Eurotrip Day 1 - We are all tired but we still did tons (sorta)
So I was almost late to the airport. We had to move so much stuff from my place to Clem's place. Anyway, we got onto the plane and wanted to get some sleep before we arrived. But the problem was that Air Canada fed us so much food (a dinner and breakfast) that we couldn't sleep. Moreover, the seats were definitely not comfortable 2 hours into the flight. I made some jokes in he beginning, we had a few laughs. The movie was Harry Potter, alright!When we were about to arrive, we got news that it was raining. We were heart broken because we were expecting to have a nice day so we could go visit a few things in the main city. We just got off and searched around for where to go. Turns out the the next part was to go through customs and passport stuff. Roger and Steve went together to a lady while I went to a british dude. I presented my passport and all of a sudden he turned into an agressive man. He asked me so many questions about where I was staying in London, when I was leaving London, how I was leaving London and when and where I was leaving Europe. He also wanted to see my ticket for the return flight to Ottawa, and obviously I didn't have it since it is all online. The Customs dude gave me a glare and told me that I was not prepared. He then hit the passport stamp a few times pretty hard and gave it back to me. Geez, not a nice first impression that is for sure.
Getting our bags weren't a problem, they came out really quick and my pack was the only one that was slightly wet. Roger's and Steve's bags seem to be perfectly fine. The next was to get some pounds. We couldn't get any UK currency back in Ottawa because the Exhange office was all out. I knew we should have got them a lot earlier. Sigh... Anyway, I exchanged my 40 dollars CAD to GBP. I used the money to buy an all zone day pass for London. And before I go on, I must say is that UK's tube (subway) system is byfar the best public transport in the world!!!! It is soooo fast and it goes everywhere.
Quick break, I think we were all tired and Roger was all sleepy. Roger felt very very very uncomfortable when I was pretending to take pictures on the tube. I basically yelled at me afterwards saying "Don't take pictures of me anymore. I don't want any!!". That kind of hurt. I think he was just tired.
Steve was being a good sport at the time and was exploring all these things. No offense to Roger, but I wish he was more into the exploring mood. I think he likes to have things well planned out and go the way we planned it. It is a good approach of course that worked all these years in school.
We took the tube and got on and of at a few stations to transfer, but we finally got to a station, but not Great Portland Station (where the hostel is at) because there was some repairs being made to that portion of the line. We got off at Baker Street, a walkable distance to the Hostel. First thing I saw when I came out, the nice tour bus for all of London, it was nice. I also instantly got confused with the traffic in London. Cars on the left side of the road and funky pedestrian walkways and lights. We passed by the Wax Museum, the line was around 2 blocks long. We were planning on going there since it was close, but after we saw the line, we decided to pass it.
Once we arrived at the hostel, we payed for the rooms and dropped off our stuff. Turns out, the entire dorm room where we were staying were all Canadian from East to West. We got some tips from them about what to do instead of the museum and was recommended to the London Eye. That seemed cool, so we took the tube to downtown and got off at the Westminster Station. Once we got out, my jaw dropped. It was the Parliament buildings and the Westminster bridge. It was amazing. I stopped right away to take pictures. I have a lot of big ben. I walked around for a bit, but Roger didn't seem to like it always asking "Where are you going? What are we doing next?". So Steve, Roger and I walked towards the London Eye, which is within 5 minutes walk from the Parliament buildings. The Eye is really nice, it isn't a roller coaster ride, it is an "Observation Wheel" A.K.A a ferris wheel. We paid £13 for it. BOOOOO that is equivalent to around $26-$27. We also had to wait 1 hour in line to get onto the Eye after buying the tickets. But since the day wasn't too bad ( a little cloudy, but not rain) it was great. A lot of good pictures and panoramic shots of london from the Eye.
We really didn't really know where to go since we had originally planned to go to the wax museum for the entire day. After the Eye, we walked close to the Thames River and saw a bunch of street performers. They are all really great and much better than the ones in Canada. We walked aimlessly for a bit just trying to explore the city. It was really nice, they have nice theaters and nice market places. We saw a ton of the double decker tour busses passing by every 2 minutes. We walked until we accidently reached Trafalgar Square. It is a huge place that is the front lawn to the National Gallery (we didn't go in). Roger still didn't like me taking random shots of him, but I sneaked a few here and there.
By the time we had arrived at Trafalgar square, we were soooo hungry and already very tired. We needed to find a place to eat. We tried to find a place that was cheap, but all we say in the main city was a minimum of £8-£9 for a small am simple meal. I recommended a place called the Covent Market and we decided to check it out. I think it was a nice place. There were a lot of street performers, shops for clothing and small food stores. One thing we learned after paying £6-£7 for dinner, was that we can no longer expect to get meals the size we normally get in North America. Our dishes were small, but the taste made up for it.
We headed home after we ate. Man were we tired. My legs and feat were literally sore. Once again, the tube got us back within 10 minutes. Such a great system I must repeat. After getting back, Steve took a nap. Roger and I explored the hostel since Roger had wanted to see what other facilities were available. For now, I will give International Sutent house a 8/10. They have great beds and washroom facilities. But no recreation or free interet. There is a bar, but I am not a drinking person. But I hear a pint of beer is around £1.5-£2. I will go the night before we leave.
After exploring, Roger also went to take a nap. I really didn't want to waste a night and even though I was very very tired, I decided to go out alone to do some exploring of the surrounding area, in hopes of finding a Catholic church. I found a 2 internet cafes. I am actually in one of them now. It is $1 for 1 hour. So it isn't bad. The computers suck though and the keyboard is in real bad condition. But it was close.
The night is definitely not the most interesting thing out there, but it was really nice to see the inner streets and the super damn nice cars there are. I totally forgot to mention also when I first got out of a tube station, I was amazed by the amount of luxury cars on the road. I would say 50% of the cars were luxury class mainly dominated byt Benz or BMW of course. The policement drive nice BMWs! I guess they can offord it with their higher salaries.
I went to bed after arriving home. I was just so tired from walking. We needed to sleep early because we were going to leave early for the main city area the next day. I wanted to use the internet at around 10pm, but the office was closed. Anyway, Roger seemed to feel much better and less grumpy. I hope he feels better soon. So for a first day, it was really fun. But one more thing, ITS EXPENSIVE HERE!!!
Day 2 coming up next
Labels: eurotrip
posted by lazypig @ 1:51 PM
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