The time had come, I had to leave Australia, even if I wasn't ready to. England was calling my name, and I wasn't going to deny it my company. I packed, unpacked and repacked my bags over and over again in the few hours leading up to my flight - everything needed to be in there, nothing could be forgetten, but at the same time I was not looking forward to my bag being overweight had having to pay large sums of excess fees. I had said goodbye to my friends in the days leading up to my departure and I only had to say goodbye to my Mum. I thought saying bye to her would make this all feel that more real, but it didn't and it still doesn't. I have spent so long talking about England and how I love England and my plans and dreams to move to this great, cold national that I don't know whether it feels like a wonderful surreal dream, or that it just feels familiar and I am in my zone where I am supposed to be.
I entered Cairns airport in Australia and was as nervous as ever. I had chosen to fly by myself on a flight that stopped in more places than I would have liked. After my Mum insured I had checked in and my bags were being sent all the way through to London, a weight was lifted off my shoulders and I knew all I had to worry about were catching my flights and landing in London. A few months before my friend and I thought it would be a great idea if I took a garden gnome around with me on my travels, just as a little fun, so I named him Seamus and decided his travels would start in Cairns airport. So, if you spot a gnome in my photos, this is the explanation - although, it is not really much of one, haha. I said goodbye to my Mum, of course feeling a little sad because I don't know when I will see her again, and emabrked on my first flight to begin my grand journey. I love going new places and I alays look up at the skies when I see a plane and wish I am on it, but when it actually comes to being on a plane I can not wait to get off. After surviving about 34hrs of flying and stopping in Brisbane, Melbourne and Singapore, I finally arrived in Heathrow. As I waited for my suitcase to come around on the baggage claim, more and more people were collecting their bags and mine was no where to be seen, so naturally I thought the worse and freaked out about the possibility that my bag had either gotten lost or was stil in the domestic airport in Brisbane or Melbourne waiting for me to pick it up. Thankfully, my bag to show up after a while and I set off towards arrivals.
When I got to arrivals I was expecting my grandparents to pick me up, becuase it was always planned that they would, so when I looked around and didn't see them, again that lovely worried side of me kicked it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man about the age of 45-50 looking at me, so I looked closer. He was wearing a hat, a scarf and a giant coat and reminded me of someone you would see if a sci-fi or time travel movie that comes from the future to deliver a message. When I got closer I realised - 'HOLY! DAD?'. Since I wasn't expecting him, I didn't recognise him straight away. He told me he was travelling around Australia in a campervan for a month and he wouldn't tell me where exactly he was going, so I was a little angry and worried before I left, but here he was in England, surprising me. I think the lie was worth the surprise.
It was cold and dark when I arrived, and that didn't change in the next few hours, even though it was approaching daytime - but that didn't falter me in the slightest. I was just too excited to be in London. Dad and I drove to my cousins apartment in Greenwich, only getting lost a few times. Dad stayed for a little while, then left saying he would see me tomorrow when my other cousin was to bring me to my grandparents house where my Dad was staying. I had a little power snooze, then woke up when my 2 other cousins arrived. We spent a good half hour - hour trying to decide what where would go or what we would do in London. We finally decided on the Tate Modern - thanks to me. We rode in a cable car (I though i saw Tony blair standing in the line, but decided it wasn't since this man had the beginnings of a mullet) to see the view over Greenwich (seeing Canary Wharf and the O2), before catching the tube into central London. I had been the Tate once before, and I remembered quite enjoying it, so I didn't think things would be that different this time around. I like to think that as someone that enjoyed art in school and can attempt to undersand an artists reasoning behind their art, that I have an apprecation for modern art, but I just found a fair few of the pieces either didn't pull my attention in or incomprehendable. But art is art and I am no one to say what is and isn't art just because I don't particularly agree with or understand it. After our little venture to the Tate, we went outside and decided to look for somewhere to eat before the show were going to watch. It was only 4.30pm by this time, but to Australian statndards it very well could have been 8.30pm - it still baffles be how dark it can be so late in the morning and late in the afternoon, haha. We caught another tube to Picadilly and found a nice little Italian resturant to have dinner in before we watched Viva Forever. Viva Forever is a musical set to the music of the Spice Girls, so of course every girl born and raised in the 90s would love to see that. I have a bit of a subtle sing and a dance, before my tiredness of all the travelling kicked it. It was getting really hard to keep my eyes open by the end of the musical, but I still really enjoyed it.
The following day, I left London with 2 of my cousins to go stay with my Dad at my grandparents house in Sittingbourne. Not much really happened that day. Just a quiet day seeing my family, watching a bit of TV, discovering my sim for my phone here won't work even though I was certain it was unlocked :/ and having an early night. Today, I am going to another gallery with my Dad and Aunt and doing a bit of shopping at Primark (go there if you're in England. Cheap and really not that bad clothes) to get a few last necessities, then back to London the next day to meet up with everyone else from Lattitude.
All in all, I really enjoyed my first day in London and can't wait to go back and explore even more soon and later through out the year.
