(Proof that after Day 1, Shelley and I have not killed each other. See, we are smiling!) For those of you who do not know, I love to blog about my trips. It gives me a record of what happened that I can look back on (and it also makes my mom a whole lot less nervous about me being out of contact for weeks at a time). If you hate when people publish the inane details of their lives to the internet, go ahead and skip these posts for the next several days.
Now that I have gotten my ever-necessary disclaimer out of my system, let me just say that WE ARE IN LONDON! We being Shelley and I. We arrived eeeeeeearly this morning after approximately 1 hour of sleep each on our "overnight" flight. (Shelley did not realize the flight was only 5 1/2 hours, so she decided she wanted to talk for the first 2 hours of the flight. I can't sleep on planes anyways, so I was fine with this, but she was not very happy with her decision when she realized mid-flight just how little sleep she was about to get.) We navigated our way through the train/Tube system and found the apartment that a friend of a friend is very graciously allowing us to crash at for the next two nights. (Woohoo for free housing!)
While we arrived in London with a pre-planned, 3 day itinerary complete with labeled guidebook pages (neither of us are very "compulsive" travelers), we quickly realized that we could barely stand upright, much less enjoy moving around the city. So, we took a 2 hour nap (bringing our grand sleep total to 3 hours) and woke up still grumpy, but determined to make the most out of what was by then less than half of a day. First order of business, however, was food -- at this point we had not eaten for 13 hours, and both of us were unable to form coherent sentences because we were still so tired and hungry (and, might I add, much more decaffeinated than I generally am on a day with normal sleep). Unfortunately for us, it was now 2:30, and most places in London are open for lunch from 12-2, and dinner from 6-8. We were solidly in the middle of dining purgatory. After warning Shelley that our friendship might be quickly over if I could not get a Diet Coke STAT, we gave up our search for GOOD food and settled on ANY food, finding a cheap pizza place that, thankfully, sold our favorite caffeinated beverages. We then wandered down to St. Paul's, where we missed the last tour of the day, but got to have a picnic "lunch" and guidebook review session in the gardens behind the cathedral, which were blooming with roses. Absolutely lovely. We're headed back there tomorrow for Evensong and hopefully an organ concert.
After a walk over Millenium Bridge (very cool, but has absolutely no traction in the rain, so it's a good thing there's a handrail or I would have been very closely acquainted with the Thames), we made our way to the Tate Modern art Museum. Neither of us are big art museum afficionados, especially without someone to explain things to us, and probably especially modern art. (At one point, I had to drag Shelley away from a particular piece of art that was a long rope laid out in a particular pattern on the floor. She wanted to know if it was still art if she yanked it. I wanted to not visit the London police quite this soon in our trip.) Nevertheless, it was a worthwhile visit: I got to see several Andy Warhol paintings, which was pretty exciting; I got to see a video of a woman pouring fake blood over herself and rolling around in feathers, which was not so exciting; and I got to see this exhibit, which gave me a new appreciation for art made from every day objects. (What do we call that? Obviously, I probably should have stayed a little longer.)
Finally, it was past 6, so we made our way back to a pub that we had tried to visit earlier and that was recommended in our guidebook. It took us awhile to figure out how it worked (you go up to the bar to order -- who knew?) but once we did, we loved the food and the atmosphere. It was a good find: definitely not a tourist trap, as we were the only people without British accents in the place. We did interrupt a really awkward date when we tried to make friends with some folks so we could share their table; folks, if you're out there, I apologize, but I promise it also makes things less awkward if you at least make eye contact during your meal. Here is an amazing plate full of "bangers and mash" (which tastes much better than it sounds):
And here is the resulting food coma:
Finally, we ended the day with a phenomenal walk all over the city. In under 2 hours, we managed to walk and see Covent Garden (which looks like Quincy Market -- wonder which came first?), Trafalgar Square (which is absolutely beautiful in the twilight with the lights and the fountains), Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and some pretty sweet Marriott Hotel that Shelley made us run in to see if they had a public restroom. (They did not.) The walk was great, in spite of the rain; however, I did discover when I got home that either my feet have grown or my sneakers have shrunk, because all of my toes were a lovely shade of "you-cut-off-my-circulation" white. Guess it's flip flops for the rest of the trip!
That's all for tonight. More adventures to come tomorrow. Cheerio!
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