Día Uno en Londres

(The Natural History Museum in London, England)

Well, I have gotten a bit behind on my blogging - about four weeks. Oops. So I'll start with London!

Monday, December 14, 2009

After I had gotten through Madrid's airport security with about an hour to spare, I wandered over to my gate and grabbed a seat. I pulled out my book to occupy some time, but the next thing I remember is one of the airline workers shaking me and saying, "Are you planning on going to London? The plane is about to leave." I tripped over my bag getting up so fast and hobbled to the plane, as my leg was still asleep. Morning Gigi strikes again!

As the plane was taking off, I saw that it was starting to snow outside - the first snow I had seen this winter. I must not have been that impressed because I fell asleep almost immediately and didn't wake up until the plane landed at Stansted Airport. As I had forgotten to check whether the was a time difference between Madrid and London, I wasn't sure whether or not I was late for the shuttle to London, so I ran through all the security lines, got my passport stamped (by a woman who was my first sample of a British accent - I had no idea what she was saying), and flew over the where the buses pick travelers up. On my way, I stopped to withdraw pounds, (which are really expensive) and then bought myself breakfast - orange juice and a wonderful sort of granola bar as well as a treacle tart for later. How British.

But once I got outside, I froze to the spot. It is rather chilly in London. I had expected it to be cold but Madrid had spoiled me weather-wise. It was that type of cold where your knees get stiff and your eyes get squinty and the wind goes right up the sleeves of your coat. I shuffled over to where I was to meet the bus, and luckily, it showed up right away, before my orange juice turned into an orange flavored ice cube. The bus ride was quite nice, as it was heated and they had a Christmas station playing on the radio. And even though everything was in English, I had no idea what the advertisements were actually advertising (they seemed like random sentences threaded together). But all the announcers had accents, which always brightens my mood. Then they announced the weather - London: 40 degrees. ¡Qué! Madrid must have really spoiled me, because I thought it was at least -5 degrees!

After about an hour and a half, the bus got to central London and I asked the bus driver where the Metro was. He replied that the Metro was in Paris, but that the Underground was around the corner. Those Brits. I walked to the Victoria Street Station and got in line for a one-way ticket. It cost me 4 pounds, (which is about 7 dollars)! I decided then that I would be doing an awful lot of walking. I took the Underground to Gloucester Road, which was where my hostel was (without getting lost, I might add) and managed to walk to my hostel, only having to turn around once as I had walked too far down the street. Unfortunately on this walk, the strap of my purse broke, rendering the whole bag unusable. So for the rest of my London trip, I carried by belongings around in a plastic bag. This made me feel a little bit homeless and museum security looked at me oddly, but the plastic bag method seemed to suffice.

After dropping my backpack in the luggage room and asking the person at the front desk for tourist suggestions, I was off. I wandered the neighborhood (Kensington) a bit first, and passed the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Academy of Music before making my way to the Natural History Museum. I had planned to spend only a couple of hours at the Museum, but I ended up staying for almost 5 hours. It was a very cool museum and had displays on everything from the human body and perception, to earthquakes and oceans (and it was all in English). I had lunch at the Museum's cafe (an egg and cress sandwich with grapes) and also visited the new Darwin center. After watching a documentary about David Attenborough in the new Attenborough Studio and taking pictures of the museum's library (in which a file exists for every plant or animal ever discovered), I headed to Hyde Park.

It was already dark, so I stayed along the outer rims of the park and eventually found the Winter Wonderland - one of London's annual Christmas fairs. Although I was damp and freezing, the fair was still fun to walk around, especially because everyone had a British accent, even the little kids! England is fun that way.

Then, at Julia's suggestion, I was off to find Harrods - London's big department store. Unfortunately, the map given to me by the hostel wasn't very good and didn't include all the streets. Therefore, I had to wander around until I found a street that was important enough to be on my map - this is a very inefficient way of traveling around, especially when it's so dark you can hardly see the map anyway. Furthermore, cars in London drive on the wrong side of the street. I knew this when I got to London, but I didn't make the connection that when I was crossing the street, I would have to look the other way. Also, it seems to me that cars in London have the right of way, not pedestrians. This led to a few terrifyingly near-death experiences on my part, and even after I remembered to stop and look in the right direction, there were too many cars coming from too many directions for my frozen brain to sort out. The method I developed included prayer and running across streets with my eyes closed. Anyway, as I was walking I saw a store which looked really warm and well-lit, and since my joints were freezing over by this point, I stopped in to get warm. It turned out to be a grocery store - I had not even planned that. I suppose I am just drawn to them - it must be fate.

So after touring the aisles of the supermarket, I again faced the cold, and this time, actually found Harrods. Their Christmas decorations included advertisements for theater's Wicked, so the first thing I saw were the two giant feet of the Wicked Witch of the East sticking out from under the building. I entered the store and it was packed. I felt a little out of place because Harrods turns out to be a luxury items store (I should have figured - Julia told me about it) and I was walking around with my belongings in a plastic bag. The store can be compared to Macy's in NYC. There were seven floors filled with everything from pots and pans to riding equipment, but the most exciting part were the cafes. It is officially a supermarket, but the sections are all separate and have their own counters. It was very busy and very expensive so after a few minutes, I headed back out into the rainy freezing-ness to walk back to the hostel.

It was a longer walk than I had anticipated, but I saw a lot of London's shopping district. I stopped for dinner at a Thai restaurant near my hostel, which was quite good. I got a chicken and vegetable stir fry with rice and lemonade and they also gave me these Asian rice-crackers, which were probably my favorite part. I asked what they were, but they have a Thai name, and I therefore had no idea what the waitress said, but I will be looking for them if I ever see a Thai supermarket. I decided that I do not like eating alone, but fortunately for me, there was no one in the restaurant to judge me except for the waitress - who was having her dinner at the next table over. No worries.

I stopped at the supermarket next door to the hostel to look for an umbrella (unsuccessfully) and then headed back to the hostel, where I checked in and brought my stuff up to my room. The room was big and had 10 beds and two bathrooms down the hall. Not all the spaces were taken up so there was plenty of room to spread out. I then went back downstairs to the lounge to plan out the next day. I circled everything on my map that I wanted to do (which was pretty much everything) and must have looked like a wreck (my neck was barely supporting my head by this point) because the boy sitting next to me asked if I needed advice. So we started talking (he was from Holland) and then the two kids on the other couch joined in, too (one from Chicago and one from LA). They all were talking about what they had already done and still wanted to do, so from their advice, I made myself a plan for the next day. I was practically asleep by this point, but I dragged myself up to bed and passed out.