Day 1 – Arrival in London

We arrived in London about 11 a.m. local time. After waiting in the proper customs line for a while, we handed over our passports and flight cards, and were then subject to a bit of scrutiny from the immigrations officer, as she clearly wasn’t pleased that two seventeen-year-olds were travelling alone and were not planning on meeting up with any adults. However, after we produced our notarized letters of consent (thanks, moms and dads), she was forced to let us proceed into GREAT BRITAIN! Actually, it wasn’t quite that simple, because first we had to figure out how to buy an underground ticket (and certain machines would only take correct change or wouldn’t take our credit cards), and then we were stuck behind the barriers for… some reason.

Then, we sat on a rather crowded train for forty or so minutes, across from two young women who had just graduated from Purdue University (both with degrees in Mechanical Engineering). The man sitting next to them struck up a conversation with the pair (he’s from L.A., used to write for the show E.R., and is currently working on an animated movie featuring an orangutan), so we basically just eavesdropped on their conversation the entire time.

At the appropriate stop, we managed to wrench ourselves (and our suitcases) out of the crowded train car, and then experienced our first real adventure in NAVIGATION. Destination: our hotel. After doing little more than dropping our suitcases on the floor and figuring out how the light switches worked, we headed off for NAVIGATION ROUND 2. Destination: Golden Tours bus stop in Trafalgar Square. Again, after not too much trouble, we did make it there, and immediately raced to the top of the blue double-decker bus. Notable sights included St. Paul’s Cathedral, a blue egg-shaped building featured in “The Blind Banker,” and Tower Bridge.

London from our tour bus. (From Tower Bridge.)

All we saw of Westminster Abbey

Sara wanted to see Westminster Abbey, so we got off on the London Eye side of the bridge, and proceeded to walk towards the Parliament buildings/Big Ben/Westminster. We stopped along the way to take pictures of the bridge that twists in the opening scene of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” After a few moments of meandering (and being pelted by hail), we found our way to the Abbey, only to be told that it was closed to visitors for the day. Oh, well. We tried. We then thought we’d be clever and simply go to the next stop on the bus tour, rather than walking back across the bridge. As Sara puts it, “We sort of knew where we were. We just didn’t know where we were in relation to where the bus stop was supposed to be.” As you can imagine, there was a bit of confusion as we tried to navigate using the bus tour’s woefully incomplete map. Still, we got to see St. James Park, and a helpful British lady did try to steer us in the right direction. Eventually, we ended up walking back across the bridge and meeting up with the next tour bus there.

The oncoming storm.

We stayed on the bus until around Buckingham Palace, at which point we had to consider which bus would take us back in the direction of the hotel and such. If the bus company had actually followed their own posted schedule, we would have been fine. Needless to say, that didn’t actually occur. Still, we saw the front of Buckingham Palace, and we got back to Victoria Station when we gave up on the bus. We ate a very calm, warm dinner there (it was rather chilly today) and then took the Underground back towards our hotel. There were three spectacular elements to this final trip: one, we bought Oyster cards; two, we did a transfer and navigated very easily; and three, we found our way back to our hotel without difficulties.

All in all, it’s been a great day. We’re starting to get our bearings, and it’s incredibly exciting to be able to say (or even think), “WE’RE IN LONDON!!!” And when we wake up tomorrow, we will still BE IN LONDON!!!

More later,

Miel (& Sara)

P.S. Victorious update: We also figured out how to work Sara’s phone here! We win.