You know, after you think a bit, "blog" is a funny sounding word. Whatever. It's now August 2nd but I'll just recap and pretend it's a few days ago...
July 30th: Airports are so strange. Mom and Dad went with me through the check in and where you check your bags but then they couldn't go any further sooo I ventured on through the line to get scanned and make sure I wasn't dangerous. Somehow my hand sanitizers made it through without issue. Had to chug my mountain dew while in line which in retrospect probably wasn't the best idea. I had some quiznos which was fantastically overpriced then proceeded to wait and wait and wait. We were supposed to board at 6:10 and didn't get around to it until 7:30 or so. I sat next to a nice girl from Kernersville who was traveling to go on a cruise to Scotland and Ireland after spending a few days in London. Her grandmother and cousin were also on the plane sitting in the aisle next to us. Sitting near the back is the worst when you're hungry. I didn't bring enough snacks and the food got to us last. We had a choice of BBQ chicken with mac n cheese and green beans or cheese tortellini. The chicken was decent, didn't touch the green beans or my salad. Tried to get some rest and managed to sleep for about 3 hours or so. We hit some awful turbulence as we were flying over the last bit of land near/in Canada for 15 minutes and I couldn't sleep much after that. The stars were really pretty outside. I couldn't see any land until we were very close to landing, plenty of clouds. Customs took awhile but honestly was quicker than expected. We landed early (7:31am) somehow, even after taking off late, and I was buying my train ticket to Shenfield around 9:45. It would have been earlier but I apparently waited in the wrong line for awhile. Who knew? It said "tickets" but whatever. The guy in line was nice to talk to. Oh, it's now July 31st. So I got on the Picadilly (dark blue) line at a few minutes until 10am and proceeded to stay on it for ages. It's the underground that also goes above ground which was cool. I liked looking out the windows and I was standing near the door so I got some fresh air every stop (which was a lot of stops by the way).
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/standard-tube-map.pdf
yeah, so I started way at the bottom left corner at Heathrow 1,2,3 (dark blue) and went to Holborn (red) where I went to Liverpool Street and proceeded to find some food! (all by myself)
It was nearly 11am by this point (the Picadilly line took the longest) and I was starving. I walked up the stairs (no escalators, it was awful. all the other stations had them. wtf liverpool st) with all my things and there was a store that had signs for a "meal deal." I didn't know what that was but it sounded like food so off I went. I got a coke, a plain ham sandwich, and a chocolate mousse for less than 4 pounds. Charlie later informed me that this was a "Boots" which is kind of like Walgreens/CVS. I couldn't find Charlie so I wandered to information and asked for a payphone, which I found, but it didn't work. Starbucks didn't have free wifi so I wandered up to the next level which was near the street and found a McDonalds! Advertising free wifi on the door! I sat at the outside tables and promptly figured out the wifi and messaged Charlie. We somehow just missed each other but she found me in 30 seconds. After exchanging sweaty hugs (I felt so gross) we got on an actual train to Shenfield where Charlie's mom (mum) picked us up! It's only about a 5 minute car ride to her house from the station and seriously, everything here is adorable. I took all my things to the room Charlie's Mum has gotten ready for me. It used to be Charlie's sister's room. Charlie thinks it looks much better now with its gray/white/green/black scheme compared to the old hot pink and black. my window opens up to the backyard which is adorable and lovely and I can see other cute little houses nearby and the neighbors' gardens. the one drawback: no air conditioning. They don't normally need it. This summer is very hot apparently, the heatwave of 75 degrees F. It feels like springtime and it's amazing! All the houses have the windows open and it's so nice to feel the breeze and hear all the birds outside.
Anyway, Charlie drove us into Shenfield (after searching at the Tesco right down the street) for bread (fresh, not the prepacked loaves) and we bought some things for sandwiches and snacks. We also got a pizza that we baked for lunch when we got back; it was super tasty. I could barely keep my eyes open so I had a nice nap from 2:30-5ish then we planned out the week, watched TV (real housewives of Atlanta), and had dinner of BBQ chicken and two types of yummy potatoes! Icecream bars for dessert (: We watched a bit more TV but I was exhausted and went to bed around 10:30pm. I woke up around 2:30/3am super hot and couldn't get back to sleep for awhile. Opened the window to cool down a bit then fell back asleep until Charlie woke me up at 11:30am. I managed to sleep nearly 12 hours. Okay, That's a ton of reading so I'll start a new post for the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment