February 15
The day started with a trip to Munich, oh joy! The
airport! Things went swimmingly there.
No issues at all. We got on the
plane and settled in for our short trip to CDG (Paris). I saw the Eiffel Tower way off in the distance…I
believe that’s as close as I’ll get but that’s okay. We landed with plenty of time to get through
customs, lunch and even smoke. Customs
was silly. The guy started speaking to
Rachel in French. I don’t recall how or
why, but I told him that we were super spies and we were training Taylor to be
a spy. I showed him both of our
passports and he ended up stamping all of them.
Not sure how great that is in an “official” passport, but whatever. After buying lunch I passed Taylor and Kari
off to a man wearing a Superman shirt. I
told them that he was a super hero so they’d be safe with him. He said, “Only if there’s a phone booth
nearby…” in his British accent. It was
pretty amusing. Then we decided he was a
super spy, as were we. It was all pretty
great. Rachel and I went to smoke while
Kari and Taylor talked to Superman. He
was heading off on a “mission” and left before we got back. He really looked like Stone Cold Steve Austin...in
a Superman shirt. At any rate, we hopped
onto our connecting flight and headed to Heathrow. Once we got there things were still
smooth. Customs was a breeze, we managed
to get our Oyster Cards with very little hassle. Then we hopped on the tube. We had NO idea where to go. I looked at the map on the wall, I knew that
Kensington Olympia was the station nearest the hotel. So I picked the tube stop nearest to that and
we got off there. BIG MISTAKE. Just because it looks close on a map of the
tube does not mean it is. Well, that depends
on your definition of close. We were
about 2 miles off. Not a huge deal…except
that my rolly suitcase weighed about 40lbs, the carryon was heavy, and Rachel’s
bag was no rolly and pretty dang heavy.
Wandering the streets of Chelsea and Kensington…well it wasn’t bad. We got to see a lot of awesome things. Including Jaguars, Bentley’s, and Range
Rovers…just all over the place. Parked
in the driveways of these amazing townhomes.
HUGE townhomes. So pretty. We were definitely in a desirable area of
town. It made the walk nice because we
didn’t have to be looking around looking for dodgy characters. The dodgiest characters were saw were
doggies. Har har play on words. So we FINALLY got to the hotel. Our room was on the 8th
floor. Okay, there were only 4 floors
including the attic. But after all that
walking? It felt like the 8th floor.
After a short while we figured out that they had given us the wrong room
so Rachel and I went downstairs to talk to the staff about it. She showed us another room on the second
floor that was actually our room, she was unsure of what had happened. So we switched rooms. Both rooms were great, and honestly, had
Taylor not been there…I’d probably have stayed in the first room. But it was a “shared bathroom” room, so the
bathroom was the next floor down. Us
grown up’s could handle that but it kinda freaked me out to think of sending
Taylor down and away to potty or shower.
So we switched. Both rooms were
great. The whole hotel was great. We were very happy. We asked the staff where nearby to eat, they
told us about a few different places, including a pub on the corner. Literally 1 townhome and across the street
from the hotel. I sent Rachel in to see
if they allowed kids in there…some pubs are weird about that after certain
hours. No problem, Tay was in. We had delicious amazing food and I drank
some kind of delicious local draft beer.
Perfect ending to a pretty good travel day (minus the getting a little
lost…thank Steve Jobs for maps on the iPhone).
We went to sleep pretty easily, we were all fairly exhausted but super
excited about what the next day would bring.
February 16
This time we found the Kensington Olympia station. It’s above ground train but goes straight to
the underground at Earl’s Court. From
there we hopped on the Piccadilly Line and then switched to the Bakerloo line
to that we could hit Oxford Circus. We
were looking for the Disney store, which we found. It was only a tiny bit of trouble, nothing
crazy. I just kept telling my map that I
was driving, which I was not. Once we
figured it out, we were good. We stopped
at H&M and took a picture of Taylor there to send to Danny. Mostly because he hates H&M. Taylor ended up getting a really cute outfit
there, I did as well…it came in handy later.
After all of that, we were looking for a Claires. We never did find the Claires in Oxford, but
we did meet a beautiful chocolate brown Am Staf/Pit mix named…Yorkshire
something. I can’t remember his full
name. But it was Yorkshire
something. I want to say Pete, but I
know that’s not it. He was such a love
muffin!! We seriously spent about 30mins (or more) just loving on him. He knows tricks and he can dance. The man was a street magazine salesmen, we
bought one of his magazines…but mostly we talked about the dog. He was a rescue and now lives with the man,
goes everywhere with him. Typically he
just lays in his chair there but we were so excited about seeing him and loving
on him that he got excited and hopped down to play with us. He had a touch of arthritis, but he was spry
and amazing. I loved him. I wish I could have brought him back with
me. He was amazing, so so so so
sweet. Reminded me of Rainbow. We finally tore ourselves away from the pup
and headed to Starbucks for a pick-me-up and some lunch. I got some sort of iced coffee with 4 shots
of espresso…definitely picked up. I also
ate this falafel thing soooo tasty. Kari
and I won the birds, Rachel and Taylor went inside to eat. But I could not let the birds win!! Damn
pigeons. They were dive bombing us and
trying to eat our eyeballs. But we won!!
We finished our food despite the little winged rats. We found the tube, headed back to
Piccadilly. I don’t know what it is but
I really enjoy Piccadilly. The girls
seemed to like it too. It’s fun, high
energy, and…just has this…feel about it.
The problem was we had to pee.
All of us. We thought our
bladders may explode. There is NO WHERE
TO PEE IN PICCADILLY!! Okay, in the tube there is a bathroom but none of us had
the 50pence or 1euro to get in. Stupid
monies. We spot some golden arches. YES!! No.
There is a guard to the downstairs, where the bathroom is. Rachel asks him to go down, he lets her. He won’t let the rest of us. So we go stand in line to buy something so we
can get down there. He, this bathroom
guard, is a Jamaican man…cool accent when it’s mixed with a bit of an English
accent. He comes over and says we can go
downstairs. So we wander over. Poor Kari was first and he says, “No no, not
you, where is my darling? She goes first.” Me, being the smart ass I am, pop
around Kari and say, “Here I am!” to which he begins laughing very heartily. “How did you know I was talking about you?”
He asks though the laughing. “It’s the
tattoos.” I shrug. Cause I know it is,
that’s why he let Rachel down in the first place, he saw her tattoos. So we joke with him for a few minutes, then we
go down to pee. On the way back up he
makes the other girls wait, literally parts the crowd of paying customers and
grabs my hand and “twirls” me out of the store.
It was freakin’ hilarious. I
started saying I was McDonalds royalty at that point. We ended up heading to Boots from there –
think Walgreens – because I needed something for the pain. It was creeping up more and more. I figured it was from all the stairs and
walking, no big deal. I got some
Ibuprofen and some Paramedecol or something like that…basically Tylenol. Then we head to Cool Britannica. Pretty much my fave souvenir shop…primarily
because there are Bulldogs everywhere. I’m
easy like that. There was a great older
man in there dressed up with this crazy crow like bird (stuffed), we talked to
him for a bit. He’s thinking of getting
his first tattoo which I highly support of course. We found lots of good stuff, Danny’s
requested tea…another bobble-head Stella…some stuff for Taylor’s friend Chloe...and
a couple things for The Bar and The Bar Too.
I also got Gin a silly birthday present, nothing super awesome, just
silly. There was some sort of Love fest
of something going on by the statue of Eros (Cupid, basically). It almost looked like an Occupy London type
of thing…but it was definitely more about peace, love and acceptance. And the whacky tobaccy…that smell was
abundant. We went on the bus tour after
that, we sat on the top open part for most of the trip. It got COLD.
So we moved under. But not until
Kari got tons of great pics. I got some
good pics…til my camera battery died.
Stupid camera. It was pretty fun
though, we were so silly. We wandered
around Piccadilly at the end of the tour looking for food. Everywhere had a 1 ½ or more wait time…finally
I remembered Bella Italia, the place I went with Shannon and her Mom. We headed there and waited for about 15mins…or
less…to be seated. The food was
DELICIOUS. The table next to ours…they
were raging monsters. The teenage girl
was awful. I wanted to throw things at
them, but instead I just offered my services to the server in the form of
whacking them with the huge pepper grinder.
Good times. After the rude family
left, a bridal party showed up. They
were so gorgeous, all of them. It made
me want to puke lol. Then worse, they
were SWEET! Rachel told the bride congrats and how cute they were (the
bridesmaids were all in pink tutus with pig ears and noses, the bride was in a
white tutu with cow ears and tail). We
talked with them for about 30 mins, they were Irish and so sweet. They told me I looked 20, which was fabulous…then
they thought Taylor was 17. Which was
not fabulous. Dang tall child. I was wondering if they had applications…in order
to hang out with them you had to be hot.
Cause they were all super hot. On
the way back to the hotel we got on the tube…but before doing so there was
another magazine salesman that pulled us aside.
He thought that Taylor, Kari, and Rachel were my children. So I aged about 20 years from the walk from
the restaurant to the tube. He was a
very flirty very old alcoholic (drinking wine on the street corner while
selling his magazines) and he told me his name was Johnny Too Good. Rachel was trying to get me to leave but I
was amused. Most British men, especially
the older ones, are terrible flirts but completely harmless. He had thought I was Irish, oddly, but I told
him I had a proper British surname. He
asked what it was and I told him, then he said, “Really? You think that’s a
proper British surname?” And I said, “Yes, of course.” Then he pointed to the
building behind me. Wyndham
Theater. He said it was one of the more
famous theaters in London. Imagine that. Me and my proper British surname, we’re
famous. Not that I didn’t know
that. After finishing up with Johnny Too
Good, we headed back to the hotel.
Easily. Since we’d figured out
the right way to take the tube to the train.
We giggled a lot, visited out favorite little convenience store to get
some drinks, and went to our room. That
evening we met the co-owner of the hotel as we were talking to the desk
woman. She was from Poland, the same
town as Persyda’s Mom. Very cool. All of the female staff we spoke too were
Polish. The co-owner of the hotel had
grown up in London but his parents had emigrated from Armenia. Sooooo cool the amount of people you meet
from everywhere. London makes me think
of what New York must be like. We headed
to our room and passed out fairly quickly.
It had been a long day and we had a lot of plans for Sunday and I was in
quite a bit of pain so it was time to sleep it off.
February 17
Sunday didn’t go quite as planned. After breakfast I was still in a crazy amount
of pain. It was the weirdest pain. It was shooting from my right lower hip area
to my cervix. I know, TMI. But if you have a cervix, you know there is
an odd pain that only comes from the cervix.
It happens when getting the exam and they swab the cervix, or really
when anything touches it. It’s a
sensitive little bugger. Rachel then
talked me into going to the ER. There
was no way I was going to function. The
Ibuprofen and Tylenol were not cutting it, I was in agony. So Rachel asked the woman at the front desk
about the nearest hospital, she pointed it out on the map then offered to call
a taxi. Rachel explained to her what was
going on and she became very concerned, it was super sweet. She asked me if I’d like her to make me some
chamomile tea while we waited for the taxi and stuff, she kept telling Rachel I’d
be okay. It was really sweet and yet
another reason I love that hotel (London Visitors Hotel, by the way). I showered and then we asked her to call a
taxi for us. Rachel and I were going to
the hotel and we sent Taylor and Kari to Piccadilly to look for a Claires. Kari’s navel ring had fallen out so she
needed a new one. They had mastered the
overground to Earl’s Court then to Piccadilly, plus Kari had looked up
directions to the Claires, so they were ready.
Meanwhile, we went to the ER. It
was pretty fully but they got me back fairly quickly. I had to pee in a little tin thing, then pour
it into a tube. Weird, but
effective. The doc tested it, everything
checked out fine. He asked me my medical
history then got me up on the table. “You
have adhesions. Why didn’t they take out
your cervix?” He said matter of factly. “I
don’t know.” I don’t. “Well they should
have. You have adhesions, I can feel
them here.” I’m squirming in pain as he’s touching the part of my belly that
hurt, between my lower hip to bellybutton area.
Lovely. He sits me back down at
the chair and says, “I wouldn’t advise you to have surgery again unless
absolutely needed…in Germany.” He didn’t seem to be a fan of the care I had received. Which was fine, it seems every country thinks
that their care is the best. And
honestly, I don’t know why they didn’t yank my cervix either. It just seems like something left in there
for scar tissue to stick to. After that
madness, the doc prescribed me…something.
Don’t know what. Tylenol with
something narcotic. It works, I feel a
little pain but not anything like it was.
I do feel stupid as hell though…the joy of narcotics. We went to Boots to fill the prescript and
then went back to call a taxi and wait.
While we were waiting a nice man asked for a light…he was a
down-on-his-luck type of guy. He was at
the hotel visiting his friend (whose name I can’t remember). She’s 93 and not looking so good, he
said. He was hoping she’d live to 100
because then you get a letter from the Queen!! I told him I’d pray for her to
make it to 100 and even beyond. So if
you think about it, blog reading friends, say a prayer for her. Our taxi finally gets there and let me just
say – had I not taken the pain pills I may have died. Rachel and I were laughing SO hard it was
ludicrous. The man drove the wrong way
down a one way road. I was saying I
would be so scared to drive in London, he said, “You don’t drive. You enjoy.” Then he floors it and starts
honking at everyone. We were cracking up
so hard I’m surprised we didn’t wet out pants.
He would honk and wave at pedestrians, “Why you no wave back? I wave at
you!” HONK! Then he saw a car that had passed us not long before, “I know her!
I’ve seen her before, earlier. Maybe she
does not remember me.” He starts honking and waving at the Range Rover. “Why does she not wave back?” HONK. It continued like that for the entire
trip. When he finally dropped us off, he
deducted our fair because we were fun I think.
I tipped him, probably too much, but it was SO much fun and the stress
melted away because of his silliness. I
told him every time I heard a honk from then on out, I’d think of him <3 as
he drove away he honked about 6 times lol.
It was fabulous. We ended up
going upstairs and making reservations to eat at Planet Hollywood at 5pm. I felt like shit, my high from the silly man
had worn off and I felt like I ruined the Sunday. We had SO many plans to take the bus around,
get off at allllll the stops (well the big ones) and take pictures. And I ruined that. I was getting very down. So I decided after dinner, I was heading back
to the hotel. I told Rachel because I
knew she’d get it. She decided she’d
come with me, primarily cause she was worried about me I think. I gave Kari and Taylor precise directions to
get to Platform 9 3/4. It's not
difficult, you just get on the Piccadilly line and take the Kings Cross or St.
Pancras stop, Kings Cross is across from St. Pancras. We traveled mostly on the Piccadilly line so
they were pretty familiar with it.
Rachel and I got back to the hotel and started packing everything up, we
had to leave the hotel at 730am to catch the bus to go to the tube. The girls got back from being Harry Potter
dorks hehe and were happy. I still felt
like a jerk and like I ruined an entire day.
I was really trying to avoid that.
Sigh. We finished packing up, got
everything squared away, and fell quickly to sleep.
February 18
We woke up at 6am and started getting ready. I wore my outfit from H&M, a tank dress
with leggings, with a sweater over the top.
It was super comfy on my belly. By
730 we were out the door and headed towards the bus stop…which we eventually
found. We took the bus to the…Nightsbridge?
I don’t know, some tube station that was on the Piccadilly line. From there it was straight to Heathrow. We had enough time to cash in the rest of our
Oyster card, I got cash back from mine because I had exactly 20pound left on there,
and Taylor and Kari’s got refunded to my card and popped up the next day. We went into Heathrow, got through customs and
security, and then found food. We ate at
a coffee place. I carried my food onto
the plane with me cause I didn’t want to rush eating, my stomach already hurt
enough. When we got into Paris is when
everything got jacked up. Our flight out
of Heathrow was delayed for whatever reason so we made it to Paris with 30mins
to get to our flight. Which could have
been easy…but it wasn’t. We ended up
being outside the security part of the airport, then had to go back through
security…then more or less run to the gate.
I didn’t run. It may have jostled
something loose. But Kari and Rachel
were running. I was walking
briskly. We made it, just barely, and
completely out of breath. Phew. Once we got to Munich things continued on
their bad streak. No luggage. Sad. I
guess our luggage didn’t run as fast as the girls did. We filed a claim and the got in the Jeep and
headed home. Our luggage showed up on
the 19th and all was well.
Thus ends the day by day account of the journey of 4 silly American
girls to London.
In closing, it was amazing. I very highly recommend the London Visitors
Hotel, it was amazing. I also recommend
the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital if you need care. They were awesome. And Bella Italia in Piccadilly is absolutely
delish!! I want to go back. Right right
right now!!!
