Hehe, SO. We've arrived in Bangkok, safe and happy --- But! I am going to write about that experience and ones to follow in a couple of days. First I'd like to make an entry about London. We were there for 12 hours yesterday waiting for our flight connection. Yesterday after out London adventure I wrote in my journal, it's very quickly written with ideas all over the place, but I'm just going to type out what I wrote then, here goes:
"Jan. 6th /09
Today was Amazing! And for anyone to think other than that is beyond me - it really is. I understand being tired, exhausted even - because I myself am! I'm as light as a bubble and have to force myself with all I've got to think straight and not get confused. But How could that make today not amazing?
I left my continent - well, not 'mine', but the one I was born on for the first time in my life. I put my feet on Europe for the first time in my life. I flew over the atlantic ocean for the first time in my life. Even though I was exhausted when we arrived in London, I couldn't let this 12 hour oppertunity get passed me! I took my fragile tired little body and mind and drove it with an excited and enthusiastic spirit! I found out how to takee the train into London, then quickly searched and scanned thru some maps & brochures - looking for important info. Then I used my intuition to just choose an area of London, and executed a plan! Which train to take, where to get off and make connections. I knew we didn't have time to comfotabely see everything, or even very much at all, and also that we wanted to spend very little money. - So I knew I had to just choose just one small section and forget about the rest until the future hopefully gives me another chance. First OI narrowed the options down to one long strip, that I asumed was an interesting busy one, then focused on a more specific area.
I went through a small 'Wecome to London' booklet and this heading caught my eye "Love London" - "Fall head over heals with the city on this heart shaped walk." PERFECT for Lando! Landon Love. Love London.
- There was a map with the walk dotted out and a list of tourist attractions along the way. We could arrive at the beginning by train, and at the end of the walk therre was another train near by to take back to the airport. SO! Dave and I took the TUBE in London for out first time! Got off at Green Park and transferred to another train where we got off at Waterloo Station. I was FREEZING, only wearing the warmest of my clothes packed for Thailand! and so that amplifoed my first feeling of being absolutely lost in a busy unfamilair country! But we got our wits soon enough and off we went! The first bit was rough. I was SO excited and so amazed by everything I saw. -but I was freezing and tired, and so was Dave. Dave though, being the Ultra Grump when he's tired, along with the uncomfort of cold, made him untolderable at first. But I wasn't going to let sleepy grumps and a mild discomfort ruin something I may only see once in my life!! So we let ourselves get irritated with each other (mostly from being so tired we were in a semi-perminent state of confusion.) But it never got that bad for me because what we were seeing BLEW me away!!! We ended up seeing some incredible old streets and buildings, Southbank Center -(concert halls & theatre stages), we saw the 'London Eye' - the huge ferris wheel that circles you up slowly to look over London, we went past the London Aquarium - amazing looking buliding that apparently has all kinds of sea life.
We then crossed over the Westminister Bridge - what a beautiful view! You see the River, all the old buildings, the ferris wheel, and the beautiful tower of Big Ben and houses of parliament.
After that we were in parliament Square. We saw Westminister Abbey - where every British King and Queen has been crowned since 1066!!! We then walked thru St. james Park. This park was so classic looking but by this time Dave and I were highly distracted by the uncomfort of cold. - We could no longer feel our feet or fingers! - and we kept trading off Dave's coat - the only *spring* coat we had. We decided to skip the scenery and walk thru the park REALLY fast in an effort to warm up. The walk led us straight to Buckingham Palace! That was almost surreal, just because I've known about it since I was a little girl. But we took it in quickly, took our photos, and decided it was best to start ending our trip, in search of warmth. So instead of finishing the suggested walking tour we looked at our map and decided an alternative rest of the rout.
We cut up through an old, classy looking series of streets, and within 15 minutes ended up at Picadelly Circus - This reminded me of a London version of Time Square. Many intersections, loads of people, colourful and flashing billboards, lots of traffic & bus and train connections, w/ a backdrop of London Buildings - so beautiful!
We wanted to find a pub to have a pint in, but it was so busy and hard to see, and we were sooo cold, that the recognizable "Pizza Hut" sign was just too tempting! We went in and ordered tea ASAP! Then for some reason ordered was too much food than we could possibly eat! HMM. By this time Dave seemed REALLY out of it (he slept a lot less on the plane - though I prob only got 2 hours sleep total) but he couldn't hear me, couldn't make up his mind, wimpered quite often and looked so tired. So I wanted to get us back to the airport incase he really needed to pass out. We hoped onto the train and he slept the whole way - about 45 min. I stayed awake because I LOVE city transit, especially in a place I've never been before. I was happy to people watch and look out the window the whole time. Near the end tho I was nodding off too. We made it to the airport almost delusional! Puttered around for a bit, then came over to the departures side..."
That's the entry for the most part, I had a wonderful time. =) I will report on Bangkok in a few days. =) - I'll add some London photos in a few days aswell. =)
