London, England, UK
Day 100, 101
£1 = $2.5
Happy Birthday to Pa!!!!! Wish we could give you a BIG HUG right now!!! Greg loved talking with you today..and hear all the news!!! All our love to you, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Wow! Day 100! Time to celebrate!!!!
And we are..cos we're at a great hotel here in London...bout time we had a little luxury..after 100 days 'on the road'!
The only thing we're not celebrating is the fact that.. One pound is equal to TWO AND A HALF AUSSIE DOLLARS!
Arriving in London was so weird. We've both been here before. And yet, it looks so different. But yet, it's familiar. And both of us excited to be back.
And after having little English speaking for the past 3 months in Hong Kong, South Africa and Europe, we smelled the air..and realised, yes, here we are!
In the United Kingdom.
The UK!
England!
Weird huh. That we're so excited about being back in an English speaking country..when it wasn't long ago, we couldn't wait to be in a foreign country, Europe, or somewhere exotic, and different to our own country!
About how we got here...
The flight here that is.
Unfortunately Greg and I were separated on the plane, both of us got middle seats and i got sandwiched between two guys..one an aussie businessman who typed on his computer all the way and the other a commedian cockney pommy! Who snored. Geepers.
I was glad when the movie came on! And after watching movies translated into the language of the countries we were in..none in English, we couldn't wait to watch a movie!!!
The movie was The Astonaut Farmer, starring Tommy Lee Jones, which was a bit of an inspirational tearjerker...but after drinking the British Airways wine..who cared who was watching. (the next day my eyes were puffy so i must have cried more than i thought! I was so glad to be in London!) Didn't help that my book was getting to the soppy point as well...oh well. The 2 guys either side of me just had to deal with it.
Greg was in the middle seat behind and no one offered to give us a seat next to each other (who wants to swap a window or an isle seat for the middle?) but it was useful that he was behind cos i could send over my dessert and chocolate etc .... yeah, he always eats my leftovers!!! haha..hmm..
Okay i'm rambling. AGAIN.
It's sort of nice to be here..in this internet cafe...and not feeling rushed or hurried....so i'm gonna ramble. Hope that's ok. I guess you can click off the X if you cant' stand to read any further!
Hey Andy...great about the Dockers winning today hey! haha..
Now about London.
And about Heathrow Airport.
When we disembarked we got checked by customs. Or should i say searched. Thoroughly!
Then went through customs where the guy REALLY did his job. The questions started flying..'When are you leaving London?'
(Upon checking he saw it was much later in the year! Our plan is to catch a train to Paris)
'Where are you staying tonight?'
(We don't have anywhere! But we will find something - I felt like saying a park bench if necessary, but i didn't think that would go down well!)
'How did you get the money to travel?'
(Is that his business?? I guess we didn't want to be held up further so we had to explain ourselves!)
'Do you have jobs to go back to?
(No, but we could easily! Which was his problem when he saw we were an engineer and a teacher - because we ARE employable! In in the UK!)
And after more of these types of questions...and feelinlg like criminals..
I said, 'WHY ARE YOU ASKING ALL THE QUESTIONS????????'
And he said Australians are the most common illegal workers that they get!!!
I said, 'Of OUR age???'
And he had to admit, no, younger but even so....
Then...we told him we'd won lotto, had our millions, and were staying away forever!
No, just kidding...we didn't say THAT!
We told him the truth.
That we didn't have time to work, had too much travelling to do!
hehe
No really...we didn't say THAT either! But, we had to prove and show him evidence(eurail & flight to the US) that were leaving the UK!
Talk about feeling wanted!
We felt like going back home. Or going back to Europe where they were very happy with us. And i mentioned that to him..(that we were the 'convicts' hehe and he said the previous people thought he was interrogating them...and i just had to silently agree.
But thorough hey...i guess they have to be.
Anyway, thank god we didn't get thrown into prison or held up for days trying to prove our worth.
When we checked out accomodation the guy said Wimbleton was on so we wouldn't get much accomodation in London! (It's not Wimbleton yet, it's the French Open!)
And he said we probably wouldn't get anything under 70 pound so we might as well take this cheap deal they had going. (for £70)
We consulted our Bible (the travellers guide) and found he was probably right...
So we took it.
Then got our Oyster Card which is a transport card that gives you half price transport and off we went. On the tube (that looked like a Monopoly Board) and headed off to Gloucester Road. Kesington. (no joke..the Picidilly Line we were on had Kings Cross Station..and Leicester Square and Covent Gardens...so funny...i FELT like we were on the board game!)
Got lost again trying to find our hotels (the guys at the hotel information counter gave us the wrong directions..well, that's what we're saying anyway!) but eventually found it...
AND OH.
It was so luxurious...we've stayed IN for the last 2 days. A queen bed. One that's not two singles wedged together. And a fluffy duna. A TV that has English tv! (we watched the 2nd last show of Prison Break and haven't gotten into the UK Big Brother! Yet! hehe) And we have a shower with a screen. A bath too! AND A KETTLE! With tea and coffee at our whim. OHLALA. It's great! We don't want to leave London just cause we have a great room.
And want to know a secret?
We haven't seen anything either...just the room!
But! Tomorrow...we're going out on the town...to see London Town!
And we have a few exciting things planned...Jack the Ripper tour, Tower of London, Crusing the River Thames, Kesington Palace...seeing Agatha Christie's ~The Mousetrap~ again (I last saw it gulp, almost 30 years ago, with Mum...when i was a young teen!)
So exciting, being in London.
Can't wait to explore..now that we've had our rest in our luxury accomodation!
The guy did well really...the one at the Airport Information counter..to get us the deal he did.
Maybe i won't write that email to the Airport complaining that he gave us change in Scottish Sterling that we couldn't use instead of English sterling, or that he said Wimbleton was on so we opted for a four star hotel instead of a one star which could have saved us 20 pound night (or $50!) or that he gave us the wrong directions to the hotel from the tube which meant we had to trudge around with packs on until we realised we were lost and had to consult our map, late at night, and in the dark..
Nah...the hotel's been good...and half price due to the 'special' and i now have to think that it's compensation for him being a dimwit that takes advantages of newcomer tourists!
Was also good to get an internet card today and be able to ring Pa for his birthday an speak to Elise..and Mum, again!!! Just a shame it's only for land lines....doesn't work on mobiles so Alena, Sam and Aiden will have to wait till we can work out how to ring a mobile that's not $5 a minute, as we found out!
Okies...will let you know how we go in a couple of days..after we've done some exploring...take care..big hugs..lotsa luvs..
jen & greg xxx
PS Sorry about all the typos and spellos, i don't have time to edit, which is the band of my life. Forgive all the grammar too....okies, disclaimers all done! xx
