London, Day 1
So far the trip to England has been mostly uneventful. It’s consisted of getting to the Isle, and then figuring out things once I got here.
My flight was to leave LAX at 8:50 Monday night. Now, I haven’t flown internationally since I was 13, so I wasn’t entirely certain what to expect security wise, especially in light of how security has changed since 9/11. Well, for those of you who haven’t traveled, rest assured that it’s thorough. At least with Virgin Atlantic it was. They were examining every little bit of everything. I guess that should make me feel more secure and what not, but it was a frustrating and long process. Of course, it’s better than the possible alternative.
So, boarded the flight around 8:30 and was sat between, on my right, a nineteen year old guy named Lee from South Africa who had 20 hours worth of flights to look forward to. Nice guy, we talked a bunch. On my left sat an older lady, Stacy, who was making her way to Greece and couldn’t stop telling me how great it was. Interesting at first, but after a while the iPod REALLY came in handy to keep her quiet. She’s one of these talkers who does only that. No listening. Just talking. Stacy knows not how to listen.
Well, we’re nearing 8:50 and a quick look out the left side windows make it very clear we’re not going to be taking off any time soon. They’ve got a panel on the side of one of the engines on this massive 747 wide open and loads of fluid is just pouring out. See loads of anything come pouring out an airplane you’re about to fly 11 hours on does not exactly fill one with confidence. Apparently there was a problem with the left wing hydraulic system and things needed to be replaced. So, at around 10:20 we FINALLY took off. The pilot assured us they’d make up time in the air and that we’d still arrive on time.
The flight was mostly uneventful. I don’t sleep well on planes. In fact, I don’t sleep well on any kind of moving conveyance. So, at my father’s urging, I picked up some Benadryl before I left to try and knock me out on the flight. I took it, an hour later I feel asleep. An hour after that I woke up terribly uncomfortable and very loopy. I got maybe another half hour worth of sleep before we landed. Jet lag. Serious, palpable jet lag my brothers. It sucks.
Virgin Atlantic was nice. Personal view screen with about 20 movies to watch, about 10 different Nintendo games could be played, multiple news and sports channels. All free. My favorite channel was the one that showed you precisely where you were in the world at that exact moment. The plane flew over Nevada, up over Salt Lake, through Wyoming, up into Canada, over Greenland and then entered the United Kingdom from the north. Cruising altitude fluctuated between 33,000 feet and 37,000 feet. Early in the flight we were traveling at around 680 MPH, but as we got closer to England they seemed to throttle back to around 600 MPH. The pilot was right, he was going to make up the time in the air. This was a nice feature to have, but it was very much like watching a pot come to a boil. You became very conscious of the amount of time that had passed and that which was to come. It sucked.
Flight landed on time, but again another delay with the jet way. When I finally got off the plane I walked what seemed like 214 kilometers (I’m in England now, so gotta use that dang metric system) to go through customs and baggage reclaim (In America we call in Baggae Claim. Here they call it Baggae Reclaim. That makes more sense.). Once done with all that it was another 134 km walk to catch the Picadilly Line Underground.
Anyone who knows me well knows of my love of Los Angeles’ pathetically small Subway system. I use it quite regularly. Well, the London Underground is like the LA Subway, but it doesn’t suck and it’s about the size of my, well, my imagination. The sucker is huge. Nice trains, not real fast, though. Almost fell asleep twice on the train.
Took the train to the Gloucester station and walked two blocks to my hotel. When I finally emerged from the station I got my first real look at London. VERY busy streets, people driving very fast, just like Los Angeles, but they’re driving on the other side of the street and I can’t figure out where the street signs are. I ask a number of folks if I’m going in the right direction and all were helpful, but I’m certain each one was saying quietly to themselves, “Dumb Fuck American can’t read signs.”
Arrived at the hotel which is quite nice. No high-speed Internet access like their Web site says, but there is an Internet Caf� right across the street. Arune arrived about three hours before me and has just been relaxing in the bedroom. He got no sleep on the flight over and appeared to be in as bad, if not worse, shape than me. We were two very lagged sons a bitches.
Oh, first surprise. The fourth floor of a building in the UK would be the fifth floor in the US. The first floor here is floor #0. What the …? The room is small, but very nice. Bed is radically comfortable.
Our first night was basically getting acquainted with our surroundings. We walked around, checked out the net caf� (I got a chance to check e-mail and make sure the servers were running properly. 360 pieces of e-mail, about 280 of which were spam. Thank Her Majesty for Mailwasher!), picked up a cell phone, saw what restaurants were around, pubs and stores. Ended up at some wacky pub/restaurant with an affected Gothic theme. Not that English Gothic we love so much. No, the Nine Inch Nails/Marilyn Manson type gothic. They had flaming lanterns outside. It was okay, but certainly not the British pub you’d expect.
After that it was more exploring of our immediate neighborhood some more, finding a store to get some snacks at, back to the net caf� again, try to get money at an ATM at the local super market unsuccessfully (I’m hoping it’s just that specific ATM machine or I’m fucked. Called the bank, they think it’s that ATM.). Went back to the room and caught a hilarious show called “Euro Trash” on the “tele.” It seemed every other shot was of some woman’s breasts. We learned about Europe’s recent “World’s Biggest Gang Bang,” a group of women who can only be satisfied by 10″ or more of membership and other fine slices of quality living on the European Continent. See, this is precisely what’s wrong with American television: Not Enough Boobs!
Fell asleep easily at 11:45 or so and woke up at 5:30 local time. Couldn’t get back to sleep, still tired. It’s 7:00 now as I finish this. I’ll rest for another half hour, wake up, get some breakfast, head to the net caf� and then Arune and I will make our way into Central London and see what we can see. I’ll be taking pictures and posting them later today.
First impressions: I can see I’m going to love this fucking town.
