Location: London, England (Comfort Inn)
Time: 10:08 AM
This has definitely been a crazy experience so far and I haven't even been here for 24 hours! Yesterday, I flew in from New York and the flight was about 5 1/2 hours. I didn't sleep at all but I did run into this guy, Anthony, who sat next to me on the plane and told me a few things about Europe. One was that London is insanely expensive, no joke. I got in around 11:10 AM. After waiting for Daniel (a friend with whom I would be traveling) for about 3 1/2 hours, we finally got the trip going. We followed the signs to the train that was to take us to downtown London. This was where the day began to go south. Having no idea how much the exchange rate was, I figured 6 GBP for a train ticket wasn't that much. Well it's over $12.00. We bought the "local" train ticket, but we mistakingly got onto the "express" train, a 16 pound ticket - $32.00. The ticket lady made me pay for another ticket with no refund for the initial ticket - what in the hell was that all about. We got into Paddington Station and began walking in a largely Middle Eastern section of London. It was literally like walking around a bazarre in Morocco. We stuck out like sore thumbs with our huge backpacks and clueless body language. We eventually got bus passes and thought we were hotel bound. Little did we know that the "16" bus was taking us north, away from central London. The bus was packed with asshole locals who stared us down. There was a point we had to get off the congested public transport and I was sure we were going to be mugged when literally 30 Yardies passed though us in a group. Instead, they began to fight amongst each other and a brawl broke out.
Finally, we were pointed in the right direction after a really nice lady gave us directions to Westminster. We had been going the opposite way the whole damn time!! At the end of the line, we finally arrived at Victoria Station. It was here where I was about to pass out after walking around aimlessly and busing around London for a straight ten hours. After walking in circles for hours, we got to the Comfort Inn at a whopping 109 pounds a night. Oh well. After a welcomed shower and much-needed clothing change, Rome and I went in search of food and BIG BEN. London at night, particularly Westminster at night, is incredible. The River Thames illuminated by the enchanting orange lights of Big Ben and Parliament, complimented by blue lights, the London Eye, and the boats docked along the bank truly made it a memorable experience. After discovering everything was closed on Sunday (the whole area dies down after 10PM), we ate at a McDonalds and passed out.
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