Atlanta

     So, I woke up at 4am in order to get a free transfer to the airport. The airport was so confusing! In order to pass through to security I had to pay a departure tax of $26, for using the airport =S Bit silly when thats the only way in and out! Never mind, its worth it! This journey was very uneventful! We had planned it that I would arrive in Atlanta at 1pm, allowing for me getting detained and such, we scheduled my grandad arriving at 3pm and therefore my family would come at around 3.30pm to avoid any hangin around (made sense). However for this journey, they had decided to allow to walk straight through, with the immigration official in the airport which started this whole hassle saying that it would be silly to detain me over something so silly (thank the lord for common sense)! So I got straight through for the first whoop whoop! But this was a slight curse as I then had a two hour wait in the airport, not much in comparison I guess.

     To use up time I walked the length of the airport (takes about 45 minutes but some excellent artwork on the walls and between the walkways so I didnt mind it) and grabbed some fries as I read my book waiting for my grandad to emerge from the escalators. I was so excited at this point haha! So once he had came through, my Auntie met me and him and took us to the car to start our mini adventure in one of the worlds greatest cities.

     My Aunt and Uncle have just moved house to accomodate their new arrival so it was great having a look around a new section of Atlanta and seeing more places where people are living (makes me want to live there even more!!!) My first few days in Atlanta I simply relaxed, recovering from the three months of intensive work and excitment. I went into the centre of the city with my grandfather in order to visit the embassy to do something about the passport issue, however they couldnt do anything still, ive reached a point whereby I do not know what I am meant to do about it anymore!!! I guess the rest of my life is going to be marred by this issue =(

     I was in Atlanta for five days spending quality time with the family, eating fab food, and looking around the wal-marts and krogers for sweets and nice food which I had been denied in Costa Rica!!! I love America seriously!!! Atlanta is such an exciting city with huge buildings and a busy population in the downtown area whilst have a large urban sprawl for residential use with large houses and loads of greenery! I love the differences! Plus they have seasons to die for, hot summers, warm autumns and cold winters =D

     However, my time in Atlanta quickly drew to a close and it was time to head home after all the drama, fun, hard times and great experiences of the last few months! Packing took forever as I had so much more stuff, and Larry was packing for a lads weekend in Las Vegas so the two of us were getting ready to go togehter to Atlanta airport. Atlanta airport is HUGE (Atlanteans wouls laugh at our Airport in Newcastle!) and Larry checked in on side, mine was around the other side which sounds ok, barring the fact its about a mile as my check in desk is the furthest away and my bag is huge as well as the airport!!! Eventually I got there and realised pretty quickly that there was something not right as the business line was disappearing whilst the economy line was stantionary. When it finally started moving they announced a 3-4 hour delay on the flight.....I had a connecting flight which I would miss!!! I told them this and they kept apologizing and said that they could give me the next available connection whihc was in evening, and as a sorry they would put me in business class......As you can guess I was very reluctant to take this =P and so ended up in the nicest bed/seat on a place ever! Shame I wasnt feeling too well and couldnt eat as the food smelt amazing, it was the best sleep on a plane yet, I was quite happy.

     Nine hours later we arrived into Heathrow, and I caught sight of the union jack the the rain, and thought "great, im back!!!" however I was seriously excited to see my family. Due to my delay, I had to hang around Heathrow for seven hours, but I had practice back in Bogota so it wasnt too bad as there is a lot to do in Heathrow (such as stupidly reading a 9/11 book in the terminal !!! talk about strange looks!) and eating in Costa coffee and shopping in the worlds greatest store; WHSmith whoop!!!! Seven hours later I got my speedy business class boarding onto my LHR to NCL flight and landed in the beloved city of Newcastle upon Tyne, it is a strange feeling having done a complete circle whihc has taken three months to do, and it is strange also having little prepared for the coming weeks and months, first time in my life that I have had nothing to work towards or do!

So, at 8pm I arrived in my taxi at home, and was met at the door by my mum and brothers, the first time I had seen them for the three months. What a journey I had been on!!!

Up next; a summary of my whole trip, good points and bad points.