Greetings from London!

I sent this email on Saturday, April 8th, 2006

Safely Arrived in London

Right now I am sitting on the steps of Starbucks using T-mobile's Internet to email this. When I bought the 7 day pass, I assumed that Starbucks here in the UK is open on weekends, like in the states... My mistake. However, they leave the Internet up (whew!)

So I got in Friday morning at 8am into Heathrow. It was a surprisingly good flight; which worries me because I think I might be tempted to visit London more often as a result :)

I came down to my friend's apartment is which is literally 2 blocks from the Tower of London (Tower Hill stop on the Underground). My hands were so sore from carrying all of my luggage from Downtown Chicago to O'Hare to Heathrow to Picadilly Line to District Line to the flat. Ugh!

However, I got hooked up on the Internet by 11am London time here at Starbucks, and then went to take a nap for an hour.

Four hours later :) I awoke from my nap, used the Internet again, and then settled down to read Les Miserables. Went to dinner briefly with my friend, as my friend was headed for a daytrip to Dublin with a coworker (planned well before my last minute trip). I took the liberty of wandering about the area while it was still light outside, then returned to read until about 9pm and then fell asleep. Right were I'm at is by Minories & the Tower of London. Minories is not pronounced similar to "minorities" as I foolishly suspected. Just like other subtle British pronunciations, it is pronounced quite differently - the "min" sounds like "tin" to more like "tin"-ories, "minories."

Woke up at 1am. Very alert. Rats! I was hoping that my afternoon's nap wouldn't affect my hopes in adjusting to the 6 hour time difference. Luckily, I made myself stay in bed and I simply read until I felt drowsy again.

Saturday in London

When I awoke at 8am this morning, I was not feeling so alert, but since I have 9am meetings on Monday, I knew I had to force myself up in order to adjust. I showered, ate some digestive biscuits (healthy, I know), and then off to discover Starbucks' dratted UK hours.

Hair still wet, I booked it to the Tube at about 9:30am. I bought a day pass. The glory of my location is that it is in Zone 1 along with every other desirable thing in London. Hence, super cheap day pass. It cost less than my pass from the airport to the flat yesterday (4 pounds, I think). So I went first to St. Paul's cathedral, cause I'd never been there. Unfortunately, it wasn't really open to the public, and they're doing some major restoration to the main facade, however, the "crypt" and the gift shop were open. I wandered around a bit and then ran off to my next stop. (by the way, I was very disappointed because I had my camera, but the battery was dead. And although my friend has some adaptors, they have this round edge that juts out and forbid anything with a long power plug (similar to a hair dryer) or anything that plugs in very close to the wall to be used. I was so frustrated! So no pictures of St. Paul's yet - and a new shopping item on my day's itinerary - buy a power adaptor.)

Getting Lost ... er "Misplaced"

So, the next stop was on the central (Red) line and I was bound to... Holborn street! (High Holborn, to be precise). Who knew how many glorious things are off of High Holborn!? I knew not! My primary objective was to see the British Museum (again - since we went as a family in 2000). Well, I kind of inadvertently wandered down Kingsway (opposite direction) until I hit the Bush House or something like that. (where the BBC is housed). I then wandered up and found the Theatre district of Drury Lane - that's right like the gingerbread man poem! I wondered up Bow Street (Laura, Mom, and Alli should enjoy that!) where the first London police (The Bow Street Runners) originated, but since have been relocated (1992 or something). And that's when I wandered into Covent Garden or "The Seven Dials"

The Seven Dials

Let me tell you, if you think shopping in San Francisco is a treat, the Seven Dials is quite awesome! Covent Garden/The Seven Dials is a very fashionable shopping district. It was full of young Britain and I was totally pleased to have stumbled into it. I hurried past on my way to the museum, but I made a note to return (I only walked through Neal Street, I discovered the Seven Dials aspect later). So I went to the British Museum - wandered through endless antiquities and then back down to the Seven Dials.

So the reason it's called the Seven Dials is because there are seven streets that go to a point (kind of like spokes in a bicycle wheel) and on all of these streets are shops, cafes, boutiques, etc. It's really quite chic and lovely and I was so excite to not be in a touristy place - but a place I would love to visit anywere. I bought a cute casual jacket (which I needed badly) at a place called "box" something or other. I can't remember. Also a place called "Octopus" had some particularly darling French things all of which I wanted to buy.

OH nearly forgot to mention, that in the British Museum I finally bought a map & a guide book. Kudos to London, however, for having such a fabulous Tube system with great maps that will get you everywhere you want to go without a map. Amazing. So, in the guidebook it recommended that in the Seven Dials, I go to the Neal's Yard Dairy and buy some cheese. So, the best part of this shop, is that they cut cheese for you while you are in line and pass it to you to nibble on. Just in case you weren't sure you wanted cheese :) So I bought a very lovely cheese in the family of Brie, and a french baguette, and I was on my way! That's my dinner tonight & my lunch tomorrow.

Then I got onto the Picadilly (BLUE) line to head to Harrod's I still needed to pick up some Harry Potter books & my power adaptor.

I forgot to mention, btw, how fine the weather is! I wore a skirt all day today and a light blazer. It's been fantastic!

Harrod's

So I get out of the tube, and Harrod's is right there, and I'm delighted. I go to buy adaptors - again only the dratted ones with constraints - so I have to get the Tumi worldwide adaptor. At least I know it will work everywhere in the world. And I can get my hairdryer and my camera battery to work.

I went to Level 4 to the Children's books - and I bought my new copy of the latest Harry Potter book. As some of you know, I first read Harry Potter when I visited London for the first time in 2000. I bought the first three books here, and it turns out that the UK editions have very different illustrations (which I happen to like better). Stuart (my youngest brother) served his mission here, and got me the fifth book (I bought myself the fourth on Amazon.co.uk) and now I just bought myself the 6th here in London. I also bought mom a surprise that is signed by the author :) so exciting! I told the cashiers about the US editions, one of them didn't know, and we had quite a fun chat about the Harry Potter differences in movies, books, etc.

So I left Harrod's and there was this beautiful patisserie across the street, and it was tea time, so I totally got lured in for my lunch/afternoon snack. I got some sole soup with bacon, some french baguette on the side, and a currant scone with hot chocolate. It was beautiful and cozy and I was very content.

Lost Property

I got on the tube, transferred to my line, got all the way back to the flat, and as I unpacked, realized that all of my treasured books were gone! I can't use the phone here, so I had to hightail it back to the Patisserie Valerie, and then to "Lost Property" at Harrod's. I was sure glad I bought a day pass! Luckily, the Lost Property had my bookbag. I was so relieved!

So here I am, back near Tower Hill. sitting outside Starbucks. my fingers are freezing, but I'm having a blast. I hope all is well for you! I'll be reading more of Les Miserables tonight (Harry Potter can wait for the plane ride back) and just loving London. I really could live here, I think! Or else I will just visit as often as I can :)