My flight got super delayed and then I got caught up in the Passport line. See the police guy was really awkward and I couldn't tell if he was interrogating me or just making convo..so I guess my answers were vague and sketchy and he was frustrated. opps. All these delays made me miss my bus into the city. I flew into London Gatwick airport because its super cheap but its like an hour away from the city..so no bus was a problem. I had read in my confirmation email though that you could use the same bus ticket for anytime within two hours of your flight. That was all nice until the next buses driver didn't really believe me.. He finally gave in though and let me on. He also let on this group of five Spanish kids who had recently decided I could interrupt for them. See they were trying to say "our tickets are for 11 o'clock" Spanish 101 material. So I heard this and told the bus driver what they said..then bam they were talking to me and expecting me to translate. I was feelin pretty good after my 48 hours in Spain but I was way unqualified for this job and it got awkward real fast.
I finally got into the city and met up with Kate and Morgan!! Felt so good to see them. We walked to Kates flat where I stayed. She lives right off of Hyde Park. Absolutely gorgeous. That night me and Kate just walked around the park and saw the embassies. Then, obviously because its Kate and Natalie, ate burgers and cookies.
The next day Kate had to work and Morgan had class. I thought I was going to have to play by myself but Morgans class was going on field trip so I tagged along. We went to the British National Library, a walking tour and to the British National Museum. I thought I would hate the library but actually they had all these really old books on display and old maps where the world was all wrong. It was actually cool. The walking tour was ridiculous we just saw a bunch of houses where famous authors lived. Then we went to the museum. Did you know that all the British do is steal other peoples cool stuff? seriously bullies. I saw the Rosetta stone! The modern exhibit was really cool, it had a display about modern pharmacy and how many pills we take over our life time. Really creepy to see.
Later that day Morgan, her mom and grandma and me went to tea at Harrods. Classy again. Harrods was really fun! Such crazy stuff and the prices were just fun to laugh at..some day...when I'm not flying on plastic airplanes. I went home with Kate and we made a delicious dinner then got dressed up and went out for the night!
The next day Kate and I rented bikes and rode all around London! We started in Hyde park and went straight to Portebello Market. Maybe my favorite market of the trip, although nobodies prices can compare to Casablanca but still this one was amazing! There were tons of antiques and being that I am eighty years old and I love antiques I was right at home. I bought this charm bracelet that is apparently from the 1920s kinda cool to think about who picked out all the charms and why. After that we rode past everything touristy...Buckingham palace, big ben, Westminster, and the eye of London! Then we ended up in another market. Heaven. This one had a 'Tuckers Exotic Meat' cart..me and Kate ate wildebeest and springbok and loooove it. Then some more bike riding back over the river and through the business district. That night we went to Brick lane for dinner. It is the little Bangladesh in London and men come out of their restaurants and try to convince you to come it. It was pretty entertaining and yummy of course.
After a long day of bike riding and a full tummy of Indian food me and Kate got all cozy and decided to watch a movie..then Morgan came over and reminded us that it was Halloween and not just any Halloween but our last one together. So we put together some make-shift costumes and rallied.
Mind you I had significantly less clothes to work with hence Tom Cruise..also Risky Business not so popular in the UK.Anyway so Saturday night was crazy. Not like drunk crazy..like we all had one glass of wine and everybody around us was just actually crazy. First off a scary man roller-bladed up to us in full costume tried to jump out and scare us..then gave me candy. Yes I ate it. Then at the club, we were done dancing, just hanging out in the back getting some air and a man walked up to us pulled out paint and started painting my face.. no words. Then grabbed me and Kate and started to swing dance with us...Kate got away and I was not as lucky. The whole night was strange..we also witnessed a drug deal.
After that adventure we woke up nice and early and went on more bike-rides!!! This time to more markets and St Paul's Cathedral. The occupy London protests were all around the cathedral so it was a little crazy but we were still allowed in. When we went in there was choir practice. holy gorgeous.
Kate took an architecture class this semester so on Sunday afternoon she took me to see some neat buildings. First is the 'gerkin' I have no idea if that is spelled correctly but it means pickle. The second is some building that was built with all the 'insides' out, so like the pluming and elevators and everything are on the outside. Apparently the inside is more pure this way..
The last part of Sunday was the BEST. See I drug Kate to the broad street pump. Its only my favorite thing in the world..also the birth place of modern epidemiology. google it. Then we saw The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine aka my dream school. I know it sounds fake but next to Hopkins and Harvard this place is one of the best public health schools in the world. Also it is right next to Soho..My Favorite section of London..and Chinatown. You couldn't get a better location.
The end off my London trip I am going to summarize because reliving it still makes my blood boil. Basically I left Kates place at 3:30 am and walked for 45mins missing my 4am bus (google said it was a 10/15 min walk), ended up taking a taxi to a train station with a rando Swiss guy..who I had to pay in Euro for the cab because I spent all my pounds..took a train with him to the airport..he fell asleep I had to wake him up everyone around thought it was cute..then almost missed my flight. Oh but wait I also forgot to empty my water bottle so my bag got pulled aside at security. I was super embarrassed.. usually I am really good at remembering to empty it, I apologized and asked if I could just go pour the water out. Answer was no. Apparently you can't pour liquid out if you have tried to get through security with it. The officer made me chug it..all 24oz. Then he had to audacity to say 'thanks, have a great flight love." umm no I ran right to the plane and had to pee in like ten seconds.
No comments:
Post a Comment