The England Journal-Day 3-Part 2-Central London

The National Portrait Gallery

Journal Entry 5
December 15, 2011-10:39 PM-London Time


          We made it back around 9:30 after spending all day in Central London. 
          The alarm went off at around 8:15 this morning, but I was the only one who heard it and I immediately turned it off and went back to bed thinking, "I took a shower last night so Pearl or Nicole will probably get up." The next time I looked at the clock, it was 9 AM, so I finally woke the others up.

          The first night at the Clink was actually not that bad. We were so exhausted that we slept fast and hard and were only woken by drunken people in the hall once or twice (this made us exceedingly happy that we had opted for the 3 person private room rather than the dorm style room).
          We got a late start the morning of the 15th, but we managed to make it to the continental breakfast downstairs in the hostel kitchen. My stomach got a little queasy because I was still getting used to the London water, but I felt better by lunch time.
          We met Dr. M at the the National Portrait Gallery, which was our first official stop on our London tour, and had lunch at the cafe there (which I must say that the pre-packaged sandwiches are incredible England). I loved both the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery next door. I saw the portraits of some of my favorite authors, actors, and political figures and that is only scratching the surface. The paintings by Claude Monet that the National Gallery had on display completely blew me away. Monet is my favorite artist and to see so many of his works in a single room was overwhelming. I have a print of the "The Waterlily Pond" in my room and to see the original was beyond description!
           Pearl and I also took pictures in Trafalgar Square while Nicole and Dr. M were in the National Gallery cafe. A very nice man saw me trying to pose Pearl and he offered to take our picture :) I was also able to view the Clock Tower (aka Big Ben) for the first time in Trafalgar Square.

 

My first view of Big Ben

          After our museum hopping, we decided to try to find the original Twinings Tea Shop so we could have afternoon tea. We thought we had the right address, but it was not long before we realized that the numbers on other side of the street were going by a complete different system. We trekked on in confusion until we finally caved and found a Starbuck's to figure out where the actual address was. It turned out that we would have had to walk the entire length of The Strand to get to the tea shop and by that time it was getting dark (the sun set at 4PM) and we were getting hungry. Before we started on our journey to find tea, we had decided to go to the The Sherlock Holmes Pub for dinner which was in the opposite direction we were heading not far from the Trafalgar Square. Our hunger won over our desire for tea and we made our way back to down The Strand.
          When we arrived at the Sherlock Holmes Pub, I for one was a little terrified. It seemed like a lovely establishment on the outside, but inside was so packed it was standing room only. There was no one to seat us, no one to take our orders, and no apparent place we could even order food if we wanted to. A nice man and woman finally scooted over so we could cram ourselves into a table with a bench. Pearl, Nicole, and I had to shove our backpacks in a corner so that they wouldn't be knocking into people. We found a menu with some amazing food  items listed, but it bewildered us that we didn't see anyone eating! Finally, one of us spotted some stairs across the room from where we were sitting. I was sent to investigate because we were sorely in need of a bathroom and I could get out of where we were seated the easiest. I dodged the people crowded around the bar, brushed accidentally against a few backs and who knows what else, and made my way up the steps as fast as I could without actually breaking into a sprint. Lo and behold, there was a restaurant upstairs that was blessedly empty yet open for business! I joyfully returned from my mission to inform the others and we gathered up our belongings and made our way as quickly as possible up the stairs.
          It was heavenly! To go from standing room only to a quiet, tranquil setting was one of the biggest sighs of relief I have experienced in my life! On top of the relief, right next to our table was a museum of sorts of all the famous objects and mementos connected with Sherlock Holmes. We loved peaking through the glass while we waited for our dinner. I ordered a small dinner of ham and cheese and vegetables, but Nicole let me taste some of her Yorkshire pudding.
          After dinner, Dr. M parted ways with us and made her way back to her hotel. We hung outside of Starbuck's to use the internet because we needed to check on some things regarding our itinerary. We were literally sitting on the sidewalk outside of Starbuck's using the internet until someone leaving the coffee shop looked at us and remarked, "It's ok if you don't buy anything; they won't care." So we found some empty seats and made ourselves comfortable while we finished researching. We actually did end up buying a drink to share when we left. When I went to pick up our order, the woman at the counter told me to, "Say hi to Obama." :)
          
            

The England Journal-Day 3-Part 1, The National Gallery and Retelling Day 2

Journal Entry 4
December 15, 2011-2:37 PM-London Time

          We are at the National Gallery right now and Dr. M stopped at the cafe to get some bottled water. We just finished with the Portrait Gallery. We saw the original miniature of Jane Austen that was done by her sister Cassandra. I gasped when I first saw it because we had been searching for it high and low and to have it suddenly before my eyes was stunning
          I want to go into more detail about the rest of yesterday and this morning, but I don't have time right now. I will write more later. 

          So now it begins. Once again, I apologize that my journal entries are out of order with the days, but I'll still try to go into as much detail as possible. Please rewind your mind to what I wrote in the previous blog post. We were just about to land at Gatwick Airport...

Journal Entry 5
10:39 PM-London Time

          Yesterday can really only be described in three words...
          Oh. My. Lands.
          We went from not sleeping on the plane to going through Immigration. The woman who stamped my passport was scary. She asked me all sorts of questions about my stay: how much money  had, who I was traveling with; I tried to be polite, but she made me really flustered. She looked like she was annoyed and didn't believe me when I said that I was on vacation instead of a school trip because I said I was a student and was traveling with a professor (she didn't believe that Dr. M was a friend :-/). 
          After we survived Immigration, we collected our luggage (all of it thankfully) and went to the train station. While we were standing on the platform, I was pulling out my Travel England book almost constantly to check street names and stations (since thankfully the book had a street-by-street map of London). We hit rush hour on the train from Gatwick to Victoria, so it was crowded and we had to move our luggage around a lot. I was tired and almost to the point of tears by that point because we were trying to figure out where to go next; whether to immediately pick up the London Passes we had purchased because we needed the Travelcard to use the Tube or to drop off our luggage first at the hostel or to got to Dr. M's hotel.
          Thankfully, Dr. M suggested that we sit down and have a nice cup of tea first. We dragged our luggage all through the inside and outside of Victoria Station looking for a tea shop. Dr. M asked one man where to find a nice place to get tea (he looked like Daniel Craig to me, only not as pretty and he was near a news stand smoking) and he directed us to a Starbuck's (unbeknownst to us first because he just said it was a nice place to have a cup of tea :). We settled on Starbuck's for tea even though they did not serve us in china cups and we finally got a lovely rest. We chatted for a while and I finally relaxed again (at least a little). 
          After tea, we bought day passes for the tube so we could get around. Dr. M purchased a 7-day pass because she didn't buy a London Pass (which we didn't know until we had actually gotten to London). Dr. M aptly suggested that we drop off our luggage before we go anywhere else around London.
          May I say that figuring out the London Streets and tube all on the same day with no sleep for the past two nights was an ordeal. The tube was crowded and we had all our luggage with us. I'll leave the rest to imagination...
          We took the tube from Victoria to King's Cross St. Pancras, which is the closest tube station to The Clink 78 hostel where we made reservations. The Clink 78 Youth Hostel, Islington, London After trying to figure out the roads from my travel book (ugh!), Dr. M went into a Travel Lodge  to get directions (Dr. M is never afraid to ask directions :)
          We finally arrived at the Clink exhausted from hauling everything around (the Clink has a steep flight of stairs up to the entrance) and I honestly don't know how Dr. Miller survived with a recent knee replacement. We dropped off our luggage at around noon, but we couldn't check-in yet. Dr. Miller got some better directions to get to the tube and us three girls plopped on the lobby couch in a fit of incoherent exhaustion. 
          More tomorrow, time for bed :)

          Just so I can keep some continuity with the order of days, I am going to go ahead and finish telling about our first day in London.

          ....we rested for a while in the lobby and got some bottled water from the vending machine (this was the first time I actually used British money to buy something, because Dr. M had bought our tea at Starbuck's earlier). I was so worn out by that point that I was shaking. 
          But we finally got up because it was about the time for Dr. Miller to check-in (if she was allowed early check-in). Pearl, Nicole, and I took turns carrying her luggage. It was about noon when we left the Clink for Dr. Miller's hotel on Sussex Gardens near Hyde Park...we didn't get there until 2:00. Someone had given Dr. M the wrong tube station, so we ended up at Hyde Park Corner flipping through my street-by-street map of London. I remember looking over the map and saying, 
          "We're on the wrong side."
           And Dr. M replying, "Of the street?"
           With me stating, "Of the park."
          We got back on the tube till we arrived at Lancaster Gate Tube Station. After taking the long way to the Alexandra Hotel we finally made it in one piece, even more tired than before. 
          Dr. M checked-in and we went up to her room to use the toilet. She prayed for us before we left because we still had to travel to Charing Cross Road to pick up our London Passes. We got lost on our way back to Lancaster Gate station because we took a right when everyone had told us to take a left (in fact, if we had merely LOOKED left when we went right, the station would have been only 50 ft away :-/ ). Then when we arrived at Charing Cross station we figured out that Charing Cross station was not on Charing Cross Road. So we back tracked to Leicester Square station, which is actually ON Charing Cross Road, and asked people where 11a Charing Cross Road (the address of where we had to pick up the London Passes). The building turned out to be a kiosk in the middle of the road. We had to go down winding stairs to get to the place underground, but thankfully there was no one there but the woman at the desk. After completing our mission, we finally returned to the hostel without further incident. 
          I don't know how we managed it but we found a supermarket nearby and bought some soup and rolls for 5.38 pounds. We prepared the soup at the hostel in the kitchen (I must say we were very proud of ourselves) and then we went back to our room to prepare for bed. Pearl and I took a shower, I called my Mom to let her know we were alive, and then we were all in bed by 7:30 PM.

          Thank you for sticking it out and reading this long, excruciating description :) But I must say that if you think reading this post was long, living it was 10 times longer. In the next post I will actually tell you happened on day three :)

The Clink Hostel was actually a renovated Courthouse, so they still had a lot of the signs up :)

         
   

The England Journal-Day 2-The Forced March

          After coming back from England, it took me a while to be able to talk about our first day in London. I really enjoyed our flight there in spite of the lack of sleep, but every time I thought about the four of us tramping up and down the streets of London I would shudder. Nothing bad happened to us, not really anyway. But, as you will see, the term "bad" can be relative.

Journal Entry 2
December 14, 2011-3:20 AM-London Time

          Pearl and I can't sleep. We tried but it just hasn't worked. Dr. M and Nicole seem to be managing quite well falling asleep and, more importantly, staying asleep. I switched seats with Pearl not long ago, as soon as the seat belt light went off. I figured that if I wasn't getting much sleep in the window seat she might have better luck. But we both seem wide awake after we took turns going to the bathroom. Pearl is busy journaling to my left :)
          Not long after we took off, the pilot said that we have a strong tail wind, so we will land about an hour early. That leaves about another 3 hours to "sleep." 
          We are flying above the clouds right now and the moon is reflecting off of them making the mist appear milky white. The blanket of white beneath us contrasts with the clear night blackness. We can see the Big Dipper to the north. Pearl even said she saw a shooting star :)
          Earlier in our flight, I could not get over how vast the city lights extended. It looked as if I could merely step outside the plane and dip into a glittering pond. The cities are a work of art when viewed from above in the night sky. A web of shining lights lacing and interweaving against a velvet black. I wonder what it would be like to paint a picture or even design a dress using this night view as an inspiration. 
          I must say, though, that I was rather unimpressed the view of New York City. It looked like an enormous parking lot from 39,000 feet in the air. 
          I am going to try reading now...

Journal Entry 3
5:20 AM-London Time

          Well, they turned the cabin lights back on. Pearl and I still didn't get any sleep. I read a little from a Victoria Holt novel, but I was in an awkward sitting position so I only got through a few pages even though the story was good. Pearl and I turned out the lights a little after my attempt at reading and did some star gazing. She has seen 5 shooting stars, so she she let me lean over her so I could see one too. I finally did :)
         We tried sleeping again but we failed completely, so we finally ended up talking and trading stories at around 4:45. Pearl told stories from her time being a camp counselor at a special needs camp over the fall and it was good to hear since I haven't seen her since July. 
         The flight attendants are passing out danishes now. 

          After this, my journal entries get a little disjointed. We rushed around so much that it was hard recording what happened the day that it happened. My next journal entry is on the 15th and I talked about how we survived getting to where we needed to go. I'll save the actual journal entry for the next post, but I will got ahead and mention a few tidbits now.
          For future reference, in case you are traveling in a foreign country, TAKE A TAXI FROM THE AIRPORT TO YOUR HOTEL!!! This was probably one of the biggest life lessons I learned during the first day in London. A taxi is worth every penny if it means avoiding rush hour in the Tube while you are dragging 50 lbs of luggage behind you (poor Nicole was the one with the 50 lbs, she said that at one point she considered just kicking her suit case into the street and laughing hysterically as it got ran over).
          The second life lesson I learned was that, in foreign countries, pedestrians to not have the right of way. Thankfully I nor any of my companions got ran over in the midst of learning this fact, but I did once have a double decker bus come whizzing by less than 3 ft away from my shoulder.
          All in all, the first official day of our trip became something we will definitely remember for the rest of our lives. Even though I was numb at the end of the day from going almost 48 hours without sleep and forcing myself to keep walking even though all I wanted to do was cuddle up in some abandoned corner and cry, I was very proud of us that we had made it (and we even survived in the process). Thankfully we were able to laugh about it (a little) by the 4th or 5th day into our trip.

The England Journal-Day 1

          I am right now sitting on the family room couch in my pajamas (which I haven't taken off all day), snuggled in a blanket with the cat sleeping peacefully next to me. Today was the official start of spring break, hence why I have indulged in the pajamas all day. As you can guess, since I have managed to have an entire day to my self doing all the odd jobs on my "I'll do it over spring break list," it finally hit me that posting about England would probably be a good thing to do while I have the time and was feeling motivated.
           To be honest, I am kind-of glad that I have waited this long to share about one of the major check marks on my Knot List. I have had 3 months to process everything that has happened and the bad things don't seem as bad while the good things have taken on a dream-like quality. I will be sharing from the journal that I kept while I was on the trip (a gift from wonderful Nicole) and I will also be sharing some memories that I didn't put in journal (mostly because of laziness, not because the memories were not meaningful).

My England journal and other things in my very crowded lap on the plane

Journal Entry 1
December 13, 2011- 6:08 pm

          We are almost on our way! I am sitting next to Pearl right now in seat 24A, a window seat :) There is no one sitting in front of us so we opened the two windows closest to our seats. It's dark outside so all I can see are the airport lights with the airplanes shrouded in hazy shadows. 
          Dr. M and Nicole are sitting in the seats next ours with the isle in between. I can hear children talking to one another behind me about how this is their first flight and how excited they are :)
          Me, Pearl, and Nicole arrived at the airport at around 3:40 this afternoon. My Mom and Dad dropped us off  using Nicole's car, which is going to be parked at our house while we are in England. 
          The flight attendant over the PA  said that the type of plane we are on is an Airbus 3300 (or something like that). The engines are starting to hum louder and I can feel the floor vibrating slightly! I can't believe we are actually doing this! It is 6:21 right now so we will be taking off any minute. 
          We're moving.... :)

          Since this was only my second time out of the country, going through check-in required a lot of explanation from the people at the desk (who knew just swiping your passport could be so complicated). But I managed to get my bag checked without too much trauma involved. Security took a lot shorter than I thought it would (about 20 min when I was expecting an hour) and I had to get scanned by one of those new techy security devices. All in all, everything went very smoothly.
          We met Dr. M at the gate and it was wonderful to see her. It had been quite a while since all four of us had been together. She had been waiting there for  several hours because she had a friend drop her off early. She was still her gentle, soft spoken self in spite of having to wait for so long. Dr. M is the type of person who finds the positive and  makes friends no matter where she is (as you will see in future entries :)
          Nicole and I wanted to buy something to eat before we got on the plane, so we rushed around looking for food and still managed to get back before our plane started boarding. I wasn't sure at first if security would allow me to take a salad on the plane (though I don't know what could be dangerous about lettuce and tomatoes), so I asked a couple of guards at the gate if bringing food on the plane was permitted. One guard answered me with a straight face, "Only if you share." I laughed and held up my southwest salad to him. He let it pass :)
          Our gate was close to a German airline and I had fun listening to a lot of tall, blonde people speaking German. They all looked so sophisticated. Dr. M got into a conversation with a British woman about the Nazis bombing churches during WWII (I seriously did not make the connection between the German airline and Dr. M's historical conversation until now! I doubt she realized it either :)
          We were some of the last to board and I wouldn't have minded except that my bags were heavy. We got to our seats with relative ease (about as much as ease as you can get on a plane). I quickly ate my salad before the flight attendants could say anything about it and settled in for what I thought was a long flight to London Gatwick Airport.