Back to London :(

We left on Tuesday to head back to London (All together now . . . Awwwwww!) but we had one country left to check out on our way. We stopped for a few hours in Bruges for a walk around town, lunch and later a chocolate factory. The chocolate factory was completely wasted on me as I didn’t even try the free samples but most people came out with bulging bags that must have weighed 20 pounds. Then they complained about how it wouldn’t fit in their suitcases so they were going to have to eat most of it before their flight back home. Man, life is tough on the road. :)

Famous square in Bruges 

The US flag!

My lunch in Bruges. No way was I not going to get a waffle!

My Belgium Taco. Was more like a curry hot pocket. Deep fried.

I love these fork/knives. Genius! 

Ketchup flavored chips. BTW, they are Disgusting! 

On the Ferry back to the UK

When we finally got to London and unloaded our bags it was like a mass free for all of goodbye hugs. Everyone was running around making sure that they got one last goodbye in. I was lucky because my favorite people and I were going to meet for dinner after we stashed our bags at our different hotels so I got to postpone the drama of “I’m never going to see you agaaaaaaain.” A friend from the group lent me his extra phone so I could use google map if I got lost on my way to the hostel. When I first heard that he had two Iphones, I had created this theory that one was for his numerous girlfriends while the other was for everyone else but he assured me that one provider has better rates for the international calls to his family in India while the other has better rates for in country calls. Personally, I prefer my theory. Either way, I managed to make it to my hostel without it, mostly because I didn’t have a free hand to pull it out of my purse. Numerous flights of stairs, three tube changes, and a four block walk with my luggage must have left me looking rather rough because the first thing the employee at the hostel asked me when I walked in was “Would you like me to get you a glass of water?” Which rather deflated my “I’m a total badass that can handle anything.” ego. Oh well. 

I met up with the rest of my friends and found out that half of them had decided that dinner wasn’t as important as a bed. So I didn’t have to say goodbye at all. I’m kind of glad that for a few of them, I got a see ya later instead of goodbye because goodbyes are exhausting.

The group that stuck around were all from India although none of them actually live in India anymore. Once they discovered that I had never really eaten Indian food before they decided that we had to go to the Indian area of London and enlighten me to the joy of Indian cuisine. So we did. They chose the menu and then I tried a little of everything. Oh man, I ate so much it hurt to breath. They wanted me to try something from every different area of India which equaled a lot of food. I was full before we even got through the appetizers. Which might have been because they ordered at least three but it might have been four. I lost count. We talked about the Indian culture and how it changed for them since they moved to the US or England and all kinds of stuff. At some point, I made a comment and then said “what am I, the only white person here?” We looked around and almost died laughing. I WAS the only white person in the entire restaurant. At the back of the restaurant there was a mirror and all I could see was brown, brown, brown . . . blinding white me, and more brown. And when I went outside, I was the only white person I saw as well. I thought it was great. Once I stopped laughing, I just shrugged and said “Welcome to the minority Brittany” and kept eating. 

We got done eating around midnight and all of us hopped back on the tube. We made it through a couple changes before we realized that all of them would be getting off before me, leaving me at 12:30 am alone on the London streets. (Mary breath! I’m alive enough to write this aren't I?) One of the guys offered to walk me to my hostel and I gave it serious thought before realizing that midnight at home is different than midnight here. That sounds like it doesn’t make any sense but it does. There were hundreds of people still on the tube, security guards all over the place and on the street, shops and restaurants were still open and people were everywhere. It also helped that I only had to go two more stops and my hostel was less that 200 feet from the tube station with a security guard at the entrance! ^_^ It took me less than a minute to walk. And once I got to my hostel, there were about 25 women in pajama’s, sitting on picnic tables and talking. Midnight really is different in London. 

When I woke up the next day, I wanted to sing and dance. For the first time in 12 days, I was alone. No one to talk to, no plans. Just me. Until one of the guys from my group wrote me on facebook asking to meet with me that morning so he could steal the pictures that his camera had eaten. Luckily, I had copied his memory card to my computer for the Toga Party pictures. I didn’t have the pictures from after that of course but at least he got a ton back. And I got a free breakfast out of it. So it wasn’t too terrible to give up my morning of solitude. But the rest of the day was mine! I checked out of the hostel and had them store my bags. Then I just walked around. I started out in the direction of a further away tube station, planning on discovering if it had less stairs for my return trip with my suitcases but before I got there I discovered the London Eye. From there, I walked across the bridge to Big Ben and then went on to the Buckingham Palace. I loved it. When I got hot, I stepped into a gift shop and stole some AC while I read a children's book “Does the Queen wear a crown to bed.” When I was hungry, I stopped at a store and bought some food and ate it in St James Park. Then I randomly decided to walk through Hyde Park to my last hostel and see if they still had the book I had left there. (It’s been haunting me. I want to know what happens Damn it!) They had found it but unfortunately, one of the staff members had borrowed it and he wasn’t there. Bummer. Eventually, I went back to the hostel to play on the internet until it was time to leave for the airport. The tube line that I had planned on taking was down due to who knows what and since the other options either had a billion stairs and no lift, or cost me a million dollars, I tried to wait it out. One benefit to spending the night in an airport is that even if you leave two hours later than you planned, you’re still not going to miss your plane. However, after a while, I gave up on the easy way and headed out anyway. 

Buckingham Palace

The soy sauce that came with my sushi!

My picnic in the park

This woman was meditating or something.
She stood there humming the entire time I was there

Once I got to the airport, I picked a spot next to a charging center, plugged in my computer and skyped Jesse for three hours. Then I locked my laptop in my backpack and locked my backpack to my chair and slept for a couple hours until it was time to check in for my flight. For all that I was freaking out at the idea of crashing at an airport, it wasn’t that bad. There were always people around. Another girl on her own set up shop on the other side of the outlet and there were families and groups of friends huddled around too. It kind of reminded me of camping. The worst part of it was that since I was traveling by myself I had to bring my luggage with me to the bathroom and risk losing my spot. So I held it. My bladder might vie with my computer for hating me but I survived just fine.