From Village Life to Luxury

~ Monday 18th August

I have officially touched down in the UK after seven unforgettable weeks in the continent of Africa. My appreciation for my home country has never been greater.

I'm sitting in arrivals at Heathrow and I have a few hours to kill before my parents arrive so let me back up a little and take you through my 38 hour journey back.

On Saturday I once again boarded the coach from Iringa that would take me back to Dar-e-Salam in nine hours. When we reached Landmark Hotel my parents were already waiting for me so I bid farewell to my group and was whisked off in a taxi to the hotel my parents were staying at. It was evening by this point and by the time I'd filled them in on what I'd seen and experienced, it was evening so we went out to eat and they showed me around the area we were in. They had street barbecues! It was pretty cool and after a week of being a vegetarian I was kinda excited to eat meat again. It's the small things in life.

While we were waiting for our meal, we bought a teddy for my little niece and the kid was like "that's some depressing teddy; it looks like it has AIDS". I was dying hahaha wait, let me pic it so you guys can weigh in your opinion.

It tasted as good as it looks for the record. Back at the hotel me and the kid watched a film before sleeping late because we were sharing a room, then yesterday we watched the Liverpool game against Southampton before packing and heading to the airport.

Our flight from Dar-e-Salam to Addis Ababa was at 2am; we arrived in Addis at 6am and then I had the painful five hour wait till I departed for London. The parents and kid boarded their flight at 10am to head to Frankfurt which was their additional stop over on their way home.

My flight wasn't actually bad; I had the loveliest gentleman sitting next to me and I watched two films to pass my time. I got round to watching A Long Way Down (I've been meaning to watch it for ages, 90% because of Aaron Paul) - it wasn't brilliant though, it was one of those movies that's nice as a one-off and it was pretty funny to be fair so it wasn't so bad. And then I (finally!) watched Inception. The sound quality was a bit on and off so honestly, I didn't understand it very well but it passed three hours of my plane journey so I'm not complaining.

I touched down at 5pm and it took me an hour or so to get through customs, reclaim my luggage and find a seat in a cafe but in a location where I could keep an eye on my luggage trolley (which took forever because arrivals was beyond packed). And here I am!

Munching on British goods because my God have I missed them. I ended up paying £8 for a bagel and strawberry lemonade but you know what, it was worth every damn penny.

Oh, message alert. Their flight has been delayed. That means I have another hour to play the waiting game. Ha. It's a good job I have unread books on me.

Until next time folks.