Travels in London - Day 1: Hey, look, I'm in London.

This blog was originally going to posted yesterday, however I decided to wait until this morning on account that yesterday I was too tired to actually finish my sentences coherently, or at least, more coherently than usual.

To explain why I was so very tired, let's jump back in time to where I last left off, boarding the plane from Bangkok to London.

My luck with seats did not play out so well this time, and instead of an empty row to myself with loads of legroom and a personal tv, I instead had a crowded row with absolutely no legroom and a group tv somewhere in the distance in front of me that they never bothered to turn on until the last hour and a half anyway. So this could probably be considered a step backwards. So, sadly, was Dinner 3 (yes, they just kept coming), which after the rather tasty first two dinners was sadly rather dry and tasteless (my grandmother would be proud, as this is how she would describe all of her cooking. Nothing could be further from the truth), though the omelette for Breakfast was a lot better, though by that stage I was just glad I could eat it without dropping it all.

My plan, you see, was to stay awake as long as possibly could on the first flight and some of the second (until about 6am Melbourne time), and then I would have no problem falling asleep and would awake pretty much perfectly after 10 hours sleep to a London morning, thus getting a good head start on the whole jetlag thing.

Things did not go as planned.

Instead of sleeping 10 hours, I slept a grand total of 0, largely unfortunately to my back and airport chairs disagreeing with each other. I had taken some ibuprofien for this purpose but sadly it appears stronger measures will be needed for the flight back. So I lay in my chair, listening to Bill Bryson and Les Miserables, making regular trips to the bathroom for glasses of water, not out of any desire of water per se but more that I felt weird just getting up and walking around for a bit and then returning to my seat. Ocasionally the stewards would wander by and offer water or juice to the poor saps still awake in a sea (or, a plane) of sleeping people, presumably because they also felt weird just walking around a bit.

So my flight got in 6 am London time (5pm Melbourne time) on the 13th. After navigating through immigration and customs I collected my bags and hopped onto a london undeground train (!!!!!) and headed out to the hostel.

Customs was suspsiciously easy so I am still not convinced that it wasn't a ploy to lull me into a false sense of security and that MI5 may at any moment leap through the window and arrest me for smuggling a chupa chup into the country. I even went through the "declare" door because I wanted to be safer than sorry and got asked the incredibly taxing question "Do you have any gifts?" I answered no. Alright! Customs over.

At this point, I still hadn't fully twigged that I was in another country, and in fact on the complete opposite side of the world. Bangkok airport was just that an airport, it could have been an Australian airport, so didn't feel like overseas. True, there was signs in Thai everywhere and the food court had this giant pagoda thingy, but maybe they were just feeling a bit international that day.

In Heathrow too, not a whole lot to indicate that I was in another continent, an airport is an airport. No my first real indication was when the train came out of a tunnel, and suddenly this blanket of fog and chimney tops greeted me.

Then the doors opened and a voice said "Mind the gap" and the implications of my travel hit me.

I was in London!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The train arrived after a 40 minute jaunt (and only 7 stations) in Earl's Court, and I hopped off the train and out the doors and into London proper for the first time. Because I as in London. My short walk to the hostel was compounded by two details. First, it was really hard to find the street signs. The area I was in did not employ the melbourne style "Bob St" signs that we all know, but rather large and floury plaques that state "the royal burrough of kensington and chelsea BOLTON GARDENS" which look more like it's inviting me to a party than telling me what the street is.

Secondly, surrounding Bolton gardens there are about 5 other streets that start in B and end in Gardens. To my credit though, I only went down one wrong st.

Arriving at the hostel was hindered by the fact that I coudln't remember if my friend Lexicon had booked the hostel under her name or mine, and when that became an issue I realised I couldn't remember her phone number either. Fortuantely they found the booking and I happily wandered through a literal maze of doors to find my room, It was a nice room, furnished with a bed, a desk, some cupboards and a sink. Most importantly, it also had a Lexicon in it.

Alexis and i hadn't seen each other in a year and a half, so we had loads to chat about, and at this point in the next morning we haven't really stopped, apart from that whole sleep thing. I didn't stay in the room for too long though, Lexi bundled us out the door straight away to head to the 11:15 service at Westminster abbey, a place that is just huge. Like, it's HUGE!!!!! And old. The oldest buildings an australia are a couple of hundred years, but Westminster was built in 960 AD. Eep. It really put the awe into the service we saw.

Later I saw a puppy, and that really put the awe in Awwwwww.

After the service we went for a walk down to the Thames, past Big Ben (!) and wandered down the river. Eventually decided that food was awesome and we should have one, we found the nearest train station and caught the tube (because I'm in London) back to Earls Court for tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches.

That evening we headed out to see my friends Kate and Tim (Hi Kate and Tim!) who I hadn't seen in about three years, and joined them for there X-Factor Christmas Party (X-Factor = Australian Idol). Unfortuantely by this point the 47 hours without sleep was starting to take its toll so I spent most of the time sitting quietly in the back and doing my humble best to stay awake, but it was still a really nice time. We only stayed a few hours before heading back to Earl's Court and having an early night (10pm our time, 9am yours), or in other words exactly 48 hours since I had last slept.

10 hours later, I awoke, must refreshed.

We're off shortly to do some sightseeing, I'll blog about it once it's happened, because while I could blog about it before seeing it, it would be a bit dishonest and lead to comments like "I didn't know London had Polar Bears" because I was never one for extensive fact checking.

Because I'm in London.