Travel Journal: London
I really wanted to document my time here, so including a photography project* I am conducting, I decided I could try describing the things I’ve done here to the best of my ability. To be perfectly honest, I am really unsure how long I’ve been here, but it’s two or three days. For the sake of this post, we’ll pretend it’s been three. Day One was basically just the grand ascension on United from San Francisco (SFO) to Heathrow Airport. In short, it was ten hours of me trying to sleep and finish preparations for my aforementioned photography project. Airline food was, as always, an abomination to the beautiful world of edible things. Probably the best part of the plane ride was the old man that was the embodiment of what I imagine Benedict Cumberbatch will be when he ages; lovely, polite, well-dressed (but with a bit of an eccentric kick), and extremely adorable. He helped me with throwing my carry-on into the overhead bin and we made small talk while waiting outside the bathroom, which probably should have been at least a little awkward, but wasn’t. End Day One. Day Two started when my family and I arrived at Heathrow Airport, in what seemed the most ungodly hours of the morning. The first reaction I had was to choke down the sob rising in my throat because this is legitimately my dream. Being in London, so full of things to do and people to meet and food to gain weight from, all of a sudden became overwhelming.  Once we made it outside, the first thing I took notice of was the air. London air and San Francisco air are fairly similar, but with a few important nuances. They both have a faint, bitter taste of smoke and hint of petrol. It’s a bit difficult to explain how the coldness affects the way the air affects the olfactory system, but the simplest way I can think to put it is that London’s cold makes the air sweeter. Shortly after departing the airport, we took the underground to Camden Town. Thankfully, the train system has proven very easy to navigate (thus far—and this is coming from someone who has trouble giving directions to someone five blocks away from her house). I really love the metro newspapers (more commonly known as the "crapsheets"). I found the “Rush Hour Crush” section to be extremely cute, and the odd little articles (one of my favorites included a sex scandal concerning horses) added a certain charm. We spent much of the rest of the day exploring Camden Market, the labyrinthine shopping area near the CBS building (Camden Lock), and a few streets here and there. We ended up at Buckingham Palace at around ten at night, and while it was a beautiful sight, it was nippy (I’m spending the next few weeks in Italy, where the weather is going to be warm, so my mum had me pack lightweight clothing. “Don’t bring beanies, you’ll overheat,” she said. “Don’t bring a hoodie, you’ll be too hot.” Leggings and a t-shirt do not exactly offer much protection against London’s chill.) and my younger brother began to bemoan his hunger. That was essentially the end of Day Two. Today was Day Three. We hadn’t stopped by a Sainsbury’s or Tesco the previous night, and didn’t feel like paying nine pounds for the buffet in the hotel, so we hunted for our breakfast outside. This is when I learned that Camden Town (I’m not sure about the rest of London, because I haven’t encountered early morning breakfasts in Soho or anywhere else) is my kind of place. Nothing was open aside from a Caffe Nero (that may be misspelled and I am too lazy to check Google) and a Starbucks housing a few peaky businessmen. I guess seven on Tuesday morning is too early for people (I quite agree). At around ten thirty, we boarded a Big Bus Tour, with the lovely Nuri as our guide. Some of my favorite parts of the tour were the Waterloo bridge (which is, as far as I am concerned, holy ground because Ben C’s feet touched the pavement—in the scene from The Blind Banker and he interacts with a member of the homeless network— and it was taking a hell of a lot of my self-restraint not to jump off the double-decker bus while making sounds of happiness) and the excavation site with the cool Roman stuff. So Nuri, your tour was amazing, and I hope you had a great time today. Post-tour, we took a boat cruise thing to Westminster (and the guide was really dull, he got the landmarks mixed up and sounded like what I imagine Professor Binns, the boring History of Magic ghost teacher at Hogwarts, did.), went to Leicester Square to find tickets to The Book of Mormon (to no avail), and traveled back to Camden. I skipped over a few things, like eating at the Hard Rock Café and Trafalgar Square and eating fish and chips for the first time, but I really have to get to bed soon, since I’m in the lobby of this hotel I’m in, mooching off the free wifi. To wrap this all up, I don’t really know what to say. I don’t really know what I thought London was going to be like. I guess I figured I’d see Martin Freeman waltzing through the streets with Amanda Abbington, that everyone would be ultra posh, that the streets would smell of tea. And while I have yet to see any celebrities, the London I am currently in has far surpassed any expectation I might have had. Good night, or I guess, good afternoon to my friends in the Bay Area. *My photography project goes as thus: I have 100 quotes and 25 days of travel. I’m taking pictures of 4 quotes a day in different locations. The photos will be up in roughly 22 days. It’s basic, but I’m having fun.
