My First Day in London
Have
you ever been so excited for something and then when it actually
happens it is the exact opposite of how you were hoping it would go?
Well, I do and my trip to London is the perfect example. London
sucked. A lot of it was just awful. When I tell the story of my trip
to others I have to stress the point that while there I considered
the trip 30% wonderful and just 70% absolutely horrible. I have never
been so frustrated before in my life. A lot of why it sucked and I
was so frustrated was because even though I have been studying London
for about a decade it actually makes no sense.
Don't
quote me (or her) but I think Maureen Johnson once said either on
twitter or in one of her books that London streets looked like they
had been planned by a drunk man following a cat. I thought she was
exaggerating. She was not. London is just ridiculously unplanned. I
am so used to Buffalo which has been called the “best planned city
in America” that London, despite all the preparation, was just
stupidly unorganized. At times during our trip I actually believed
that the city as a whole was out to get people unfamiliar with it.
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| Our hotel room |
For example, multiple times we were following signs that were
obviously placed there to help tourists find the major landmarks and
the signs actually led us in the wrong direction. What the hell is
that all about, London?! Basically, a lot of things went wrong. I say
wrong because we had to see a lot in only a few days. The wronger
things got the less we got to see. Originally, the London Trip was
supposed to be 2-3 weeks instead of 5 days, but Mom could only take
off so much and I rally wanted her to be the one to come with me.
The
frustration of day one especially, we landed a little late and
customs took ages. We waited until the rest of the plane emptied out
and because of that we were last in line. Then mom couldn’t find
her suitcase, it ended up on the floor on the other side of the conveyor belt. When we finally got out of all that nonsense and were
trying to find the Gatwick Express we were greeted by shirtless Scots
in kilts. Weird, right? We bought a couple postcards and stamps then
got on the train. We were supposed to be out of the airport and at
Victoria Station by noon.
 |
| The Gunner and I |
No. By the time we got to Victoria it was
past 3 and we decided to check into our hotel instead of leaving our
luggage in lockers at the station. When we got there and checked in I
cried. It was horrible because of all the time lost. Mentally, I was
already taking out most of the things I wanted to see. I was freaking
out. And then I stubbed my toe on the weird bed. There was a desk but
no chair. There was a shower but no shampoo. There was soap, sorta,
there was a hand soap dispenser in the shower. The toilet was down
the hall and up half a flight of stairs. I was pretty sure there was
mold on the handle; mom said it was just corrosion. There was another
door in the bathroom too that leads outside, not normal! And then to
make everything even weirder and worse we had to give our room key to
the desk every time we left. Oh and the outlets didn’t work. When
we asked at the desk where our fridge was and why our outlets didn’t
work they said that we couldn’t have one and that they would check
them. While I was in the room I wrote out my postcard to my work
saying basically that everything sucked so far. We also decided to
take out the Victoria and Albert Museum and that mom would do it
Wednesday by herself while I was in Oxford instead (which was
actually okay with me because they didn't have anything I really
wanted to see).
 |
| The Little Duck Whisperer |
We
left the hotel and made our way to Hyde Park Corner so I could see
the Royal Artillery Monument with the Gunner, one of the main
characters from Charlie Fletcher's Stoneheart.
That was pretty cool, but looking back I barely even looked at him. I
felt rushed. I felt like I was just checking him off my list. Next we
went into Hyde Park proper and walked along the Serpentine. There
were a lot of swans and ducks and a little boy who was feeding them.
There were trick skaters and a weird ice cream truck. As we were
looking for Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens we saw an actual cricket
game! We took a wrong turn and found a woman trying to feed birds.
Later, after we actually found Peter we saw her again and she had
gathered quite a crowd of both birds and humans alike. One green
parrot was hanging off a tree eating from a girl’s hand.
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| Peter Pan Statue in Kensington Gardens |
When
we found Peter Pan I was really excited about seeing it, but mostly I
was pumped we finally found it! I went to scan the QR code to hear
Peter talk and it didn’t work. It worked for everyone else but not
me and I that’s when I got extremely mad and frustrated. When I get
frustrated I am the meanest person in the world. I dont want to be
obviously but it's one of my flaws. And so I lashed out at mom. More
and more people kept coming and scanning that code and it was working
for them and I just said “forget it let’s leave.” Everything
was going so wrong and I was so tired. By that time it was going to
be dark in an hour or so and we wouldn’t make it to the TARDIS in
time if we went to the Elfin tree at the other end of the Gardens and
Harrods, so we took out the tree and walked to Harrods. We also ended
up taking the TARDIS out. And we got seriously, scary lost in the
dark outside of Harrods trying to find a bus stop that we needed to
get back to the hotel, but didn't exist. It also didn't help that we
were so hungry we couldn't concentrate. So many things had gone wrong
already and we hadn’t been in London for more than a few hours.
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| Mom and I were reminded of the bird lady from Mary Poppins |
I
cried a lot that first day. But I learned a lot that day. I started
to learn how the Tube worked. For the first day the platforms
confused me and we ended up going to the wrong side a couple times
but once I figured it out the next day everything became a lot easier
because we were able to get from the station we were at to the
station we needed to be at. However, once we were out of said station
there wasn't a clear path on how to get to the place we wanted. So
much so that I am pretty positive they give wrong directions so that
tourists don’t come back. Frustration should not be a part of any
trip but it does happen. From now on when I plan trips that I cannot
embrace getting lost (so as to find new things) I’m going to add at
least 2 hours a day cushion for when we are frustrated and just need
to stop.
More cheerful London posts soon, I promise,
~Laura!
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