London: A Preview

I took quite a few photos and did a fair amount my first day in London, so I'm gonna break it into a couple of posts. This was supposed to be the first one, but I'm using the free wifi at the hostel which, while fast enough for pretty much everything else, is apparently utterly useless when it comes to uploading photographs, and after waiting like an hour and only getting ten photos uploaded I have decided to wait until I have a better internet connection to post. So while I have the narration all typed up and ready to go, the posts will have to wait... 

However, from what I did manage to get uploaded I can give you a quick introduction to my arrival in the city.

So for some stupid reason (it is cheaper to fly really late or really early) I booked my flight to London at 6:35am. To take the airport bus, it would take me about an hour to get to the airport. Given that I had never flown out of Edinburgh before, I wanted to give myself lots of time, and decided to take the bus departing at 4:12am. I thus needed to get up at 3:30. I tried to go to bed early, but it didn't really work that well - not helped by the fact that at 10:30pm I abruptly remembered that I had failed to procure change for the bus the next morning. I downloaded the eticket app for the bus, and bought a ticket, before realizing that that ticket was only good for the 16, to take me to one of the stops that the 100 (the airport bus) stopped at, and that I could not purchase airport bus tickets online. Resigned, I got out of bed, put on pants, and went to walk up and down the street, finally finding a takeout place that was still open and could give me change. I thus had slept for about two, maybe three hours when I got up. 

Suffice to say I wasn't happy about it.

The 16 was also delayed, so I was standing in the freezing wind and rain for a solid 25 min. Fun. 

Fun.

But I got a latte and croissant at the airport, and was soon on my way. I used a mobile ticket for the first time - happily I was way too tired to be nervous it wouldn't work, and it really was super easy to use. And no paper to worry about losing. Security was no big, the guy that was working the one I went though was super enthusiastic and friendly considering how fooken early in the morning it was. Interestingly, the only time they asked for my ID was when I checked my bag, and the only time they asked for my ticket was when I was actually boarding the plane (though I had to scan it to go through the gate into the security area). Quite different from how they run things in Canada. Also, they had quite a few stores inside the airport, including a MAC just past the gate, which I avoided eye contact with (the temptation...).

It took just over an hour to fly to London, which was awesome, but my one ear wouldn't pop, which was awful. My ears are remarkably bad at pressurizing themselves, but usually plugging my nose and blowing forces them to pop (which probably isn't good for them). Unfortunately my fail-safe method wasn't cutting it this time, and I spent half the flight with an immense pain radiating from behind my ear to the top of my skull and down the side of my neck to my collarbone. Fun. It finally popped as I was waiting for my baggage, though it kept giving little pops for the rest of the day.

Exhausted, I hopped on the tube, which I was discovered is quite expensive (it cost me £5.50 to get to Kings Cross station). That trip took about an hour, and I definitely passed out for about half of it, though I happily woke up before my stop, and no one stole any of my stuff, which was nice.

I got to the hostel, which was about a 10min walk away from the station (convenient! almost like I had planned it…). The check in wasn't open until 2:30, but they had a secure baggage room where I could store my bags until I got my room. Luggage secured, I headed out into the city.

To be continued...

Also some random guy just walked past where I'm sitting in the hostel's basement and complimented my typing speed, so theres that.