The beginning of an adventure

09.09-10.09.2013

The initial part of the expedition has been to travel from my home in Lublin where I spent the summer writing my dissertation through Warszawa, London Stansted and Biarritz (it was supposed to be Lourdes) to Lourdes. If checked on the probably most popular maps website, it is 3279 km and 31 hours by car. I have flown twice so the actual distance covered by myself has to differ slightly but this nonetheless gives an idea of the length of the inaugural journey. Even before I submitted my final piece of Masters-level written work four days before the flight, I was already thinking about a part of my pilgrimage experience. The original idea at the time of submitting the application has been not to take my sim card with me to distance myself even more from what other people call 'normal life' (I do not think that there is any need for a division between normal and not-normal life, there is just life). I have told my family and my friends that I was thinking about that, however, in the end, I did take it with me what has proved later on to be a very good decision. I have not attempted to communicate my final choice so in a way I did disconnect myself (or connected more strongly to what was happening around me). The travelling stage has been without complications up until 5 minutes before I was supposed to board my second flight, from London Stansted to Lourdes. With other passengers we had gone through the entire process of luggage checking-in, security screening and waiting before, without any prior warning, we were informed that our flight had been cancelled. Later, I would find out that mine has been the only Ryanair flight to France cancelled that day, at the time, we were told that it was the French air traffic controllers strike. The previous time it happened it lasted for three days! After a lot of confusion, hassle, anger and exhaustion I was back in the main part of London Stansted terminal waiting this time for a flight to Biarritz in the south of France. Hoping I would actually fly there. At around 12.30 pm I did leave the airport on board of a plane to France, with more than 6 hours of delay. To clarify the context, I did not have any idea about how to get from Biarritz to Lourdes. Except that there was some 160 km between them. You can interpret it as you prefer but when I asked a woman standing next to me, who I recognised from London Stansted, about how to get to Lourdes, she replied that she might be able to help me. She consulted with her husband (he drove to Biarritz to pick her up, they were living in the south of France) and confirmed that I can join them in the car. In total, they were only two people but they have given lift to 5 other passengers from the same flight! I do remember your names but for the sake of your privacy I am not going to mention them here. If you ever come across this blog, I want you to know that I will be forever grateful for your help at the moment of need! Summarising, in this way, after more than 3000 km and more than 24 hours since I walked through the door of my house in Lublin, I have arrived in Lourdes.