by Natalie Fitts

Florence to Venice to Kansas City–junior Mady Sargent knew the journey was not going to be short, but she did not know it was going to be so long.

After a four day vacation in Italy with her mom, Mady went to the Venice airport, hoping to get a flight home to the US that day. Because her mom is an employee of Delta Airlines, they can get discounted tickets, as long as they fly on stand-by. They had checked the status of the flights before they left the hotel and it looked like seats would be available.

However, when they got to the ticket counter, they were told no seats were open. No big deal. They were used to waiting for last-minute cancellations. However, as flight time creeped closer, they realized they were not getting on the flight.

They immediately began looking for flights on other airlines. Their only option was easyJet, which would be making a stop in London. Oh, and they would have to spend the night in the London Heathrow Airport. That was definitely not in the plan.

Not long after landing in London, Mady remembered something. They were in London. So were the Olympics. Maybe this delay would be good for something after all.

However, she was not even able to finish getting ready to go out to celebrate the games with other tourists before realizing it was too late to leave the airport for the night. The only part of London she would get to see was the inside of the airport. So she swallowed the latest of many disappointments of the day and went to order her fish and chips from the airport pub before heading off to bed on a chair stationed next to an abandoned ticket counter.

Maybe next time, London.