Long day(s?) traveling

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Wow, a long day of traveling finished, and hopefully not much jetlag in our future.

Left San Francisco at 7:30am on Aug. 4, but didn't arrive in London until 1:00pm on the 5th. The plane seemed actually much quicker than 10 hours. For some reason Lauren, Mariel and I somehow got separate seats, which was pretty lame because we couldn't lean on each other to sleep. I was sitting next to this lovely little English girl who was returning home from a 3 week trip visiting friends in Danville, CA. She was quite, polite, and small (which is necessary on an airplane I'd say). Lauren, on the other hand, was stuck sitting next to this 60+ year-old man headed to Iraq to be some sort of architect. He fell asleep A LOT and would accidentally lean onto Lauren's side of the seat while making weird noises in his sleep. Mariel met this nice French family who was heading home from the states.

Once we arrived in the Heathrow Airport, customs was no problem. We pretty much just walked up to this stuck-up woman sitting in the booth, showed her our passport, and answered all her odd questions (i.e., "What are you doing here? Who are you staying with? Why? What's his address? What school are you studying at? Why? What are you studying? Why? How long are you staying in England? Why? Where will you go after England? Why? --All in a quite serious tone and English accent, of course)

After that we just walked through a maze they call an airport, didn't have any bags inspected or anything, and then were greeted by this lovely man with a sign with Mariel's name on it.

We walked through the car garage that they call the "Car Park", and sat in a VW van with the steering wheel on what I consider the WRONG side of the car. I sat in the front which, again, felt like the driver's seat to me. Our driver definitely didn't speak much English. He said he had been living here for over 10 years, but originally was from Africa. We chatted with him. He was quite nice and tried to be helpful...The language caused for some giggles in the car after we thought he told us this grocery store was a school. Lauren and I were puzzled as to why there were so many grocery carts parked outside the so-called "school". Our driver had no idea what we were laughing about... Once we arrived in front of Ricky (Mariel's uncle) and his family's house, we knew we were in London.

Cute brick houses, all sharing walls, lined the VERY narrow street (they called it a 2 lane street, it was definitely NOT). We tipped our driver a much bigger tip than I think normal Europeans tip, and then were off.

Greeted by Mariel's cousin, Alex, we had some English tea, received some directions on how to reach the bus station and "The Tube", and took off again.

No maps in hand, we got ourselves into downtown London and just wondered. We followed whichever direction looked cutest, and whichever buildings looked oldest. It was fun! We ate lunch at a little cafe, sat outside and watched locals.

Once we found our way home again we passed out for a much needed 3 hour nap before a huge grand English supper at 8:00pm (only noon at home). We had been going for over least 24 hours!

After a nice dinner of chicken, veggies and potatoes, along with wine from Africa, and a yogurt/strawberry based dessert, we headed straight to bed.

A successful first day wondering in London mapless, I'd say!!

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Comments

[AJ]

SO JEAL
It sounds amazing so far! I'm so glad you got there safely! Keep writing :)

[Claudia]

Keep having fun
Hi Emily, loved hearing about the beginning of your trip, especially the confusion between school and grocery store. The important distinction to get correct has to do with beauty salons. Salons are really pubs and pubs are really salons. so don't be surprised if you think you're going in for a manicure and instead are given a martini! Sounds like you guys are having a blast. Look forward to reading more. Great photos! --and please forgive your aunt's lame attempt at a joke :- )