Leaving London

I made it to Heathrow with plenty of time. I'd been sadly excited to go to Terminal 5 at Heathrow for the first time and flying with BA.... but I don't know why. T5 was very impressive but full of boutique shops and fancy eateries which wasn't for me this time. I had a list of last minute purchases to make so ran around doing that. It felt so good to eventually get on the plane – very tired but excited. I'd checked in online exactly when the 24 hour advance check-in opened and with the help of seatguru.com had one of the best seats with extra leg room. I was sat next to a Norwegian girl called Linn who straight away started chatting and was really friendly – a great ice breaker and my first traveling pal!! She was heading to Costa Rica via Miami too and had been there before so we spent much of the flight chatting about her experience and where to go / what to do. The entire journey from London to Miami to Costa Rica should have been about 15 hours but ended up being 24 hours !! Both flights were delayed and we sat on the tarmac at Miami waiting for the maintenance men to mend a fluorescent light cover for 2 hours !! It had to be the one right above my seat so had to constantly keep getting out my seat while they bumbled around. Sleep finally caught up with me and just couldn't keep my eyes open. Next thing I know we are landing in San Jose during the early hours. With Linn's help i'd sorted an official airport taxi transfer before we got through the double doors so saved me from running the gauntlet of dodgy taxi men. So after saying goodbye to Lin I had a drama free transfer to my hostel which i'd been worried about. Hostel wasn't that great but i'd only booked it at the last minute for an initial 2 night stopover to prepare for my next move. I'd been awake for majority of 30 hours so it was so nice to finally have a bed !!