*I envisage that these will get shorter and less frequent as time goes on
I had planned to make the first one of these while waiting
for my flight in Hong Kong, but as flights do they don’t always arrive on time.
30 minutes late wasn't too bad for an 11 hour flight, but 2 hours wasn't really
enough time to write anything when you spend an hour trying to find a shower
and fail to find one, then it was on to finding some food, chocolate pastry and
a pack of chips.
The flight itself wasn't bad at all. 11 hours really did fly
by. Managed to get through half a book, watched a movie and a couple of TV programs. Meals were pretty average but can’t complain, it aeroplane food. The
next flight wasn't too good. The little in flight entertainment screen kept
playing up so couldn't really be bothered with it and was too tired to read my book
so just had to sit there with my eyes closed hoping I would sleep. Struggled to
sleep, maybe 2 hours out of the 13, so writing this nearly 12 hours after
getting off the plane, no decent sleep for almost 44 hours, feeling pretty
tired.
Managed to get onto to the underground system and figured it
out pretty quick. Was about 7am when I hoped on so the carriages filled up
pretty quick. Found my first stop easy enough. Then I had to find my way to the
next platform to catch a different line. That one was almost jammed packed so a
guy with a massive backpack made it even more crowded, luckily I was only on it
for a couple of stops. Then I had to surface and figure out where the hell I
was going. Started going the complete wrong direction for about 5 minutes until
I realised so turned around and went back the right way, only to take about 3
wrong turns along the way but managed to find my hostel in the end.
My hostel, The Dictionary, isn’t flash but that’s mainly due
to most of it still being under construction because the bits that are done are
quite nice (Hopefully get a picture to show you). They held onto my large bag
for me and gave some breakfast, which I get every morning but wasn’t expecting
it today, corn flakes and a muffin. Had a chat with a couple of people there
who were leaving today but everyone seemed friendly.
Tried to get up and leave, got outside even but then I
managed to convince myself not to go out. To hang around the hostel even though
I couldn’t check in to my room until 2pm and it was about 9am. Sat in the bar
which I get free wi-fi in and had a chat with mum and Kate on Facebook and
Angela on viber, got to love technology! After that I decided I really should
go out and do something.
I decided on London Bridge and tower seeing as they were
pretty much directly south of the hostel so easy to get to. I was going to walk
the whole way as I wasn’t exactly pressed for time but the weather was pretty
miserable, rain, wind and cold, Nothing extreme just not a nice combination.
Had a look at the buses going passed and one said London Bridge so hopped on
that one and off I went.
I Had a walk along the river down towards London Tower. I
had a look at the outside and the debated with myself whether I should bother
going in. Then I decided I should so went a bought my ticket and went in and
had a look around. Probably should have taken more time to read the signs and
understand the significance of all the different areas but at that point was 30
something hours without sleep so the attention span was a little short. But
Enjoyed the walk around, the fresh air and the old buildings, plenty of them in
England.
I decided I had enough of that at about 12pm so headed on
out to find somewhere to have lunch, tried to find a pub which had the cricket
on (turns out the cricket was rain delayed anyway), but nothing really on my
way, so walked to a tube station and hopped on the one that comes closest to my
hostel, about a 10 minute walk. Got some lunch from a convenience store and
took it back to the hostel to have in the kitchen.
Finally got to check in about 2.30, a few other people got
here before 2 as well. Had a few issues with the key card at first but finally
got it working and then the highlight of my day. SHOWER! Hadn’t had one since
leaving Auckland so really needed it. And that’s about it.
Now im writing this at 4.30pm on 24 May. I probably won’t
get round to posting this for a while but that bit is just so I know where it
all fits
