I am 3 flights down and 3 to go! It is quickly
becoming very clear that the only way to combat this jet-lag is with copious
amounts of coffee and enthusiasm. I
began this journey at 4am in Oklahoma City- where I boarded a 6am flight to
Atlanta. Every flight is getting longer and the planes are getting bigger. I met up with Dawn in JFK before we
left for London. The flight from JFK to London was on a 747. This was my first experience aboard the
2-story beast of a plane and I was pretty pumped. I hate to ruin the thrill for those of you who have
never been on a 747…but it turns out that your neck still hurts and the view of
headrest in front of you looks pretty much like every other plane out
there. I
have to admit that the first class passengers’ seats looked pretty awesome, but
alas, I turned right when I boarded the plane.
Despite
my ability to sleep anywhere, I was WIRED for the entirety of my six-hour
flight to London. After 2 movies and 4 episodes of How I Met Your Mother I was dying to fall asleep- I even laid there
quietly (which, of course, means: leaned awkwardly against my hand) before
finally succumbing to my restlessness and pulling out a novel. But of course, the cabin was dark and I
felt bad turning my light on…so really I just spent an hour and a half huddled
by the window, reading by moonlight and eating gummy bears. (Clearly, I am a
sophisticated traveler.)
For
dinner we had our choice of a chicken, pasta or beef dish. I selected the chicken meal…which
turned out to be Indian chicken and basmati rice…I suppose that’s the universe’s
way of preparing me for the next 30 days’ meals. When the sun rose and the flight attendants brought around
breakfast it didn’t quite feel deserved.
Although it was 7am London time, it was a mere 2am to my brain….and I
had literally not moved since dinner.
But who am I to refuse tea and crumpets? So I brought in the sunrise
with my two English seatmates sipping tea (pinkies up).
Dawn
and I met up again after the flight and made our way through customs. We took the tube into the city and
spent the day hopping on and off public transportation until we saw all we came
for!
London is dreary and a perfect 65degrees. Anything else
wouldn’t be authentically London-enough for me so I am quite happy! Dawn and I
went about the day with very little actual plans. We bought a
day pass to the tube (England’s subway) and just got off and started walking. We ended
up stumbling on a massive parade put on by all the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men (sorry-couldn’t help it). But really, it was magnificent. They were
rehearsing for the queen’s birthday parade in two weeks and Dawn and I (plus a
couple thousand other tourists) got a sneak peek. We went on to see Buckingham Palace, the Parliament, Big
Ben (pictures will never do it justice), London Towers, London Bridge, Athos, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye..etc. We just kept getting on
the tube and getting off somewhere else…with a lot of walking in between!
We
also came upon a bunch of different riots and demonstrations. The largest group was anti-“big
brother”…because of all the picketing, the police were out in the masses 
.
.
We’ve never seen that many
police in one area and they were additional to the three helicopters that were hovering
overhead. It was crazy!
We found a perfect little pub for lunch and had a
delicious order of fish and chips (how can you not?) and ended our whirlwind day at platform 9¾ at Kings Cross train station.
We took turns napping on the tube on
the way back to the airport- we are exhausted.
I should mention that our day consisted mostly of, what Dawn
is calling “retrospective sightseeing.”
Due to our general lack of plans and preparation for our day in London
we had no idea what we were looking at.
We asked people around us a couple of times but that eventually got
embarrassing. So instead, we took
pictures of everything and found out what it was later. Turns out- we saw really cool stuff!
We’re back at the airport now and still have 4 hours before
boarding our 8-hr flight to Delhi.
I fully intend to sleep the flight away!
A special shout-out to Michael today- Happy Birthday! I’m
sorry I couldn’t be there but I hope it was wonderful.
Cheers!
Allie
p.s. For any upcoming travelers: The UK has different rules about what you can and
cannot travel with…USA TSA rules do not apply…
Sounds like an awesome adventure! Stay safe.
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