We flew out of New Jersey into London-Heathrow. I had been so busy with moving and everything else that I had going on over the summer that I had forgotten to pre-select our seats on the airplane. I wasn't able to check in online either because of the terms of our tickets. Best laid plains, right? So, we got stuck with crappy seats in the middle of the plane.
This was also the first time that I went through airport security and was nearly stopped....so they could search my bun. Yes, that bun in my hair. I was shocked but they checked, found nothing and we were allowed to board.
It was very early in the morning when we left, we actually watched the sun come up over the runway at Newark airport. We hung out and waited until we were finally able to board our plan. I have flown transatlantic before so I was ready for a nap and to wake up in Europe, however, Phil had not flown that kind of flight before and so began his exclamations every time we hit turbulence that we were going down and going to die.
I had to remind him that these were things you do not say on a plane in a post-9/11 world, even if you're terrified....suck it up! Which he did and after several movies and an okay meal, we landed at Heathrow.
Wherein we have our first argument over a sim card, but I find one and we are able to tell everyone we landed. Then we had to take the 45 minute ride on the metro into Camden where we were staying. We stayed at the Royal National Hotel which was clean enough, but really had some elements of "The Shining" that I could have lived without. We showered and met up with some other people we would be traveling with at the pub in the courtyard. We didn't stay long because we were exhausted.
The next day, we planned on sleeping which we did and booked a bus tour for later. We walked around, found nothing really in the immediate area and wound up being annoyed with London. It did not help that the staff at the Royal National was awful and so rude. They would not help us whatsoever and were more into talking to each other than answering any questions. We wound up having to even get a refund on our bus tour because we could not get help in finding where it was. I found most of London flat out rude.
We retreated to our hotel room with hard cider which we drank out of tea cups and listed all of our London based grievances. I fell a little more in love with Phil that day because he really tried to make it better even though London was such a let down. It was just expensive and abrasive! We even did the classic red phone booth pictures to find how awful those booths really are-- they reek of piss and vomit.
The next day, we were up early to begin our trip. We met up with our Contiki group and we were off for my city...Paris. We took a bus to the ferry where we got to see the cliffs of Dover and we floated off to France! The ferry trip was a bit of a haze because we were so jetlagged, but I will never forget how exciting it was, knowing that we had our entire trip ahead of us.
This was also the first time that I went through airport security and was nearly stopped....so they could search my bun. Yes, that bun in my hair. I was shocked but they checked, found nothing and we were allowed to board.
It was very early in the morning when we left, we actually watched the sun come up over the runway at Newark airport. We hung out and waited until we were finally able to board our plan. I have flown transatlantic before so I was ready for a nap and to wake up in Europe, however, Phil had not flown that kind of flight before and so began his exclamations every time we hit turbulence that we were going down and going to die.
I had to remind him that these were things you do not say on a plane in a post-9/11 world, even if you're terrified....suck it up! Which he did and after several movies and an okay meal, we landed at Heathrow.
Wherein we have our first argument over a sim card, but I find one and we are able to tell everyone we landed. Then we had to take the 45 minute ride on the metro into Camden where we were staying. We stayed at the Royal National Hotel which was clean enough, but really had some elements of "The Shining" that I could have lived without. We showered and met up with some other people we would be traveling with at the pub in the courtyard. We didn't stay long because we were exhausted.
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| Phil & I on the ferry after we just left the port of Dover. 8/2014 |
The next day, we planned on sleeping which we did and booked a bus tour for later. We walked around, found nothing really in the immediate area and wound up being annoyed with London. It did not help that the staff at the Royal National was awful and so rude. They would not help us whatsoever and were more into talking to each other than answering any questions. We wound up having to even get a refund on our bus tour because we could not get help in finding where it was. I found most of London flat out rude.
We retreated to our hotel room with hard cider which we drank out of tea cups and listed all of our London based grievances. I fell a little more in love with Phil that day because he really tried to make it better even though London was such a let down. It was just expensive and abrasive! We even did the classic red phone booth pictures to find how awful those booths really are-- they reek of piss and vomit.
The next day, we were up early to begin our trip. We met up with our Contiki group and we were off for my city...Paris. We took a bus to the ferry where we got to see the cliffs of Dover and we floated off to France! The ferry trip was a bit of a haze because we were so jetlagged, but I will never forget how exciting it was, knowing that we had our entire trip ahead of us.
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