This weekend deserves its own post! So here it is.
Friday: After a failed attempt at a voice lesson, Hector and I went to the HD Hauptbanhof to wait for our shuttle to take us to the Frankfurt Hahn Airport (in the middle of freakin' nowhere, good grief), and there we met two nice English-speaking ladies by the names of Anais and Kristen! We chatted most of the two hours it took to get to the airport, in a shuttle that slowly rose from 15°C to 37° -- which, in Fahrenheit, is 59° to 98.6°. We were almost roasting in that place, so getting off and into the cool air was such a relief!
At the Hahn airport, we went through the shortest security line I've ever been through, and found a cafe at which to chill until boarding started. At the gate, a little baby Irish boy sat down next to me on the floor and he acted suavely to me, which made me smile. We boarded the plane by walking up stairs from the ground! First time I've ever done that. The flight over was short, but very bright. We arrived in London Stansted and had a difficult time finding out how to get into town; eventually we settled on a bus for rather cheap. That took us to Victoria Station, which was.... out of commission, for construction at the entrance. So, around 11:30pm, we had to strangle out some wifi from a telephone booth on the street and figure out where the next station was within walking distance. Aaaahhhh, so stressful. Eventually we got to Sloane Square and I bought my ticket for Southfields and ran off just as my train pulled up to the station, hooray. I asked a cute worker for directions too, so that was a nice bonus :P
At Southfields, I had to wait for a while; I'm thankful for the worker there, because he came out of his office to keep an eye on the possibly crazy man yelling obscenities at me and a couple other ladies waiting outside. Thankfully nothing came of it, and (my new friend) Denise came by about 30 minutes later to walk me to her house, where I stayed the night! She fed me too, which I appreciated so much. If you're reading this, thank you Denise!! I fell asleep around 2:30am, which was not exactly healthy. Haha.
Saturday: I woke up today at 10, which was sort of unfortunate because I wanted to see if I could get day tickets for Matilda, but those went on sale at 10 so I missed an opportunity there. Denise and I went to Starbucks for a late breakfast, then headed to West Brompton to meet up with Hector. I bought a day ticket for £8.90, which proved very useful. Hector and I started our touring day at King's Cross station, where we found Platform 9 3/4!
Here I am in my natural habitat ;) Ravenclaw, naturally. Actually, when I asked the picture attendant girl for the Ravenclaw scarf, and Hector asked for Hufflepuff, we made her day for being the first to ask for houses other than Griffindor and Slytherin!
After that hour-long excursion, which included gift shop, we came back to the Thames and walked across Tower Bridge. Then we saw the Globe Theater (but not inside because that was expensive), and walked through the streets of London. Then we found the Millennium bridge, which was "destroyed" in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and walked across it. From there we found St. Paul's Cathedral, which was huge! We spent about an hour and a half in there, at first observing, then listening to their all-male choir sing for Evensong at 5pm. We got to sit in the choir loft and get an intimate view of the entire cathedral.
When we were let out, the sun was setting. We took a double-decker bus - yes, the touristy kind, no shame - to somewhere near Big Ben. I remember seeing it for the first time, its face all lit up with the near-full moon in the background... that's one of my best memories of the trip. It was quite beautiful. We spent a while there, and also got to observe the blue-lit London Eye, which is much taller in real life than anticipated! Near the Eye was an insane indoor carnival sort of area, which I was entranced with. It was just so cool! Our day ended around 8pm, and I got lost on the way home! Imagine that. I walked nearly all the way to Wimbledon Park before asking some nice ladies on a walk how to get to Victoria Avenue. I fell asleep around 2am that night.
Sunday: Hector and I traveled separately today, so I spent most of the day by myself. Walking to the Tube station, I was greeted by a man running by who looked a little bit like Stephen Fry. He said a cheerful "Good morning" and it made my day just a little brighter :) I got another late start, and missed out on the Matilda matinee. Sigh. But I did get to discover a place called the Seven Dials, and from there found my way to Buckingham Palace... eventually.
I made a horrible mistake and didn't bring a water bottle with me, so I dehydrated myself for most of the day. Horrible idea, one should always make sure to keep hydrated!!! Anyway, I saw Buckingham Palace but was surprised at the lack of red-coated guards; I did see some in grey coats though. I walked around that area for a while before heading back to Southfields area. I badly needed food/water so I found a pub called the Old Garage, and contacted Denise for a late lunch! I got my much-coveted fish and chips there ^^ It was pretty good, especially considering I don't like seafood. After lunch, I just went back to Denise's flat and napped for a couple hours. Whoops!
Once I woke up, I met her at Gloucester Road Station for an evening church service with fellow college students. What a nice time we had, which included chicken sandwiches afterward! Yay for free food :P After that began the arduous task of getting me back to the airport in time for our flight. Oh, and finding Hector. Good grief it's almost painful to recall. I got stranded by public transport and cried quite a lot, to put it bluntly. But I am self-sufficient, and I found my way... through the help of some caring middle-aged men on the bus. Thank you, kind strangers! You give me hope. And I'm really happy I didn't get attacked or anything like that, I was not acting like I was taught in self defense. But I digress.
Eventually, by something of a miracle, Hector and I found each other at the correct bus stop. We bought our tickets, which again by a miracle we had just enough cash for, and rode a couple hours to the airport. We arrived around 2:30 or 3am. Everyone in the airport was sleeping all lined up along the floors, it was quite something to see! I am sad to report that I misplaced my makeup somewhere in the airport, and after about 1.5 hours of searching and asking people (while crying again, of course), I couldn't locate it :( and I had to go through security twice, which was a pain. The airport was nice though, and we relaxed at a Starbucks until it was time to go to our gate. We boarded the plane the same way as in Frankfurt Hahn, and were on our way. We arrived in Germany at 9:30am.
