Travel Day 19 — The Finale

Today we woke up at 8:00 to finalize our packing, get some breakfast, and head out to the airport. It took just about an hour to get over to the airport from our hostel, so we left at about 10:30 with a new friend Cam from Norway who was just in for the night on work. While eating breakfast I checked the AirTransat app to see if it had any flight information, and the app said the plane was delayed by an hour. After doing some more searching, the other sites said nothing about a delayed flight, but we decided to go early just to check. We made it to the airport at about 11:45, I had to head over to the Tax Reclaim (as I had purchased something that gave me a good 10% cash back, thank you Canada) and after that mess — seriously some people have no idea how to read sometimes, I swear — we headed over to security. Funny enough, the airport in Venice was MUCH more organized than Gatwick. So, instead of a 20 minute wait at the security checkpoint, we were through in about 10 minutes. While we still had 2 hours before our flight was originally supposed to leave (14:35) Dean and I sought out some food. While it seems like we just ate on paper here, it was really ~4 hours since we last ate, plus we’d like some full stomachs before hoping on the plane, whenever it really does leave. The burgers we had (yes we were sick of all the pasta and pizza honestly) were great. Dean had as a side these deep-fried, meat/cheese stuffed olives that he said were incredible. But the burgers really hit the spot.
With no rush we headed over to the gate to check on the times, with no sign in the airport claiming the delay that my phone had said, we waited until we got an announcement from the airport. The plane had been delayed until further notice. We waited to board from 13:30–15:00 before we were finally checked in by the gate and waiting to take a bus over to our plane. Finally taking off about 15:45 we had a solid delay going, and both Dean and I were worried about making our connection in Toronto, but for the moment just had to sit back, relax and enjoy the plane ride.

When we first got to our seats (I had the window, Dean had the middle of the 3 seats) we sat down and got situated quickly. But just after 5 minutes, and an annoying isleman who was battling Dean for the arm rests, the stewardess came by to ask if we would like to be moved to the exit row isle in the middle 3 seats. I swear there was a tear in Dean’s eyes, but I couldn’t say for sure since he’s 6’7” and I just couldn’t see that high (didn’t have my glasses on).

Note: for everyone travelling by plane ever, middle man gets the arm rests, plane and simple.

Thanks AirTransat stewardess, that was by far THE best plane ride I have had in a while. Truly, it made the 9 hours bearable as we had children on children on this flight . I was loosing my mind in the line up to get on the plane. Plus, unlike the first flight we took Vancouver to London (Gatwick) this flight had food! Now it was my turn to tear up. You know, people joke about airline food, but I didn’t find it half bad at all. But I was starving to say the least, the portions just aren’t what I’m used to back home even though I should cut down, however I’ll save that for a later date at this time.

I ended up reading the entire flight (finished a book and a half) and when we landed we found that our plane had been delayed from Toronto to Vancouver by 30 minutes! We have honestly been so lucky on this trip with our connections, and even though Dean ended up running to the gate in Toronto (he went to get Booster Juice) there was no rush heading through the lines thank goodness. I have to say quickly though, that the electronic customs that Canada has been implementing in the past couple of years are (excuse my french) ASS! It took us 30 minutes to get through the customs alone. These machines just straight up would not work having us try and retry to scan our passports. There should really be a better method, and that better method should have MUCH better touch screens. I’m serious, the government goofed on that purchase in my opinion, or didn’t’ get the best model that they should have. Anyways, we got on the flight, and after being up now 18 hours we were almost home!

While this time we didn’t get the exit row seats, I continued to read my book (as well as Dean) and by the last hour and a half of the plane ride, we were both dosing off doing our best to stay awake as we were approaching 24 hours being awake. I finished my book (second of the day) and decided it was time for a quick nap even though I know it wouldn’t help me in the long run to get back to my timezone, but I just needed to close my eyes for a bit. And just like that we were home! Back on Canadian soil, and man has it never felt any better.

I can’t believe that just like that after 19 days the trip is over, and man what a trip it has been. These past couple weeks travelling/sightseeing/backpacking (call it what you will because I call it all) has been incredible. I’ve truly enjoyed writing this blog for the friends, family and the world to read. In a few years I know I’m going to look back and read these, remembering all the other stories and details I’ve left out, but just could not put into words. There has been so many incredible people Dean and I have met on this trip, and to them I say thank you as well. For wanting to learn more about Canada, for teaching us more about your home countries and most importantly for becoming some new friends. This truly has been the trip of a lifetime, and I have learned so many things along the way that I will carry on with me thought the rest of my days. Thank you also to everyone who has supported me the past couple of years, I know I get intolerable some times, but thanks for bearing with me.
~Spencer

P.S. I have not posted any photos the past couple of days, and for that I apologize. I’m going to be cleaning my room and my phone the next couple of days and will be going over all my photos. Bear with me as I have approximately 3,000 photos to go over and pick out the best for all the travelling I have done. When I’m finished I’ll be posting a majority online for those to see, most likely in a Dropbox drive or something similar.

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Thanks for the read!