Bryan and I flew out of Indianapolis together. The plane ride was as plane rides are, no real excitement there. We did have a wide selection of movies, television shows, and music available on our individual screens nested in the back of the seat of the passenger in front of us. A good change in my opinion.
When we arrived in London, we had a small problem. The country had been closed for the week. Due to the terrorist attack in the subway and on the bus, the public transportation was shut down. We were able to take a train to the victoria station, but we were stranded there. Not only that, but the PA system kept telling us that we shouldn't go into downtown London.
We weren't sure yet exactly what had happened so we decided to go ahead and risk it. I figured that if we ended up in downtown London and we were the only ones there, we would need to make a quick retreat. We wanted to take a taxi because that was the only option left to us (besides walking), but when we got outside of the train station, the line for a taxi was about 200 yards long.
So, we decided to walk. I don't recommend lugging 60lbs of luggage through london after a 20 hour plane ride. This was painful, but eventually we made our way to our hotel where Dan and Jordan were already waiting for us.
Our hotel room was a single room with 2 beds, a sink, and a closet. Our bathroom was shared with about 20 other rooms. While the 4 of us were a bit tight, squeezed into this tiny room, it was well worth it in order to save a little cash. I found London to be terribly, terribly expensive. We went to McDonald's our first night in to eat something safe and familiar, and I spent 4 pounds on a meal. That's almost double what one would spend in the States. The next morning, I was talked into getting the all you can eat breakfast buffet at the hotel. That was 6 and a half pounds. The food was pretty average. I figure I paid about triple what the food was worth to me.
So we are all holed up in the hotel room, glad to be doing well and be able to get some real sleep.
1 comment:
Sorry I've been a slacker friend about reading your Blog. I'm home and playing catch-up now. In Switzerland Char and I went to McD's for a predictable, safe, relativly affordable meal and ended up spending about $24 US on it. High prices plus a weak currency = something to chat about online!
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