Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Wow, already two days of my trip are over :(. Yesterday Sara drove me to the airport, which was super sweet of her. We even managed to depart Davis on time, something that is rare for me. Going to the airport was uneventful (always a good thing in my book) so I got there -super- early, but better early than late. By the way, I hate airport security. It sucks big time. The other zipper in my suitcase broke when I was pulling out my laptop, grrrrrr.
I met up with Laurel, who is doing the program with me. We tried to get seats together but it was a full flight so that didn't happen. Well.... we had seats next to each other for like 10 minutes until the guy that was sitting there before and agreed to trade seats asked for his seat back because the one he switched to did not have a functioning earphone jack. That kind of sucked. I sat next to a very nice Irish couple who were returning from a vacation in the Bay.
The flight was SO long, over 10 hours and I hardly slept. I watched three movies (Grand Torino, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and The Young Victoria in case you want to know) and played some video games instead. This has not helped me get up an do things today, in fact I am such a layabout it isn't funny. We landed in Heathrow right on time and waited to get everyone off the plane, that took for freakin' ever. Then we had to go through customs, which was kind of a let down to be honest. I was expecting to be grilled about all this stuff the summer abroad people warned ups about and they asked 2 questions 1) What we were doing and 2) How long/where are we staying. Then she stamped our passports and sent us on our merry way. I'm pretty happy that my passport is no longer naked.
Luggage reclaim was possibly the quickest I've ever had. In the 10 minutes it took us to walk from the plane and go through customs our luggage was already out on the belt. That was hella sweet. So Laurel and I gathered up our luggage an headed out to where her plane was taking off since she's heading up to Scotland. Then I began to try and understand the London Underground...
So, I think I'm being all little miss smarty pants because I appear to know what I'm doing, so I go to the tube link in Heathrow and I stand in line and all that jazz, then I get to the window to get my Britrail pass validated so I can take the Heathrow express and the guy informs me they are just tube and I need to go to the train part, which is by terminal 3 and I am at terminal one. At least waiting in line wasn't a total bust, I did get my tube pass from him.
I then proceed to find the correct train link and get by pass validated, that was pretty painless and went down to wait for the next one. I called dad to tell him I'm alright and that was it, nothing super excited happened other than taking the train to Paddington station. Then I had to switch lines to the Circle, then switch again 5 minutes later to the Jubilee line. I finally make it to the right stop (Swiss Cottage) and exit to look for my hostel. By this point I was tired, cranky, sweaty and really really thirsty. I walked around in circles for nearly and hour and couldn't find it. Finally I met a nice German girl named Ivy and we found it together.
After unpacking and showering so I felt more like a human I called Mom and Bob to tell them I'm OK and headed out to see London! The weather here isn't the greatest, it is overcast and really cloudy with a good portion of rain thrown in for good measure, but I don't care, I'm not the Wicked Witch of the West and won't melt if a bit of rain gets on me. I went to the National Gallery, it was awesome by the way. I am really impressed with the collection of Impressionists they have, also in addition there is a special pseudo-impressionist exhibit, which was pretty cool.
After going to the museum I took pictures of Trafalgar Square and walked down to Parliament and Westminster Abbey, in the rain. It was pretty sweet, London is a crazy busy city. In Trafalgar square I saw a lady get arrested for refusing to get off the monument she climbed, plus she was dressed as a witch so she obviously isn't all there. Unfortunately Westminster Abbey was closed by the time I go there, apparently they close at 3 30PM, but I plan on going back tomorrow or Thursday to see the inside.
Oh, I also took pictures, they will be uploaded in a few days ;-)
- comments