6:51 AM<\/p>\n
What a morning! I\u2019ve been tossing and turning since a little past 5! At 6, I said enough!<\/em> and I got up, showered, packed, etc. Although I\u2019m not hungry, I figure it would be smart to get a bowl of cereal in me. Then, I\u2019ll have to zoom<\/em> downtown. So far, it looks like I might make the airport for 8:30. I could be there for 8, but I think it would be silly throwing away a free breakfast. Besides, I\u2019m in no real<\/em> rush, I don\u2019t have<\/em> to check in until 9. It feels weird to think that \u2018tonight\u2019, I\u2019ll be sleeping in my own bed! I\u2019ve put tonight in quote marks because it\u2019ll be tonight in Canada, but very<\/em> early morning here! The jet lag coming wasn\u2019t too bad, but I hear that going west is worse. It\u2019s like living the same day twice. Anyhoo, tomorrow should be interesting! When I get \u2018home\u2019 I want to soak, <\/em>and\u00a0wear something I haven\u2019t worn in a month (I had the same three tee-shirts, one sweater, and one everyday pair of pants\u00a0!).<\/p>\n 9:01<\/p>\n I\u2019m all checked in and ready to board at 10:15! It\u2019s incredible: the subway arrived at the same time I did, then I got to the bus stance just as they were getting ready to go. Check in was a breeze<\/em>, but it would appear that I have to get my luggage in Toronto to clear customs and then get it back on the plane. I\u2019ll figure it out when I get there\u00a0! I bought (my uncle) a full litre of \u2018Highland Park\u2019 (no smaller size). I figure I might as well get him one I like rather than pick and choose at random. Edradour was more expensive (and not as good!) Turns out \u2018Wallace\u2019 is a liqueur<\/em> made from single malt whiskey. Thanks for nothing, lady!<\/p>\n I just set my watch back to hometime. It\u2019s 4AM there!!! I\u2019ll be in Toronto at 13:15 EST. That\u2019s 9 hours from now\u00a0! I have to catch my connecting flight at 15:00. It\u2019s going to be tight<\/em>!<\/p>\n 12:08 EST (from now on, EST)<\/p>\n Despite some minor<\/em> turbulence, the flight has been smooth<\/em>. We\u2019re flying over Quebec now. The in-flight movie was \u2018Titanic\u2019! Can you believe that the return flight is a whole two hours longer?! Due to winds we\u2019re going to be delayed. Oh well, just so long as I\u2019m on<\/em> the plane for Montreal at 3!<\/p>\n I am amazed<\/u><\/em> by the quality of the vegetarian (actually vegan) meals offered. Lunch was TOFU\u00a0served with peppers and rice with bread and fruit salad and crackers for dessert. Our snack (well mine!) was a whole wheat bun with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber with orange juice and a tangerine on the side. Of course, I\u2019ve had tea.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was cool flying over the north(ish) Atlantic while the boat (\u2018Titanic\u2019) sank (yes, I am<\/em> morbid!). I can\u2019t believe that movie still makes me cry. The worst\/best part is at the end where the photographs are revealed and one sees that Rose has fulfilled all her dreams. Now, my<\/em> dream has come true. This time around, I shed tears of understanding of the miracle incurred by the realisation of dreams, while the previous two times I wept out of petty jealously. Oh, I am no longer the same person anymore! I\u2019m not even the least bit worried about clearing customs, etc. and making my 3:00 flight! Whatever happens, will happen. I can\u2019t advert my fate. It\u2019s fate, a fate\u00a0I<\/u><\/em><\/strong> created that has brought me here. Jack Dawson\u2019s right: \u2018Make it count\u2019, live each day. I realise now that each new dawn is full of opportunity and each new day full of adventure. Life can\u2019t be perfect, but this is close!<\/p>\n 4:20 pm<\/p>\n I made it!!! We arrived over a half hour late in Toronto, but I had no trouble clearing customs. My handbag had to be opened and rifled through, though, since the x-ray machine picked up something \u2018weird\u2019. (I had all my \u2018hardware\u2019 in there: clothes pins, miniature grappling hooks, and a pocket knife, among other things. The \u2018searcher\u2019 started laughing, she couldn\u2019t believe how prepared I was for any situation!)<\/p>\n Leaving Toronto took forever<\/em>. We taxied for over 15 minutes, then we had to queue (very<\/em> Brit. word!) to take off. Now, we\u2019ve landed, but our gate is currently occupied by another aircraft so we\u2019ll have about 8 minutes to wait. (L. Pearson airport, Toronto, was undergoing major renovation, so planes were delayed leaving. The plane at our gate in Montreal was one such plane that had been delayed like ours.) This is the worse thing that\u2019s happened to me since I left a month ago. Poor me!<\/p>\n Right now, it\u2019s supposed to be 9:23 Glasgow time, but I feel on Montreal time. I\u2019ll get back to you in a few hours! The snack this flight was ice cream on a stick. It was funny looking at the business travellers in ties and suits dealing with it!<\/p>\n It\u2019s good, but weird, to be \u2018home\u2019. What is the definition of home\u00a0? I guess it\u2019s where you understand what makes people tick (in both good and bad sense). It\u2019s where the rhythm of life is so engrained in you as to be unnoticeable to you. It\u2019s where you can \u2018go with the flow\u2019 and not have to think about it. I dinna ken, really. But when you\u2019re home, you feel it. And this is<\/em> home. Not Montreal as such, but Canada, in general. I understand Canadians. I can guess what motivates Scots, but only guess. I don\u2019t<\/em> know what motivates Canadians, but I do know how they think. I really am a Canadian above all else. These people, a veritable crazy quilt of cultures, are my<\/em> people. I\u2019m starting to get a sense of identity that I couldn\u2019t see until I left the country and saw other cultures.<\/p>\n That\u2019s it! I went to Scotland in search of myself, and succeeded. I am astounded by that last entry. I had to leave Canada in order to understand what makes me Canadian. I learned valuable lessons on this journey, lessons that will stick with me for ever, and through all my travels.<\/p>\n I know the journal is not always eloquent, but it was jotted down on trains, planes, and buses, while standing in line, or eating dinner. Sometimes, I\u2019d just lean against the corner of a building or plop down on a bench somewhere. It was written during stolen moments of time. I cannot imagine travelling without it.<\/p>\n Thank you for sharing the most incredible adventure of my life with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 6:51 AM What a morning! I\u2019ve been tossing and turning since a little past 5! At 6, I said enough! and I got up, showered, packed, etc. Although I\u2019m not hungry, I figure it would be smart to get a bowl of cereal in me. Then, I\u2019ll have to zoom downtown. So far, it looks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[632,636,643,719,635,633,718,641,3,56],"tags":[642],"class_list":["post-10322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canada","category-europe","category-glasgow","category-montreal","category-north-america","category-ontario","category-quebec","category-toronto","category-travel","category-uk","tag-airports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}