Well, the trip home was a bit more eventful than I was hoping for. First of all, we didn't have any food for the first flight from Banjul to London. For whatever reason, they loaded an empty cart back in London, which was supposed to be filled with our dinner for the flight. The airline did some last minute scrambling to try to arrange some food for us, but were unsuccessful. We were already over an hour behind schedule taking off. After about 20 minutes of being in the air and on the way to London, the pilot pulled a full 180 degree turn and started to head south. I knew something was wrong, but there wasn't an announcement for a couple of minutes. Sure enough, the pilot announced over the intercom that there was a technical difficulty with one of the wings, and that we were going to head back to Banjul before it got any worse. My heart started racing a bit, as we starting flying in circles around Banjul, and continued to do so for about the next hour and a half so that our landing weight would be a bit less. The pilot pulled off a successful landing, as multiple fire trucks awaited our return near the runway. We were escorted back to the terminal, and were told that they would try to fix the problem within the next few hours so that we could still fly. I was pretty hopeful of this, as I my next flight was scheduled for 2:30pm the next day for Seattle. We waited around for a few hours until 10pm, no dice....All passengers were taken by coach to various hotels around the tourist areas near Bakau. I felt like I was already back in America or Europe by this point....They gave us a free room and meals.....I called my mom somewhat frantically on the bus back to the hotel, trying to arrange for my next flight to be changed, which we did successfully....not cheaply though!!!
At 8:15 in the morning, we were back on the buses heading to the airport. The flight departed right at about noon, touching down in London at 6pm. I took the train back up to St Pancras International and walked to the hostel where I stayed for the night. I slept very well that night! It was a much nicer and quieter hostel than I stayed at back in January. Yesterday, I awoke around 7:30, walked a couple of blocks to a breakfast place, then jumped on the subway to Heathrow airport. Arrived in Seattle at about 4:30, and was picked up by my wife Megan at 6.
Jet lagged and culture shocked, I'm back, happy, and in one piece.
One thing worth mentioning about the flight back to London....my friend Vikki from England whom I met from '08 was on the same flight!!! She had been in Gambia for the previous week. A friend gave her a round trip ticket as a gift at the last moment, and she seized it. We even got to sit next to each other on the plane ride. It was the best thing that could have possibly happened after everything that happened the night before...We also rode the train up into central London together....small world!
Only a week and a half has passed since I left home....It feels like a lot longer!
I hope you've enjoyed reading these blogs!
Sean
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