Day 11
My day fastforwarded from midnight to
five AM. I lost most of my normal chance to sleep. I arrived at 7
in the morning at London Gatwick, full of a cup of coffee, slightly
dazed and thrilled. The line at the British border was pretty short,
and a painless process to get my on my way. Until I got my luggage
back in my hands, I was dreading the worst. I was surprised that
Customs didn't look in my bags, just waved everyone through. Not
that I HAD anything to declare, it was just a surprising after US
security. Done with the airport, I now had a single objective: get
to my hostel.
I managed to find the easyBus in a
timely manner, but traffic was awful and it took us about two hours
to get to London Earl's Court. I got slightly lost, but walked down
the road till I found an Tube station. I bought my Oyster card and
hopped on, navigating the system successfully, using transfers and
everything, until I got to the Great Portland Street exit. It took
about 5-10 minutes for me to figure out which way was north, but once
I did, I got to my hostel.
The hostel, YHA London Central, is
nice. Better than I expected. Except my room's outlets don't work,
so I have to recharge everything downstairs in the public area. My
roommates have been mostly absent so far, and a few have been
replaced already. I have a top bunk in the corner, much to my
delight. I can perch. ^_^
So, now I had several more objectives,
since my room wouldn't be ready until 2 and I had arrived at 11.
First, I got directions to Barclay's and acquired some British
pounds. I had been going completely cashless so far. Then, I asked
for directions for the nearest grocery store/Walmart. They directed
me to an Argos, a ways down Oxford Street. So, I trekked off again,
this time with some powerful espresso. Note: at noon, I had been
awake for 26 ½ hours (sans naps 1 & 2).
I got a cellphone, but the place they
referred me to didn't have anything else I needed. I came, back,
tried to figure out the phone, failed, 2pm came around, I went
upstairs and settled in my room. I bought some internet time so I
could tell everyone I was still alive, and ended up spending the rest
of my 5 pounds of that money in internet and phone calls. I was
really desperate to talk to Ben. I needed that. I skyped him when I
got a hold of him via international call. Totally exhausted, we
talked and I felt much better, so I went back to tackling my
not-working phone. I found I had put in the SIM card wrong. Then I
waited for it to charge more... apparently it tells me it has no
signal instead of telling me it has no battery. So I fixed that.
Next, I figured out how to load in the money I'd already purchased
for it (it's a pay-as-you-go). Then I tried using Mobilecaller, but
the password didn't work because, as I found out later, I had the
wrong one... off by one number. *facepalm*
I wandered downstairs, now in a much
better frame of mind. I managed to stay up until 7:30pm... which
means I was awake for 34 HOURS. I should have taken a picture of my
face... Ben said that I looked ready to fall over. Which was
completely accurate.
Day 12
So I slept for 11 hours. Woke up
roughly at 8am. I wandered down the street, in search of shampoo,
and finally found a Sansbury's. I was a little surprised the razors
were behind the counter, as I've seen in every other store
subsequently. I wonder why. Of course, that's not the only
difference here. Signs say “To Let” rather than “For Lease”,
the street signs are different, everyone drives on the wrong side of
the road, and the people talk with funny accents. Signs instructing
people to do things are far more polite than American signs. Instead
of “Keep Food and Drinks Off Counter” it says “Please Be
Considerate and Refrain From Placing Food and Drink On This Counter”.
I dressed right for the weather... it
rained all day. My new green coat kept me dry, and made me stick out
like a sore thumb. Everyone, it seemed, was wearing such dull
colors! Lots of umbrellas, few raincoats. My first stop were the
London Silver Vaults, which I had believed was some sort of museum.
I was wrong, they were shops. But the number of shops! So much
silver in one place! So much money! Yeah, the Jew went to the
silver first. :-P
I got a hold of Denise, once I figured
out what that odd noise was. I had never heard my phone ring before.
We met for lunch at a cute little vegetarian shop in Camden Town. I
had a 2pm appointment for Skype with Ben, which was nice to do,
especially since I was awake. On the other hand, the code for this
wifi changed, and they made me buy more food before they would let me
have more wifi. Bullshit, I say. It pissed me off. Next time (in 2
hours), it's going to be Starbucks. I'll buy something and nurse it.
:-P They don't have a code.
We parted ways while I went to the
Museum of the Order of Saint John, which completely blew my mind.
The crypt that I saw was from the 12th century.
Unfortunately, I was hustled out the door an hour before close,
because they decided to close early, which is kinda not cool. I may
have to go back later with Mum. The second part of the museum,
across the street, did not hustle me out, so I got to spend a minute
there, where I learned that the Master of the Revels used to stay
there. So Shakespeare would have taken his scripts there.
Shakespeare. Went through that door. I had to stand outside for a
few minutes. Of course, I feel I also need to mention they have a
book of prayers that Elizabeth I owned... Mind. Officially. Blown.
Next stop: The Museum of London! This,
too, was better than I expected. This wasn't only a museum IN
London, it was a museum ABOUT London, and took my blown mind and did
very bad things to it. Showing me remains of civilizations before
even the Romans really made it clear to me how London is just piled
on top of itself. There's history anywhere and everywhere. The city
is the same no matter how much in changes. People have loved this
city, lived in this city, for longer than my mind can comprehend. So
many people, entirely unknown, except for a select few. It got me
thinking more about the meaning of life. This trip is supposed to
help me with life choices in the future, and somehow it's making me
both more ambitious and more content. How is that possible?
We met up at Euston, and took the
National Rail to Wayford Junction. On the train, an asshole started
harassing a Muslim woman (verbally). The lady was immediately
defended by a gentleman, who began a truly spectacular cussing match.
The woman in front of us threatened to call the police, which
stopped them from brawling. I couldn't keep my own mutterings to
Denise very quiet, and she tried desperately to keep me and the woman
who had threatened to call the cops originally under control, to keep
the whole thing from starting it up again. I was saying how glad I
was that Ben hadn't come along... or the cops WOULD have needed to be
called ^_^. I was too far away to have punched the man in the face
myself, but I cracked my knuckles.
Finally at our station, we hurried to
take a taxi to catch the show, which started literally 30 seconds
after we hustled into our seats. Denise was the assistant director
for the show so she got me a comp ticket. Yay! Read more about it
in the separate review I'm writing.
I got a little confused again about
which was north when I got back into London, but I managed to get
back to the hostel safe and sound.
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