England Bound.

Well, hello you guys. I am once again, in less than 3 months (might I add); in London. And my love ain't depleting y'all. If anything, I fall more and more in love with this place with every visit.

But then again, I have a feeling that I'll like it less if I were to live here. Coz to be completely honest; the weather is frustratingly unpredictable. And, I like how with every visit, I discover something new. So almost everything is an exciting new experience. But... then again... I guess I'll never really know unless I've actually lived here.

Okay, so I arrived on Friday, 8 pm local time. And heckkk it was not a smooth and easy-going journey. No it wasn't.

Let me starttt from the time that I finish my exams. Yes, I would very much like to refrain from writing about my exams because... I sucked. And because there is far superior explanation behind my sucky-ness other than "I didn't study", and "I slept like nobody's business when everyone else was busy staying up late". Its just that I don't like announcing something before every thing's in place and confirmed. Because yeahhh I kinda believe in jinxes. Sorreh.

Okay so after my papers, my housemates and I headed to the train station to send out one fellow housemate, to Cairo. So that she'd get to catch her flight the next morning. Afterwards, the three of us headed to (Surprise!); no other than Green Plaza to catch a movie + have dinner. Coz we were so blooooddyyy hungry, not even kidding. 

The original plan was to watch 'Tangled'. Had that up in my immensely long list of 'Upcoming Movies to Watch' like... ages ago. BUTTTT yeah. It just HAD to stop screening already lah kan.

So the only other movie that we had any desire to watch was Tron. Oh yeahhhh. Okay I know ! Like, sooo behind already lah. LOL. But who caressss man. I no longer feel the need to prove my cool-ness by admitting that I watched the movie on its premiere date, and snicker at someone when they caught the movie a little later than I did.

Oh puh-leaaaseee. We've all done it. Theres no need to be ashamed. Now wipe that I-am-appalled look on your faces. :-)

The movie ended around midnight, and I hadn't even began packing. AT ALL. So basically I stayed up till three because of it. And though this should've been something so easy for me to do (coz I like to stay awake during the night, and sleep after Subuh till about 9 am. I'm an owl like that yo. BUT that night, all I wanted was to just lie face down on muh mattress and fall into a deep sleep slash comatose state.

The next morning I woke up at 7.40, and (I'm not proud of this actually) that I started my day by chanting "Sh*t" and "F*ck this" all the way from my bed, throughout my shower, all the whilst I was packing some last minute stuff... Up until I realize that I had a pretty hefty amount of time to waste.

Proceeded with heading to Hasni's home, coz thats where I'll be headed to the bus 'terminal' from. Andddd ended up cursing halfway through her house as well, coz the cab dropped me off, like, a gajillion metres away. I mean... DUDE. So uncool man. Thank god my luggage runs on four wheels, or else Imma smack you yo.

I'm going to skip the excruciating details of my breakfast, and head on to the devastating frustrating news that we received after we waited for approximately half an hour for our bus, at the dump, oh wait, at the bus 'terminal'; Our bus was canceled.

At first we didn't believe it coz some guy said that the bus hadn't arrived, even though some other guy said that the bus ain't coming. 

But then another another guy explained to us that there isn't going to be any buses or taxis that'll be going into Cairo. I don't know whether if it wasn't allowed, or if its because they didn't want to take the risk of getting involved in the middle of the riot that's been taking place very recently in Egypt.

I think I woke up on the shitty side of the bed that morning, coz Sh*t was undeniably the most overused word of said day. 

Without any second thoughts, my friend and I jumped onto a cab and headed straight to the train station since it was the ONLY mode of transportation going into Cairo available at the time. Unless we decided to hire a car for about 400-500 egyptian pounds.

Unfortunately, the earliest train ticket that I was able to obtain was scheduled to arrive at 12:11 pm. And the journey takes about 3 hours. And our flight was at 5 pm. Even if we made it to Cairo at 3, we'd have only 2 hours left to spare. Which, logically is a pretty sufficient amount of time to make it to the airport, check-in, and get our asses on board a plane. But heckkk thinking about it again, Cairo's traffic is THE WORST I have ever encountered, and what with the riot being held, who the hell knows what to predict.

Luckily enough, a good samaritan (although I doubt he was trying to be) told us that the train that had just arrived at the station was bounded for Cairo. So of course lah the first thing that crossed our minds was: "We need to get on that train... NO MATTER effing WHAT wey." Missing our flight was NOT an option. Most definitely.

So what I initiated, and what my friend followed after was to beg shamelessly to the train conductors to let us on board despite it not being the train we had tickets for. It was embarrassing. But absolutely necessary. And most importantly: It worked. We even got to sit for the whole journey. LOL. Coz earlier when they agreed to let us on, they said we had to stand up the whole way. And even though we agreed to it (desperation gets you to agree to almost anything, apparently), I don't think it was possible for us to stand for the next three hours. 

Alhamdulillah. We were very thankful for the considerably 'good' luck that we had.

Reached Cairo around noon, and headed outside the train station to hail a cab. The train station in Cairo was under construction at the time, so when my friend and I first felt something prickling our eyes, noses and throats, we were quick to assume that that was caused by all the dust / dirt everywhere.

We were proven to be EKKKKK; Bloody WRONGGG. Coz halfway to the cab-hailing-centre, that initially painless prickling sensation, turned, well: PAINFUL. People started signaling for everyone to head back into the station, coz (according to the noise) the RIOT had already began. And what we mistook for dust, was actually tear gas.

I honestly feared that I was going to collapsed coz I couldn't breathe properly at the time, and my throat felt like I threw a lighted match into into my mouth. But Alhamdulillah, yet again, that both of us managed to escape everything, got out the station from the other side, got a cab (though expensive, we simply didn't have 'argue' as an option, coz for all we know, there might not be another cab. PLUS the riot could only be getting worse), and headed straight towards the airport.

Thank you God, for guiding us safely throughout everything. We almost literally kissed the airport grounds once we reached there, coz, we made it even though the universe obviously wasn't on our side that day. :-)

Alhamdulillah, for we reached London in as perfect in condition as the time we left for it.