Time Travel

6 AM wake up in Denver! I wish I could say I woke feeling rested and ready, but I was so anxious about traveling that I only slept 3.5 hours. I was on a high of excited energy as I packed my last items and met up with the other Denver girls to go to the airport.

Cars loaded, goodbyes said to the few loved ones who were around to say them and we set off! Thanks to Evan & Kandis for transporting us on the first leg of our trip! 

Given that we had 8 team bags (including coolers, suitcases and med kits) in addition to our own luggage check-in went quite smoothly. We only had about an hour to kill before the first flights set off. I was on a flight by myself, so after hanging for a bit with the others I went to my gate and thought about how I was going to manage keeping myself awake for the next 3 hours. 

Fortunately, I downloaded some awesome music the night before. My playlist was rockin and my brand new headphones were boomin! I listened to jams, read a little and walked up and down the tiny aisle...SUCCESS! I stayed awake the entire flight, which was supposed to put me in good position to be on UK time with a good sleep on the next flight. If any of you have ever been a part of previous over seas trips with me you can guess how successful this went.

My layover in Toronto was a fail in productivity, happiness and an overall feeling of being alive. I was so far beyond tired that my functionality took a rapid decline and stayed pretty far under the bottom for the entirety of the 3 hours I spent in Canada. Oh dear...let’s move on. 

Cafe Nero takeover 

The 7 hour flight to London was mostly uneventful. I was asleep before we took off and was fortunate enough to get a seat on this massive plane with no row in front of me-cheers for leg space! I encountered a road block named Customs once I got to London. Apparently being unemployed means you need proof of..well everything when entering another country. Oops! It took me 20 minutes to convince the agent that I wasn’t going to rob the UK of lawful employment..and really she only let me through because she saw Kittery early that morning and knew what was happening-thanks Kitt for being an employed rugby player ;) 

I met up with the other Eagles who had arrived early in London. We took up shelter in the back of a coffee shop lounge area and awaited the arrival of everyone else. Happiness all around! I was so happy to see everyone, to be reunited with love and rugby energy :) 

After a 3 hour bus ride (and lots of chatting time with Nathalie!) we made it to Wales. Everything in Wales is so green and lush! Beautiful :) We had a short practice, a small dinner (at least for this vegetarian-which I guess isn’t a thing here) followed by an hour long meeting filled with sleeping teammates. 

Wales!

By the time I made it to my room and sat on the bed it was already 9:30pm. Somehow the time between leaving Denver and getting to sleep “that night” was over 24 hours long. I am officially a time traveler.