I would be a walking zombie without it. And we have quite a long trip ahead just to get to the airport. I think I’m gonna have to treat myself to sleeping in tomorrow. But after a few swigs of my carbonated, caffeinated, aspartame-loaded ale of choice (haha), I’m starting to perk up to being my cynical self for being this early in the morning. Probably need a few more sips of the Coke Zero before I can return to my normal pleasant state.
5:15AM—waiting outside. About to leave to catch a bus to Liverpool Station. We were supposed to have left 15 minutes ago, but two girls were running late getting ready…tisk tisk. Don’t they know we’re going to IRELAND!
5:30AM—finally catching the bus. Hooray!
5:45AM—realized we got on the right bus going the wrong direction. Hahaha. Yikes. Our train leaves at 6:15.
6:05AM—arrived at Liverpool station. Hungry and already tired, several of us hit the little café kiosks that thankfully were open early.
6:15AM—people still in line for food. Profs decided to wait for the 6:25 train.
6:20AM—I never did get my food. Running to catch train.
6:25AM—on train going to Stratford Airport!!!! Should be around a 45 minute ride. This is actually my very first train ride. Lame, I know, but I love trains.
7:10AM—Well…I slept through my very first train ride. Bummer. At airport. Flight takes off in an hour, and gate closes in half an hour. Still haven’t checked in and gone through security. Don’t know where we’re supposed to go. Gonna have to kick it into high gear now.
7:20AM—everyone’s starting to get a little anxious. In line to go through security. I’m so nervous they’re going to hassle me about my insulin pump like they did in New Orleans. I hate airport security. HATE IT!
7:30AM—made it through security with no incidents! Yippee. Just have to run like hell now to make it to the gate before it closes in ten minutes. And we have quite a ways to run.
7:35AM—running through the airport like a bunch of crazy folks. Cutting in front of people, jumping over baby strollers (not really), running up the escalators—if someone were to do this to me, I know I’d be really pissed, but hey, we’ve got a plane to Ireland to catch. What goes around can come around back to me later.
7:40AM—sprinting into the line at the gate! Yay! We made it. Hallelujah! Out of breath, yet feeling extremely accomplished and now WIDE awake, we saw that the line to get on the plane was very long…and not moving. We stood in line for about half an hour to board the plane we had raced through an airport like horses on Derby Day to catch. Kinda aggravating, but I kept reminding everyone that now we had a great story to tell over and over and over and over and over again. It’s the things like this--those days when you so carefully plan out how everything’s going to go only to find that nothing follows that plan—that makes life interesting.
8:15AM—got to board my first plane from the tarmac. REALLY REALLY COOL! I always wanted to board a plane from the ground. I don’t know why. It was such a neat experience exiting the airport terminal, walking down the flight of stairs, opening up the door and feeling the cool, crisp air as I took that first step out onto the black-top. There were dozens of planes all around, pulling in and out of their terminals. I only wish I had been allowed to take pictures of it, but security people weren’t too happy when I pulled out my camera as they escorted the group to our flight. Then came the ascent up the stairs to the plane—that famous walk from the ground to the door of the aircraft I had dreamed about from all the times I’d watched Casablanca—it was pretty awesome.
8:20AM—Sitting in the seats, about to take off for Dublin, Ireland. Words can’t even describe my excitement. Pretty much grinning ear to ear the entire flight.
Only 8:20 in the morning and I had already experienced a lot of firsts—first train ride, first mad dash through an airport, first walk across the airport tarmac, first time (of many to come) trips to Ireland –it’s going to be a day to remember forever!
Story to continue…Til next time,
Cheers y’all
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