Heathrow.

London, England - Heath Ledger, having a fight? No. Heathrow, as in the airport in London, England. It turns out that this ‘traveling around the world’ thing can swallow quite a chunk of time. And be mildly exhausting. I might be approaching a personal record for longest time without sleep as I sit here in waiting to board my third plane of the day – 33 hours and counting. And I still have the longest stretch ahead of me.

“Wait a second,” you might be saying to yourself if you had seen my itinerary prior to the trip – “Heathrow? I thought you were going through Paris?” Been there, done that, too; got to practice my French again. Quite a bit. Vociferously even. The City of Lights, well, wasn’t shining too brightly today.

Actually, it started comically enough as SCS commented that the service, architecture and cleanliness reminded her of many developing nations’ airports. Except that this one was still worse. Circular white tile reminiscent of public washrooms, unwashed in many years. The walls, made of some, formerly white, asbestos-seeming material. Also unwashed. Ludicrously layed-out, we repeatedly had to make our way to “Satellite Four”, which was found down a long, undulating tunnel. At the end? A single wicket at one of the farthest extremities of the airport. But no plane. [Boarding Call]

The blocks, above are from a floating piece of art installed in the Pearson International Airport in Toronto.