"I’m gonna lose weight this trip!” - 11:20pm London, England

Holy crap I made it this late! I landed at Heathrow and cleared customs (Holy was the line long though!) and managed to connect to the wifi to send a couple Facebook messages to Philip and Jordan (already wanting to know where the heck I was/when I’m landing in London). I got an Oyster card without a lot of issue… guess where all my British Pounds went? And braved the tube all the way to King’s Cross… the whole hour of not moving with a huge bag beside me! Because of the sheer size of King’s Cross station, and the number of crazy intersections once you finally managed to find daylight again, I got turned around a couple of times trying to find the hostel – thankfully for the offline map app of London I installed, I was able to find my way to the hostel without too many issues, once I found the right road…

I got to the Clink 78 hostel I’m staying at, locked my bag down in the baggage room (where I neither assume it’ll be in the same spot, nor that I’ll actually find it in the depth and sheer number of bags that are currently in there), and waited for Philip to show up, who, after a flight delayed for an hour, still showed up about an hour behind me. We chatted for a little until we could officially check in to our rooms, dumped our bags (which I did happen to find, although it definitely wasn’t in the same spot I left it in) in said rooms, and went off exploring!

Philip had decided, before we launched into exploring, that he was hungry… so we braved a trek back to King’s Cross for McDonald’s… All the way to London, and I’m eating good old American fast food… >.< Upon leaving the hostel, we got stuck in a torrential downpour – like the type of downpour that shames Vancouver completely, and yet is somewhat stereotypical of what you would expect to find in Great Britain - and bonded over 5 minutes of hiding out along side of a random building trying to protect ourselves from the rain (even with no actual cover there…). Alas, we continued on to quench our (sorta) hunger. Although, as a result, we did have to head back to the hostel to change before truly exploring everything London had to offer.

Considering at this point, it was nearly 3pm, we decided to go on our way. I figured seeing as I have nearly 5 days in London post tour, I’d agree to do whatever Phil wanted (within reason) for the 1.5 days in London before the tour. Phil decided he wanted to start at Trafalgar Square, and after finally convincing him to get an Oyster card, and proving the benefits of one after watching how easy it was for me to use the tube, we went along our way. First sign of Canada – the large Canadian flag covering Canada House as it underwent renovations. It’s funny how the little things that like make you feel so much closer to home.

Somehow, after leaving Trafalgar Square, we stumbled into the Buckingham Palace grounds (although not knowing it at this point), and were at the beck and call of numerous detours due to the bike event going on. The only way we actually knew we were there, was finding the Victoria Memorial and the pearly err… golden gates. 

The weather, although cool, held for us, so we headed from Buckingham Palace off to Big Ben. What better way to travel than to see another tourist attraction and thinking “Hell, that doesn’t look too far, might as well wander our way over there!” After Big Ben, and going past Westminster Abbey, the Parliament, and across the Westminster Bridge, we ended the day at the London Eye.

London really isn’t as big as Hollywood (and society really) make it seem. I always had this idea when travelling that the best way to see things, get an idea of the area you’re trying to cover, and the sights you want to see, is to get up high, and check out your surroundings – getting a true bird’s eye view is somewhat unrealistic in most (if not all) places, so London’s big ‘bird’s-eye-view’ chance came via the London Eye. Afterwards, we took the tube to Picadilly Circus, where we decided, after Philip had complained all through the London Eye trip that he was hungry, to find dinner… Subway of all things. Go to Europe they said. Experience new things they said. Eat local food they said… McDonalds and Subway. Yup. We are definitely experiencing new things here – only if by new you mean paying for things in pounds instead of dollars (wait – that’s just me... Philip already has that skill down!) 

 After only spending a few hours with people, you tend to get a pretty good idea of them… I get a good vibe from Philip and I think he’s going to be a lot of fun, and a great friend after all this traveling is complete… but you also get a good idea of their likes, dislikes and personal quirks. Philip’s biggest quirk being that he is perpetually hungry. The guy could eat a solid meal every 2 hours and still be totally ready for another full meal in-between them. Where the heck does it all go? No one will ever know… He also seems afraid to venture out of his comfort zone – unable to spell it, pronounce it, or know what’s in it – no way is he eating it. This definitely limits our meal options (although it keeps us on a pretty good schedule), and he’s worried he’s going to ‘lose a lot of weight on this trip’!

All my years of playing backseat driver to my father during our family trips has finally paid off - thanks mom and dad for teaching me from a young age how to read a map! I’ve got the London Tube mastered already… no issues getting around London with this girl. :)

Philip has a VERY thick Scottish accent – maybe it’s me, or maybe it’s that I’m Canadian, but I swear I’ve spent more time in the last half a day smiling, nodding, and laughing at whatever the heck he says, without actually knowing what just happened. By the end of the day, I was averaging my understanding of his speech to about 85%, and I’m hoping that will only improve – after all, we have another 50 days together…

Due to our impromptu outdoor shower this afternoon, Philip decided he needed to use the hostel dryer to dry his jeans. Note to self, grown men traveling the world who don’t know how to use a washer or dryer are exactly as entertaining as one would assume. Haha. It took a little, but I did successfully teach him how to use the dryer, and his jeans did get dry eventually… 

I picked up my first postcard to send Sofia today, lets see how long it takes me to finally mail it.

At the hostel we stumbled upon Jordan (an Aussie that’s also doing the 49 day tour with us), and generally shot the shit for a couple hours… Hence why it’s so late… We’ve discussed a group dinner tomorrow with anyone else from our tour arriving in the next day.

Yet, as usual, I could be falling asleep at the table in the middle of a conversation with someone, and here I lie, wide awake in bed unable to fall asleep. 

First Impressions of London:

-          - Clean!

-          - Not as big as one may think

-          - Quite easy to get around (probably contrary to belief)

-          - Street signs are attached to ‘most’ building corners (good luck finding some) which can make it confusing when trying to navigate

-          - I’ll never get used to look right first when crossing the street…