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Published: August 14th 2009
About to leave the Airport
The last few pictures of us in the US! (for now of course)8/5 - 8/6
We arrived in London on Wed the 5th at 7:00am England time (which is 5am Eastern US). For some reason we didn’t force ourselves to sleep on the plane, but instead watched two movies and napped for about 20 mins. We heard someone in Dulles say that she was going to stay up so that it would be easier for her internal clock to reset. But I think the most important part of the equation there was to then SLEEP at the appropriate time. Well we’ve been nearly non-stop since we arrived and STILL haven’t gotten a whole nights sleep…but slowly we’re catching up, haha!
So, British Airways was brilliant. We were already experiencing the different cultures and languages on the plane, and the staff was so wonderfully pleasant and helpful. Once we got there we kept in mind all the lessons my Dad reviewed with us about awareness and preparedness, while making our way to Border Control, Baggage, and Customs. Everything went really smooth, EXCEPT at Border Control. We were bombarded with a ton of questions (which seems normal) like: Where are you going? Who are you staying with? How did you meet that person?
Are you in a relationship, or friendship with him? What occupation do you have? How did you pay for this? What would you like to see here? And of course…When are you leaving? We told him when our return ticket was but he said he would “be more comfortable that we were actually leaving if we had a printed out itinerary of our trip”. So Officer 7830 (he couldn’t tell us his name I guess) sent us to British Air’s service desk across the lobby to get a print out. Then we had to come back and get our passports stamped. Our first ones!!
It’s interesting how being questioned like that can make you feel guilty, even if the questions are innocent enough. But we tried hard to maintain our love and bubblyness for 7830 and were eventually able to break him and make a joke with him as we left the check point.
Once we got our bags we called Phoenix’ friend Will, who is our official UK guide. He was waiting at the hotel him and his Mum had booked for us, a few blocks away. While we waited for him outside the terminal we par-took
Pretty Euros!
So much prettier than US dollars really in some fountain dancing! There was a beautiful water-shooting-from-the-pavement fountain that we took turns playing in. the water while the other was in “Orange Awareness” and watched the bags. (*wink wink Daddio*). Then Will arrived, and he was and still is SUPER sweet and accommodating. They haven’t seen each other in 6 years, so it’s been great for them to catch up.
We went to the hotel, had some breakfast and then fell dead asleep for 4 hours. After waking up we headed on into London and our adventures finally takes us out into the non-airport domain. Oh but first we had to do some money exchanging. We got $500 worth of Euros, only 300 at the Dulles airport. But when we got to Heathrow airport in London we found out that they aren’t using Euros, still pounds. So we got £100 which was $177! Ouch! Luckily things are priced lower in the UK, so it probably equals out. For example, two huge bottles of water: £1, a rotisserie chicken £4, a pint of beer £2-3, the look on our face when we saw how cheap beer was…priceless (yeah, I had to go there).
So anyway, we headed
Free Wine?!
Oh British Airways, you shouldn't have into London on the “Tube” (Train), “Minding the Gap” the whole way of course and popped out to get some Indian food. Which took forever to get (which isn’t normal, Will says, they were just slow), and probably over tipped, since tipping isn’t really common here…but it filled us up! Then we headed to Will’s aunt’s house for a few minutes…but already it was 10:30pm here. Will had planned on heading to a comedy club afterwards, but the Tube stops at midnight and we had a long trip back to the Hotel. So after some planning we decided to not bother with the comedy place and instead just head in to see the London sights…aaaaand…..it was a beautiful FULL MOON!
We decided that we would take the tube as late as we could and then just STAY UP until they opened again in the morning...at 6am…oh how ambitious we were. Perhaps it was the Jet Lag messing with our minds! But it started out with great gusto and we headed down to try and find the London Bridge. My first impression of downtown London was how, though it is filled with incredible history, tons of wonderful buildings and statues…that
Thank'ya I will
The box cover for Breakfast on the plane it is lacking in cleanliness. Very dirty actually. Not pleasant smelling (bathrooms, “Bogs” or “Loos” are few and far between and can even cost money…soo…yeah), and there was rubbish everywhere, and the rubbish bins overflowing.
But besides that it’s a beautiful city. We came across a cathedral that was built in 606!! And of course we saw the London Eye - the big adult ferris wheel that takes an hour to complete (we didn’t go on). The full moon provided an incredible atmosphere, which was only enhanced by the tons of colored lights throughout the city. The trees were illuminated with blues, the buildings with reds and oranges. Obviously a proud night-owl city. We walked across a bridge we THOUGHT was the London Bridge - seeing more Cathedrals and Big Ben the famous Clock Tower. Then we sat on some huge astro-turf arm chairs that were out for an art display. Lots of fun! We had a long chat with the security guard, Toni who was hilarious and on his 12 hour night shift. He seemed relieved to have some people to talk to and share his woas about his daughter, Danielle. Eventually, we moved on to this really
Phoenix in the fountains
This is outside terminal 5 at the Heathrow Airport fun gathering of stores that had a bunch of rocking chair-ducks, lions, whales, and so on. THAT was fun! Interestingly enough Londonians litter a ton, but don’t seem to steal the very easy-to-steal, beautiful wood carvings that were there.
Around 4:30am the tiredness seriously kicked in. We sort of stumbled around (sober) the mostly empty streets to find some place to eat and then hopefully a bus system that was running to make our way back to the hotel. Eventually though we decided that a Taxi would be best, hailed one, then haggled the price to be set at £60. It was worth it I think! We got to see a lot of beautiful buildings still and arrived at the hotel JUST as the sun was coming up. Thus ended our first night in London!
The next morning we slept as long as we could before Check Out at the hotel, and then jumped back on the Tube to head to Oxford Street. Which is honestly like a British New York City. Tons of shops, busy sidewalks, and busy streets. The streets, by the way, are definitely smaller than the States. Wide enough for two lanes, but they’re
Dani in the fountains
I think I'm slapping the water constantly weaving across to avoid parked cars, stopped busses, and pedestrians. On one hand it’s probably a great lesson in sharing and patience (since traffic needs to stop to let oncoming traffic pass), but also can cause a large backup and awkward traffic flow.
So we looked around for a hiking store so Phoenix could get some better shoes - her flip flops aren’t cutting it…while my Most EXCELLENT sports sandals are (THANKS DADDY!). Couldn’t find one so instead headed for brunch at Nicholson, which is like a British Restaurant, the style was a lot like an Irish Pub in the states.
Then we headed to the British Beer Festival. A slow start inside, but we brought the guitar and drum if needed…and it was! Not only did playing a couple of beats on a drum get us a fee beer and a TON of travel advice, but not much later we played a song for Mike, a pourer at Courage brewery. We played “Such Great Heights” first on the bar line then he immediately invited us to the VIP section - on their double decker publicity tour bus! It had a bar set up inside, complete with
Yay! Made it to London!
Definitely some jet lag going on. bar stools. Such a fun setting! Then we played another song for him that really touched him, reminding him of his best mates’ daughter that recently passed. Her name was Gracie, she was five, and passed of cancer. It brought tears to him and we shared some really beautiful emotions and support. He thought we were angels, and broke the traditional British low-emotion mindset to share a big hug with us. It was truly wonderful. Also sat and chat with Derek from Scotland - that was fun! Yeah he totally had the full blown Scottish accent and even called us lassies and said gr-r-r-reat!
After the Beer Festival (around 10pm) we played a little bit of music in the Tube, but I felt a little uncomfortable trying to play for money. So eventually we headed to Devon, where Will is from. Took about 3 hours, but I slept the whole way. As you can imagine we hadn’t really caught up on sleep. Jet Lag was making things difficult. Was easy to get frustrated, my body was pretty worn down, and I’ve been battling a pretty significant sinus-allergy thing.
So yeah, London was great! But honestly, I’m glad to
No Steering Wheel!
That was crazy. The steering wheels on the right side of the car move on to the country side. More nature, less tourist and scary scenarios like from “Taken”, haha! Oh, yeah there were some great musicians on the street, one set in particular here’s where you can check them out: Fernando’s Kitchen, www.myspace.com/fernandoskitchen
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Li
non-member comment
Mate? lbs? rubbish? you carpetbagger :)
Love the story - and the relation to the movie Taken. I can totally see your dad being Liam Niesson (??) a couple of things: lbs. is weight - £ is the currency abbreviation. Oh and a stone is 14 lbs. :) 7am London is 2am ET - I know because of sports, of course and that $1.77 - £1 rate is pretty bad. And usually things there are more expensive than here - why they come over here to do shopping a lot (well, at least my aunt does). your "stay up all night" story reminds me of the Up All Night show with Dave Attell - he went to London, saw a town crier, closed down a bunch of bars, went to some late night eatery, and even visited the Tower. I have a twitter friend in Devon somewhere. And there's apparently some moderately good surfing there. I make one request - if you go back through London (and have an hour or 2 to burn) go to the Arsenal stop on the Piccadilly line (in North London) and molest the big ARSENAL sign on the steps of the football stadium. I'll wub u forever. Have fun and stay safe.