I awoke from my very brief sleep to a stewardess that was passing out breakfast meals. The sandwich was extremely dry and the nature valley bar almost broke my jaw, but other than that, it was a good breakfast (lol airline food). I got out of my seat and brushed my teeth in the lavatory again, and when I returned to my seat, the captain announced that we were less than an hour away from London. Excited, I watched the tv screen and saw the map of our travels. The closer the little plane icon inched toward our destination, the more awake and more thrilled I became.
Finally, we landed at the London Heathrow airport. The marathon flight was (fittingly) capped off with what seemed like a lifetime of waiting to exit the aircraft. After disembarking, our group reunited, emotionally cheery yet physically exhausted. We made it through customs rather easily (the group had to wait on me because I had forgotten to take my completed landing card with me) and then received our bags pretty quickly at the claim. We waited for about ten minutes for two individual travelers, Frankie Lazarra and Derek Sanderson from North Central College in Illinois, but they never showed up. Without cell phone service to reach them, we decided to take off for the hostel and meet them there.
We made our way down to the underground metro system. I have been fascinated with metro systems ever since my trip to Washington, D.C. in 1998. I looked forward to absorbing the data associated with London's system of railways (I know, I'm weird...). The trip made me regret not filling up my water bottle while in the airport because we had to go through about a million stops before arriving at our stop. Eventually, we made it to King's Cross, a famous train/metro station in London where a boy named Harry Potter found the train to Hogwarts through a magical portal called Platform 9 3/4. We ignored the attraction for now and instead went about locating our hostel. After receiving some directions from the locals, we stumbled upon the Clink 261 hostel on Greys Inn Road, right smack dab in the middle of the UK's capital city.
We went inside and met up with the rest of the group. Derek and Frankie managed to make it to the hostel, as we had hoped, and we also got to meet the group that traveled from Newark, New Jersey. This group included Laura Jack from Texas; Leslie Greer from Oregon State University; Darci Santella from New Jersey; Phil Hatlem, a professor from a school in Florida; and Kevin Baron, James Walton, and Zack Skove from the University of Oregon. We got our key cards and moved into our room, an extremely small room filled with 20 bunk beds.
If we aren't close now, we're all gonna be very close by the end of the trip...
After unloading and receiving an enormous water bottle courtesy of Laura, I traveled the streets of central London with the group, looking for a bite to eat. After about a half hour of walking, we got directions that steered us to a nice-looking pub called Lucas Arms Inn, which was less than a block away from our hostel (facepalm). Anyway, the important thing is that we made it, and we enjoyed some great food and drink to boot. Lacking carbs, I chose to order the lasagna and my table decided to share the garlic bread appetizer, all of which I downed with an ice-cold Guinness. In pubs, you're supposed to go to the bar and order your food and drink; they do not wait on you like they do in America. After our meal, Bonnie, who paid for the meal, decided that it would be fun to buy us all a couple rounds of shots. How many teachers/professors have you known to do that for their students? We got a couple of pics with our glasses, then took the shots, which all tasted like various flavors of Listerine.
After lunch, we made a brief stop at the hostel to drop off/pick up anything we needed. It felt wonderful to no longer carry our heavy luggage everywhere. Then, we headed back to the King's Cross station to board the metro once again. Our destination: Hyde Park, the location of the official Olympic Torch Relay Concert. After a considerably shorter ride, we disembarked and found ourselves within the confines of a huge park, perhaps London's equivalent to Central Park in New York. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we took lots of great pictures and simply absorbed the scenery along the way. We made it to the concert grounds as an entire group, but from there, we split up and spent our time in smaller groups. I was in a group of four along with Chris, Brenda, and Phil.
The concert ground was sort of like a small county fair. There were food stands surrounding the perimeter, alongside other small attractions. There was a huge crowd of people that clustered near the stage. They could barely be heard from near the entrance, but they were pretty audible as you got closer. The music was interesting; it was a mix of 90's grunge-esque music with new-milennium popular songs (some in America, some in Great Britain). I did not recognize any of the artists that performed, although I have heard some of the songs before. All in all, I found the music to be very mediocre.
My group of four walked the perimeter of the park to see the attractions and the food stands (my feet were starting to ache by this point). We decided to stand in line at this tent, where people were getting their pictures taken with an unlit Olympic torch (definitely a keeper). Afterward, I decided to partake in an English delicacy: chicken and chips. This was definitely one of the greasiest meals I have ever ingested. Anyway, by this point, we were all starting to fade. I located an open spot for us in the crowd to stand and watch as the Olympic torch made its way to the stage. The guy carrying the torch arrived to a huge ovation by the crowd and to the sound of the Chariots of Fire theme playing. The atmosphere was electric!!! Once the torch was lit, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, took the microphone and gave a passionate speech to the people. He said that Mitt Romney stated that he did not think London was ready to host the games, but that the city was ready to prove him wrong. He got the crowd even more riled up when he started talking about the other nations that Great Britain was going to beat, like France, Italy, Spain, and others (no mention of the United States...he knows, he knows). It was cool to see how popular the mayor was among London's citizens. After this speech, my group had unanimously decided that it was time to head back and rest.
We took the long walk and ride back to King's Cross, where we managed to find the most efficient way of arriving at the hostel. I grabbed my toiletries and managed to locate the shower on the second floor. The floor was extremely dirty, which made me regret not bringing shower shoes. After washing up, I came back to the room, brushed my teeth, and finally got into bed to sleep. After a terrific day, it was time to make up for lost sleep.
Unfortunately, this would have to come on another night
Finally, we landed at the London Heathrow airport. The marathon flight was (fittingly) capped off with what seemed like a lifetime of waiting to exit the aircraft. After disembarking, our group reunited, emotionally cheery yet physically exhausted. We made it through customs rather easily (the group had to wait on me because I had forgotten to take my completed landing card with me) and then received our bags pretty quickly at the claim. We waited for about ten minutes for two individual travelers, Frankie Lazarra and Derek Sanderson from North Central College in Illinois, but they never showed up. Without cell phone service to reach them, we decided to take off for the hostel and meet them there.
We made our way down to the underground metro system. I have been fascinated with metro systems ever since my trip to Washington, D.C. in 1998. I looked forward to absorbing the data associated with London's system of railways (I know, I'm weird...). The trip made me regret not filling up my water bottle while in the airport because we had to go through about a million stops before arriving at our stop. Eventually, we made it to King's Cross, a famous train/metro station in London where a boy named Harry Potter found the train to Hogwarts through a magical portal called Platform 9 3/4. We ignored the attraction for now and instead went about locating our hostel. After receiving some directions from the locals, we stumbled upon the Clink 261 hostel on Greys Inn Road, right smack dab in the middle of the UK's capital city.
We went inside and met up with the rest of the group. Derek and Frankie managed to make it to the hostel, as we had hoped, and we also got to meet the group that traveled from Newark, New Jersey. This group included Laura Jack from Texas; Leslie Greer from Oregon State University; Darci Santella from New Jersey; Phil Hatlem, a professor from a school in Florida; and Kevin Baron, James Walton, and Zack Skove from the University of Oregon. We got our key cards and moved into our room, an extremely small room filled with 20 bunk beds.
If we aren't close now, we're all gonna be very close by the end of the trip...
After unloading and receiving an enormous water bottle courtesy of Laura, I traveled the streets of central London with the group, looking for a bite to eat. After about a half hour of walking, we got directions that steered us to a nice-looking pub called Lucas Arms Inn, which was less than a block away from our hostel (facepalm). Anyway, the important thing is that we made it, and we enjoyed some great food and drink to boot. Lacking carbs, I chose to order the lasagna and my table decided to share the garlic bread appetizer, all of which I downed with an ice-cold Guinness. In pubs, you're supposed to go to the bar and order your food and drink; they do not wait on you like they do in America. After our meal, Bonnie, who paid for the meal, decided that it would be fun to buy us all a couple rounds of shots. How many teachers/professors have you known to do that for their students? We got a couple of pics with our glasses, then took the shots, which all tasted like various flavors of Listerine.
After lunch, we made a brief stop at the hostel to drop off/pick up anything we needed. It felt wonderful to no longer carry our heavy luggage everywhere. Then, we headed back to the King's Cross station to board the metro once again. Our destination: Hyde Park, the location of the official Olympic Torch Relay Concert. After a considerably shorter ride, we disembarked and found ourselves within the confines of a huge park, perhaps London's equivalent to Central Park in New York. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we took lots of great pictures and simply absorbed the scenery along the way. We made it to the concert grounds as an entire group, but from there, we split up and spent our time in smaller groups. I was in a group of four along with Chris, Brenda, and Phil.
The concert ground was sort of like a small county fair. There were food stands surrounding the perimeter, alongside other small attractions. There was a huge crowd of people that clustered near the stage. They could barely be heard from near the entrance, but they were pretty audible as you got closer. The music was interesting; it was a mix of 90's grunge-esque music with new-milennium popular songs (some in America, some in Great Britain). I did not recognize any of the artists that performed, although I have heard some of the songs before. All in all, I found the music to be very mediocre.
My group of four walked the perimeter of the park to see the attractions and the food stands (my feet were starting to ache by this point). We decided to stand in line at this tent, where people were getting their pictures taken with an unlit Olympic torch (definitely a keeper). Afterward, I decided to partake in an English delicacy: chicken and chips. This was definitely one of the greasiest meals I have ever ingested. Anyway, by this point, we were all starting to fade. I located an open spot for us in the crowd to stand and watch as the Olympic torch made its way to the stage. The guy carrying the torch arrived to a huge ovation by the crowd and to the sound of the Chariots of Fire theme playing. The atmosphere was electric!!! Once the torch was lit, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, took the microphone and gave a passionate speech to the people. He said that Mitt Romney stated that he did not think London was ready to host the games, but that the city was ready to prove him wrong. He got the crowd even more riled up when he started talking about the other nations that Great Britain was going to beat, like France, Italy, Spain, and others (no mention of the United States...he knows, he knows). It was cool to see how popular the mayor was among London's citizens. After this speech, my group had unanimously decided that it was time to head back and rest.
We took the long walk and ride back to King's Cross, where we managed to find the most efficient way of arriving at the hostel. I grabbed my toiletries and managed to locate the shower on the second floor. The floor was extremely dirty, which made me regret not bringing shower shoes. After washing up, I came back to the room, brushed my teeth, and finally got into bed to sleep. After a terrific day, it was time to make up for lost sleep.
Unfortunately, this would have to come on another night
RSS Feed