After my last update, I spent a few more days hanging out in Paris and finally made my way to London via the Eurostar chunnel. To be honest, I was disappointed at what 100+mph would feel like on a train, and I was especially disappointed at what the chunnel portion of the ride would be like. I think I hyped it up and imagined that the conductor would come on the loudspeaker and announce (in a spooky tone) we might not make it through and the water may leak into the tunnel and accompanying music would play in the background. Thats what I thought it would be like. Instead, what really happened was a boring conductor announced we were entering the tunnel and it would be approximately 20 minutes to get through. Shortly after, it became dark except for the faint glow of the train lights in the cabin. Pretty boring story eh?!
Well, I arrived in London by mid afternoon, and being the smart ass that I was, I decided to WALK to my hostel with my pack hoisted over my shoulder instead of doing the sensible thing - stepping onto the tube. My reasoning was that a single ride costs 4 pounds, and I would much rather eat than pay that ridiculous fare in riding (what I thought) was a few short stops. So of course I started another mini-adventure, but I was well prepared since I had a good overall built in map of London from being there in March. For those who know, I got off at Waterloo Station (near the London Eye) and my hostel was at South Kensington Station (across from the Natural History Museum). And in my above statement, by "prepared", I meant I didn't really know if the walk was going to take 20, 40, or 60 minutes! To be honest, it didn't end up being THAT bad but took a good hour to walk. No worries though, the weather held out perfectly and was overcast and cool.
The next day, I checked out of the hostel by 10AM and had them hold onto my luggage while I ventured out. I was going to visit the Tate Modern Museum but in the end decided I couldn't stand another paintings museum...even if it was modern art. Instead, I just went across the street and entered the Natural History Museum. It had dinosaurs, it had stuffed animals, earth and rocks, and a wide range of interactive displays designed for kids. No worries, I felt like a big kid in there and read up on a WHOLE bunch of interesting (but most likely useless) facts. For instance, there are three evolutionary steps to an efficient walk. In the first stage, the legs are bent at right angles and walking is achieved by throwing weight back and forth. Apparently, this is very inefficient. Next, the legs begin to straighten; finally, they are straight and distribute weight blah blah blah better. I can't remember it all, but I feel if this question were to ever come up in a quiz game show, I would dominate with a pretty good answer!
The last day of my travels was interesting. Truthfully, it was a day filled with a mental tug of war game between wanting to get back home (and wear clean clothes) versus to stay traveling and continue to explore and see the world. I think I have made it clear that living out of a backpack looses its appeal after a month or two when you realize ALL you have to wear is the same few dirty shirts. On the other hand, traveling offers some of the GREATEST opportunities that you normally don't get. It was a tough day as I reminisced on the past 3 months and also did the countdown for when it would JUST END. I ended up spending 4 or 5 hours in the museum looking at all the cool exhibits and reading for a couple hours at Kensington Park. Mainly, I had to go to Kensington Park so that I could take off my shoes for a while and let the stink air out. Lets keep it simple: my shoes STUNK. I actually started to air them out while in the museum only to have a group of school kids stop right near me as their teacher talked about a certain exhibit. I heard a few kids remark that the whole area smelled like cooking butter! I think the cooking butter was better described as my shoes that I'd worn day in day out for the duration of the trip! I quickly and nonchalantly slipped the shoes on and made a 007 style exit!
By late evening (and after reading some more at the hostel lounge), I made way to London Heathrow airport. Earlier in the day, I purchased a single ride ticket from the attendant to use to get me to the airport. OF COURSE though, when I put the ticket in, it doesn't work. Not only does it not work, but there is no one working now, and I do a mini "freak out". I feel London didn't want me to leave! Somehow a maintenance worker was passing by and I pleaded with him to open the gate and let me through. I thought, "wow, that was lucky, now it'll a nice, easy, and smooth trip to the airport". But again, London didn't want me to leave. The first train, after a half dozen stops announces the central train conductor has called the train back to central London. I'm forced off and have to wait for another. The next comes, I get in, it travels 2 stops and then announces that it won't be going to Heathrow anyone, but only to the next stop. Once again, I have to get out and wait. They say threes a charm though, and it was because the third train was finally able to get me there.
I had a flight out from London Heathrow at 8:30AM to Toronto. Does this sound familiar (if not, read an EARLY entry about the time I stayed up all night at the airport and vowed to never do it again). Yet for some reason, I do the same thing. I get to the airport around midnight to discover there were no check in attendants working. That meant I had around 6-7 hours to kill before the windows were reopened. Side note: airport seats might be one of THE worst places to try to sleep on. First of all, the elbow rest doesn't lift up. Secondly, there is no neck rest. Finally, the seat SUCKS. I quickly discover I'm not the only one with this idea as there are quite a few backpacking groups doing the same thing. Long story short, I hung out at the airport all night.
In total, this is how my day breaks down:
- Woke up at 9AM on May 22nd
- Wasted/reminisced
- Read my book
- Got on tube and arrived at Heathrow by midnight May 23rd. At this point, I've been awake 15 hours.
- Wait until 6AM to check in. Wait until 8AM before flight leaves. Now, I've been awake for 23 hours.
- Fly to Toronto. Unfortunately and fortunately, there were mini touch screen monitors on each headrest that allowed you to watch movies, tv shows, listen to music, etc. I was totally going to sleep the entire flight over and arrive into Toronto at 11AM refreshed, but the damn movies kept me going the whole flight. Lets see, flight took off at 8AM and arrived at 11AM. There was a five hour time difference, making it an 8 hour flight. That means, at this point, I had been up for 31 hours.
- Wait in Toronto until next flight. During the flight, I met two guys from London who were going to Seattle to pick up a custom made amp for their band. They said it actually worked out cheaper to fly from London and stay in Seattle for a week than to have it sent over. I don't know how it works out, but thats a PRETTY hefty price to send a guitar amp in my opinion. Anyways, I hung out with these two at the airport bar watching Liverpool vs. AC Milan instead of taking a nap at the airport. My flight took off from Toronto at 4PM. At this point, I have been awake for 36 hours.
- Fly to Raleigh. I admit, I fell asleep for a little bit...actually, before take off! But it was only a brief nap, so for all intensive purposes, I'm going to tally it on my "hours spent awake" adventure. The flight was roughly 2 hours, so that makes my total 28 hours.
- Rest of the day. Got in safely at 6PM, got a ride home, had some dinner, hung out with the family for a bit. I was feeling pretty awake the entire time until after dinner. At around 9PM, I felt a little sleepy and tried to keep plugging away at this blog! At around 9:01PM, I could barely keep my eyes open and went to lay down. It was one of the best and deepest sleeps I've ever had. That makes my total, umm...39 hours!! I'm pretty amazed at myself, and you should be too =) (If anything stated in my blog doesn't make sense, its because I wrote it in my state of delirium)
1 comment:
did you abandon your blog? :(
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