London: Sept. 15

So I started writing a little bit about my flight earlier, but it got lost, so I'm going to try again, even though it has been several days since I have left Canada. I figure if I don't do it now, I'll never do it!

Flight:
After a lots of crying, I finally left for London, I ended up being seated by a very nice man, turned out he was from Krakau so he told me a little bit about the city and what to go visit. He seemed surprised that I wanted to see Auschwitz, but fair enough, it isn't really part of a pleasure cruise. Nice as he was, he was a bit too chatty for my tastes and I wanted to sleep so so so badly, and he never would let me get much shut eye! Argh!! I may have managed about an hour on the plan, but that's about it. The landing was hellish, I think I probably could have flown it better. The pilot seemed to struggle with the whole concept of altitude, since we kept on plummeting and then flying back up then plummeting down again. I have never been so scared on a flight before. That and I wanted to vomit because it was so bad!

Anyways, after arriving at Heathrow, we got to stand in line for an hour to get through immigration. I was curtly informed that I was only welcome in the UK for two weeks. So good thing I'm leaving in ten days! I lost Jack from Poland at the gates, which was too bad, because I never actually got to say good bye.

At the luggage thingy I zoned out and nearly missed my bag as it went by. This dude kind of laughed at me so we started to chat a bit. Turns out he was from Edmonton too and he decided to accompany me on a London Underground Adventure. I know I'm not supposed to talk to strangers, but I was so tired and scared and he gave me his card, he was a real estate dude. Weirdly enough he actually knows Helena Fracchia, the head of the Cortona school because he takes care of her home in Edmonton while she's in Cortona. SO DON'T WORRY MOM! I'm not stupid!!!

September 15-London
So Mike the real estate guy and I found the underground and took about 15 minutes to figure out how the damn tickets work. Cost me 3.5 pounds and another 5.60 pounds later the day because I'm an idiot. The Underground has a ton of very helpful people that show you how to work the machines and where to go etc... sadly, the nice gentleman that does that just laughed at Mike and I, then helped Mike. I was already too far gone ;)

So we got on the underground and it was about an hour's ride to South Kensington Station where Marilyne and Matthieu lived. Finally got there and found the payphones. I had to call Matthieu to come and rescue me, but I had spent all my change on the underground so I had to use my credit card to pay for the call. I'm just hoping the call didn't cost me $10!

Matthieu came and rescued me from the station and we headed back to their flat. After a brief welcome Guiness I headed back out and hoped that I remembered where the Victoria and Albert Museum was. Luckily I found it and took a look around. Well, actually, I went in search of food. Which I promptly found. I had a delicious pesto and grilled veggie sandwich and tea (naturally). I was so tired that the whole museum was a daze, but I really liked the clothing exhibit and saw some amazing fashion pieces made by Channel, Versace, Dolce & Gabba, Alexander McQueen. There were some amazing clothes. They also had an exhibit on Grace Kelly that I wanted to see, but it was a special exhibit so there was a charge and I was too cranky to bother.

I got back to the flat and Marilyne and I had the evening to ourselves and went out for a drink on Leicester Square. And I do mean ON the square. Apparently, you are allowed to drink in public. So I had a cider, and Marilyne had a Guinness standing on the sidewalk watching people go by! The half pint was actually enough to get me a bit tipsy, so after the drink we went off to find a restaurant that Marilyne liked. It was a Korean restaurant somewhere in Soho, but she didn't really know where it was. That was ok, because it just meant that I got to see the London streets at night and enjoy watching the nightlife!

We found the restaurant and ate a yummy meal. And headed back to the flat. I promptly went to sleep.