LONDON-Day One

JJ and I are in London!  YAY!  What a lot of sitting that took.  Goodness me.

My mum took us to the airport on Friday morning.  Her advice?

1. Be equal amounts of fun and safe.
2. Don't be afraid to shit on a plane.

Poetic, I know.

I did NOT poop on the plane... in case you are wondering.  I don't have the balls :D

All of the airport business (luggage, security, customs, ect) was certainly easier than I figured it would be... of
course, the lay-over and the 9 hr flight were not as fun as I thought they could be either.  I guess it evened out.

Our first flight, from Springfield to Dallas was short and sweet.  Justin and I spent the time flipping aimlessly through the supplied magazines.  Highlights: Alec Baldwin, Meekrats, and....

Dr. Life

Then we had some overly priced airport food: Fuddruckers.  While we ate we had to listen to the cashier shout "David!!" a hundred times.  I'm not so sure David ever picked up his burger.

Nothing special happened during the other FOUR hours that we sat in the Dallas Ft Worth airport.  I did count all of
the people I saw wearing the same shoes as me (3) and dozed off once.

"We will now begin seating group 2 at terminal D30 (flight 50 to London Heathrow)."  WOOOOOOOOOOOP!

9 hours is a long time.

30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sherlock, and Avatar the Last Airbender made the first 4 hours go by... but trying to sleep was the worst.  I got 2 hours MAX.

Anyway, you don't want to hear about the boring airport stuff anymore than I wanted to sit through it.  So.. let's skip ahead to the Tube.  (Skip to the Tube, my darling).

Conveniently, there is an underground running from the airport straight to our stop, Hammersmith station.  The Tube actually kept going all the way to a station called Cockfosters.  Which sounds funny to me, like something hateful you might yell at a bunch of kids that threw rocks at your head.  Anyway, I am immature and I giggle every time the intercom lady says "Piccadilly service to Cockfosters."  But then, I also giggle when she says "mind the gap."  Maybe there is giggle gas on the Tube?

It was on the Tube that I started realizing: WE ARE IN LONDON!!  And I'm one of those annoying people who gets super excited every time they hear someone speaking in a different accent or language and in my fascination, I start staring.

But like I said, riding the Tube helped me snap out of my "Ugh, I was just on a neverending airplane ride" mode... slightly harder to turn off than the "airplane mode" on an iPhone.

I liked when the train occasionally popped out into the overground world.  Most of what you could see were backyards, and I found myself trying to gaze into every little backyard I could just to soak it in.  The houses all reminded me of the book "The Magician's Nephew," by C.S. Lewis (not to be confused with Lewis Carroll!), but I was a little turned off by how trashy everyone's backyard was.

OH!  Also, the Tube, to me, smells like the faint smell of a Sunday roast mixed with the musty scent of an old suitcase you might find in the attic filled with clothes and a bike rusting in a cave.  But that's just me.

Statue outside Hammersmith Station

When we made it to Hammersmith station we really had no idea which direction to go next.  My husband's method of dealing with such a situation is to make a guess and start walking.  This led us down two wrong roads and back to where we started.

Third time was a charm though and we made it to our hotel room!

Justin doesn't feel good. NOT AT ALL.  When we first arrived in our little hotel room, he took a nap until 1pm on one of the twin beds.

I stayed awake because I knew we'd never get up if I fell asleep too.  I used my time to organize all of our things and to take a few pictures:

Getting Justin to wake up was a challenge, but soon we were out on the sunny... yet chilly, streets of London.  Our first stop was McDonald's.

Fast food places in London have been frustrating because the workers usually don't speak very good English (a language barrier we weren't expecting at this point in our trip), every one FREAKS when you want to alter the condiments on your burger, the food is 2 times the price it would be in Missouri, and you DON'T GET FREE REFILLS ON DRINKS.  As an avid soda guzzler... this is problematic.

After lunch, we hopped back on the Piccadilly line hoping to switch over at Jubilee to get to the London Bridge station.  This was a crowded trip.

"Due to construction, there will be no stops at the Jubilee station today.  Please find an alternative route."

"Shoot!  How about Bakerloo to Waterloo Station?  Then we will walk to the London Bridge."

Plan B worked out just fine, but with a bit of a walk.  We walked along the Thames River,

saw a skaters' hang-out,

sat on this bench,

walked by the Globe Theater,

...veered away from the river and nearly lost it, saw a bunch of people dressed in scary clothes for the London Dungeon, found our way back and got confused by the signs that showed the London Bridge as being in the opposite direction, pushed ahead anyway because we could now see the bridge, nearly tripped on all of the pigeons, saw a man juggling flaming sticks, and eventually we walked across the London Bridge.

  
We then made the journey back to St. Paul's Cathedral on the other side of the river, arriving just in time for the 5 o'clock Evensong.

St. Paul's station was hard to find, but when we did, we took it to Piccadilly Circus.  Then we walked down the crowded Regent Street until we found Hamley's... a 6 story high toy store.

The coolest part of Hamley's was located on the fifth floor in locked glass display cases.  You know the part of the SkyMall magazine that always has the movie related merchandise?  That's where I always flip.  Well, that is what was in these display cases... every Harry Potter character's wand, an actual size firebolt broom stick, gryffindor scarves, ties, the sword of gryffindor, a marauder's map... then things from Batman, Superman, DaVinci code, Lord of the Rings... IT WAS AWESOME.  I want it all.

After that, one of my maps ACTUALLY CAME IN HANDY-MANNY!  We would have NEVER found the Golden Hind without it.

And not only did the Golden Hind have very yummy fish, but it also had....  FREE WIFI!

Hi mom!  Hi Dad!

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It is now 2:30 pm.  Breakfast was a madhouse and nothing was very tasty EXCEPT the hot chocolate.  How I love that little hot chocolate machine!!!!

Justin was resting because he is burning up, with a headache, terrible cough, and a stuffy nose... and both of us are still adjusting to the time change.  But now we are ready to head out to the Science Museum!

Well, I better go.  Tah-tah for now!