After all this time and waiting and working and saving (and this sounds like song lyrics now) I AM IN LONDON!!!
The whole thing hasn’t quite hit me yet, but I’m sure it will when I wake up tomorrow morning. Everything here is so pretty and old and awesome and the city is awesome and I want to live in the city. I am staying blocks away from Kings Cross Station and St. Pancras International Train Station. Which means both that I am close to Harry Potter and have easy access to getting to the main land.
So, lets start from the beginning.
Yesterday, August 31st, I left PDX and flew to Calgary Canada. I was nervous and wanted to vomit because I’m paranoid about everything going wrong (which it didn’t). Once in Calgary I had to go through customs, get my bag, recheck my bag, worry that my bag wouldn’t get to the right plane, realized the stupid customs lady gave ME the wrong gate and I had to find the right one (didn’t want to go to Montreal lady….) and then boarded another plane. Middle row, aisle seat, lets do this.
It actually wasn’t that bad. I caught up on a couple movies I had missed (I highly reccommend Big Eyes and Big Hero 6 to everyone), tried to sleep, got paranoid about the plane crashing, couldn’t sleep because my legs hurt, got a little claustrophobic, ate gross airplane food and then landed safely in Heathrow airport.
Heathrow was a breeze. Got my passport stamped my the scariest airport security lady ever! Grabbed my bag and wandered through the airport wondering how in the everliving !$#@#$#% I was going to get to Kings Cross Station. I knew what my options were and I knew that the most dangerous was probably the London underground, or Tube. So I did that one. Cause, why not?
I really liked the Tube. It was a relaxing ride with hardly any passengers on the train. I got to see little suburbs of London and listen to three people speak in Danish or some weird language like it. It was a lot like the MAX train in Portland but much more efficient and easier to navigate.
So I made it safe and sound to my residence hall. Once here I thought “maybe I can relax, eat something, unpack….” NOPE! Drop off your crap and lets do some orientating.
Instead of eating and unpacking (I got a shower thank god), I had to go walk around London with a tour guide for four hours, buy an Oyster card to use the buses and Tube, buy a cellphone with a UK number in case of emergencies, and then the tour guide left us on Oxford Street to fend for ourselves and find our own way back.
This all would have been fine if my legs weren’t already swollen and swore from the plane and if I had been able to eat anything at all.
So, our big group split into smaller groups and me and four other girls found our way back to Kings Cross where we FINALLY got to sit down and eat some chicken and chips (fries) and Nando’s.
And now I sit in my room, my clothes unpacked, my body exhausted, my mind racing, wondering what tomorrow may bring.
Maybe I’ll get a beer 🙂
writersblocq 