Ah, yes, day 1, part 2: where to begin?
So
mom,
Al, and I left
Gatwick and went to the
Gatwick
Express train service, which links
Gatwick
directly to Victoria Station in London. Quite handy, if you ask me! The train
ride was about 30 minutes each way, and my mom bought my return trip ticket, so
it didn't cost me a thing! Hallelujah.
We took our seats in the regular class compartment (no first-class for us,
shoot) and struck up a conversation with a couple of Americans travelling from
Nebraska. They had no idea what they were doing and didn't have a map or
anything...just a dazed look on their faces. Al and I intervened and got them
pointed in the right direction with our map, which was a very handy pop-up map
that I had picked up in 2000 when I was studying in Edinburgh at the
University of Edinburgh, and told them to go to
a bookstore after they went to their hotel to pick up a current map. I'm
telling ya, if you're travelling, that pop-up map is where it's at! It fits in
your pocket but has all sorts of helpful info on it. Highly recommended!
Once we arrived at Victoria Station, all hell broke loose. Turns out, this was
the morning of the
bombing at
Glasgow Airport, and the day before
there was a
failed car
bombing in London, so security was at an all-time high. But that's okay
with me! I want to be safe! Unfortunately the city of London is
friggin' huge, so extra security = slow moving
people, and lots of them. So there were tons of officers wondering around the
tube station, and there
were long waits to enter the tube station from the train station, as security
officers were giving everyone the once-over. Most people were understanding
about all of this. One gal behind us was getting antsy and confronted an
officer, who was super rude back to her, so she called him rude, and he called
her ugly! Classic.
There were some tube stations closed for repairs that weekend as well, so
Victoria Station was especially busy, as it was a hub. Luckily I took note of
this--more to come later on that. Al was all in a tizzy and excited to be in
London but trying to act cool; instead, he just was being a dope. He was
walking too fast for everyone and getting separated from the group. At one
point I yelled at him across the tube platform, "AL! Settle down!"
That seemed to work. Al thinks he knows everything but he doesn't really pay
attention to the crucial details. Case in point: he wanted to navigate our way
to the hotel by getting off at Waterloo and transferring to a different tube
line. I looked at him and said, "Well, we can't do that." Him:
"Why?" Me: "Because it's closed this weekend, as the signs and
announcements have been saying." Him: "Oh." I rest my case. Case
closed.
So we navigated our way to the hotel, which was located near the
Queensway tube stop in the Earl's Court area
of London. The hotel,
Central
Park Hotel, was just a couple of blocks away on
Queensborough Terrace, across the street from
a Thai restaurant, and in the middle of a row of Victorian houses. Very London-
ish. Since it was about 11:00 AM and our room
wouldn't be ready until about 3:00 PM, we dropped our luggage off and decided
to hit the road, starting our adventure right there and then. We decided to
first go to the
London Eye, since mom
had bought tickets for us to ride online before leaving home, meaning we could
cut to the front of the line and leave everyone in our dust. This was a lovely
idea! Only problem: it was pouring outside and the Eye was shut down! Boo!
Well, it turns out this wasn't so bad, because Al was being a poop again (he
wanted to start his Wimbledon adventure right then and there) and said he
didn't want to go anyways, so mom got a refund on her tickets and
pre-purchased tickets for me and her to go on
it Monday morning. By this point, my jeans were soaked from about mid-shin to
the foot, so I rolled them up high-water style and kept trudging along. Damn
this rain!
We quick walked along the Thames and over to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and
the Houses of Parliament. I would get a sky-view of these sights from the
London Eye in a couple of days, and since all three of us had seen these sights
before on previous (but separate trips), we stopped and nodded at it quickly a
la Clark W. Griswold at the Grand Canyon in the movie
Vacation, and we
were off to our next stop!
We then took the tube to the
Knightsbridge
area to go to
Harrods, aka Mecca. We were
sort of limited to what we could do on this day, due to the rain, so we decided
to cater our day towards inside activities. Shopping is definitely something we
could handle! So we went to Harrods and tried to take it all in. Well, as best
we could. Everyone else had the same idea as us--the place was packed! That's
not really saying much, because London is always busy and more so on a Saturday
afternoon, but the rain really brought out the crazies. Plus there were tons of
people in town for Wimbledon, making it that much busier. But there's no place
I'd rather have been at that time! We didn't look at the whole store, but
rather we made a beeline for the Food Hall, which is the greatest part of the
store. There's a ginormous deli section, a massive bakery, plus a section that
sells signature Harrods food items for purchase in take-home tins and
decorative packaging--the perfect souvenir! My mom bought some tea and jams for
grandma, while I got a little piggy-bank shaped like the red
mailbox with chocolate cookies in it. I have a
piggy-bank from there that I got when I was studying abroad, so rather than
keep the piggy-bank, I gave it to my cousin Meredith. She was very happy to get
it because it looked like the mailbox in a book that she has. Again, big hit!
We went through the deli and picked up a salmon sandwich that looked tasty, and
since we were all hungry, it looked even more tasty than it usually would have
looked. After a few more minutes of ogling the dessert case, we left and hit
the road again. We started on down the street away from Harrods and the
insanity therein, when we came across a real treat: there was a tour bus parked
across the street that had the name of the tour company on the side. Normally,
not a big deal, but the tour company was called Happy Al's! Which was an
oxymoron, seeing as how Al was not happy that day. But we made him stand in
front of it on this side of the street and take a picture with it:
So, by this point, hunger was taking over, so we popped into a
Pret a
Manger, which is a fairly fancy sandwich shop...well, at least the prices
lead you to believe so. Granted, the dollar has been doing so poorly against
the pound for years, but it was especially bad when we were there! Oh well. The
tourists gotta eat! So we each had a little something to eat and drink and we
also had the salmon sandwich from Harrods--not the best thing I've ever tasted,
but fairly decent. Although it was very fishy smelling, more so than other
salmon I've had in the past. But, like I said, fairly decent.
After we left here, we went and walked around for a while, heading towards
Buckingham Palace, through St. James Park, over to Trafalgar Square, on to
Leiceister Square, Piccadilly Circus, and
finally ending up at the tube station at Green Park. This sort of became the
hot tube spot for us, as we usually ended up over in this area at one point or
another during the day, as there were many shops in this area (Boots the
Chemist!). Along the way, while walking back from Piccadilly Circus on
Piccadilly, we stopped at a flea market of sorts that was set up in the
courtyard of a church (although I'm not sure if it's a church any longer or
not), and I got a panoramic picture from a guy who was quickly closing up shop,
as the rain was coming down at a pretty good clip, and rain does not treat
photographs well! So that was my souvenir of the afternoon, seeing as how the
piggy-bank from Harrods went to Meredith. Huzzah!
Seeing as how it was now about 5:00 and we were soaked, tired, and hungry, we
got on the tube and headed back to our hotel. Our room was finally ready, so we
grabbed our luggage and went upstairs. Well, this room was very basic: 2 twin
beds, one rolling twin bed, a small desk, a
tv
mounted on the wall, and a tiny bathroom that had one of those
countertops that extended into the bathtub
itself. But we knew we weren't going to be in the room very much, so it worked
out just fine for us. Our plans for the evening were to just go get some dinner
and then come back to bed, so I didn't change out of my wet jeans--I just
rolled them up a little more, brushed my teeth, and laid down on my bed for a
few minutes. As Lenny would say, I was resting my eyes! But after about 20 minutes
of this, mom and Al woke me up and we left for dinner at
Wagamama.
Ah, yes,
Wagamama! I remember it fondly.
Years ago, my good friend
Aimee,
aka black devil, and I were two young and dumb flatmates at the
University of Edinburgh and we went to London
on our way to the mainland during our 5 week long spring semester break. Her
roommates from
USC
were studying in London and let us crash at their flat, and one night they had
us come with them to
Wagamama. What a
treat!
Wagamama is a Japanese-style
noodle house that has a modern feel to it--all white walls, minimal decoration,
etc. I am a big fan of the chicken
ramen
noodle dish there, and Al went there when he was in London with his AP Euro
class in high school, so we told mom that's where we had to eat for sure when
we were in London.
Anyhoo, to get there, we walked through
Hyde Park, as that was adjacent to our hotel, and mom wanted to see
Kensington Palace (located in
Kensington Gardens within Hyde Park), since
Lady Di had once lived there and she hearts Lady Di. So does my friend
Sony, and I tried to find her a commemorative
magnet but had no such luck. But, I digress! We walked through the park, which
was empty due to the rain and cold except for the few brave joggers and
tourists. We made it to the
palace but it was closed, so we quick walked around the perimeter of the palace
and additional fenced-in garden, then continued onwards to
Wagamama.
This particular
Wagamama was located in
the
Kensington district of London, on
High Street, and on the 3rd floor. Normally I wouldn't mention this, but
walking up marble steps that were slippery from the rain all while wearing
slipper
Crocs made this task an
adventure! Note to readers: don't wear
Crocs.
This trip has turned me against this form of footwear as an option for wearing
outside of the house! They should be worn only for
yardwork and the occasional doctor's
appointment, when you are too sick to be bothered with tying laces!
Alas, I digress once again. We made it up the stairs and found ourselves a
place to sit. Seeing as how we were soaking wet, we were all happy to be
sitting in a warm restaurant, no matter how many hardships we faced coming up the
stairs. We all had a beverage, although I think mom had wine while Al and I
stuck with non-alcoholic beverages (I know, hard to believe!). I ordered the
aforementioned
ramen dish, as did
mother, while Al had a salad and another dish (it might have been some sort of
udon noodle dish). The place was pretty busy
so our waiter was a little ragged, but he brought everything out to us piping
hot, and that's what it was all about. We made fast work of the food, seeing as
how it was really about 1:00 AM to our body clocks and we were sleepy, and
everything tasted good...well, again, we slurped everything down really fast,
so maybe it wasn't that good after all. After settling the tab (note to
readers: if you pay by credit card, you write the tip in first, sign, and then
they run that amount through and bring you a receipt so you don't have any
surprises a la
Enjoy! restaurant
in AV-town), we cautiously headed downstairs and made our way back to the
hotel.
I took a shower when we got back, mainly to warm up, and learned that my new
jeans (which were so new they hadn't been washed yet, except for the London
rain) gave me a rash all over my legs and up onto my hips! Piss! I didn't
realize this until after I got out of the bathroom and finished hand-washing my
jeans after the shower, and sat down in my bed to put on lotion, when I pulled
up my pajama-pant leg and saw a pink rash all over myself. And it was itchy
like a
mutha-f*
cka, too! So I took a good dose of
Benadryl, or whichever generic equivalent I
had with me, and turned in for the night. What a day or two!
