Our flight touched down pretty much on time, around 7:30 in the morning UK time. Then began the familiar, seemingly endless trek through the airport – first to immigration, then a lengthy wait at baggage reclaim, followed by yet more walking to find where the National Express coaches departed from. You always forget how much traipsing is involved at either end of a flight!
Journey Home
Now, we’d decided to play it a bit safe with the coach tickets back home and hadn't booked them in advance. There seemed little point locking ourselves into a specific departure time; if our flight had been delayed, we’d have missed the coach, and those tickets are usually non-refundable and non-changeable. It felt like a gamble we didn’t fancy taking after a long transatlantic flight. Worst-case scenario? No seats left, and we'd be stuck shelling out for a much more expensive train ride home.
Luckily, it seemed the travel gods were smiling on us that morning. Not only were there spare seats on a coach heading our way, but we only had about a 30-minute wait before we were on board and trundling west. Three hours on the coach got us to Portsmouth, then it was onto the ferry for the quick hop across the water, and finally, a short taxi dash home. By the time we stepped through our own front door at 11:30 a.m., it was almost exactly 24 hours after we’d left our hotel room in New York. We could definitely feel every single one of those miles in our weary bones! A quick trip to the local shops to stock up on essentials was managed on autopilot, and then, it’s fair to say, sleep came very, very easily that night.
What an absolute whirlwind of an adventure it had been! It’s wild to think back on how much we managed to cram into such a relatively short space of time, especially considering it was our very first trip abroad. Navigating the complexities of international travel, figuring out subway systems, and just generally finding our way around a completely new and enormous city – it was exhilarating, occasionally chaotic, and utterly unforgettable.
Going away is always exciting, full of new experiences and memories made. But, as much as we loved our New York escapade, there’s truly nothing that beats that wonderfully familiar, comforting feeling of walking back through your own front door and being home.