The journey continues

In trying to keep up with my productivity I have planned out the second day of my trip! This among going to a Cal game (yeah we won) and hanging out with Tal (more work then it sounds). After a free breakfast at my hostel (oh yeah), I am off to the Charing Cross station (see previous post for link to underground map), which should drop me off at Trafalgar square (this is also where I will be on New Year's Eve, in what state I don't know) where you can get to the national gallery and the national portrait gallery (yes these are two different museums). I think I am going to go to both, but just do the five minute tour, so to speak, but even then it is going to take a couple hours to get through the over 10,000 portraits they have in the, you guessed it, portrait gallery. From here, maybe to the Churchill museum, seeing as I am a WWII buff (in my own mind), but this is if I have time and am not brain-dead from the already hectic museum schedule (I needn’t mention, but shall, that my mom, sister, and I did the Natural history museum, Guggenheim, and the Met all in one day, yes impressive). From here, the Whitewall walking tour, along the way is Westminster abbey and the parliament building, which is where Big Ben is for those not in the know. Around this area is also Westminster Cathedral, those who know me know that I am a cathedral/temple nut, which means that I will most likely pop on over to this. Other then that I want to leave day two kind of open seeing as there will still be some lovely jet lag slowing me down. As far as grub goes there is a popular pub close to the end of the day, the Red Lion, a cool 19^th century pub feel, and who doesn’t like a nice pub. Slowly chiseling away at the behemoth that is this trip, no wonder I usually travel with friends that are organized.

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. –John Steinbeck

Kid in a candy store

As the title might suggest, this is how I feel when I start to plan for a trip. Often I find the list of things that I want to see way outnumbers the amount of days I have in a country or a given city. With that said, I finally stopped slacking off and opened the bible (which was quite dusty by now) and started to look at maps of London and where I am going to be staying. Incidentally, the hostel I am staying at is in Notting Hill (yes like the Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant film, no I cannot see the blue door as it was sold in auction a couple years ago, yes I do plan on running into Julia Roberts and falling madly in love). My flight arrives at Heathrow Airport at 11am, meaning that I will have been up for more then twenty-four hours by the time I get there (knowing that I am not going to be able to sleep on the plane, I'm no Joanna, who incidentally was asked by a flight attendant on our way back from Germany what medication she had taken because the flight attendant had never seen somebody sleep so soundly...Joanna hadn't taken any sleeping aid. Take from that what you will) follow this link (http://barmybadger.com/Frames/Map.jpg) to behold a map of the underground and you can see I am going to have to take the Piccadilly (hahaha) line up to the Central line and then off to Notting Hill Gate stop, hopefully I pack lightly because that is a lot of stops on a train, though it will be the middle of the day (back off pickpockets). So I'm going to drop my bags off at the hostel, no I am not going to say which one (who knows who wants to stalk to me) and then go exploring around Notting Hill, yes going to the gardens in Notting Hill (helpless romantic, shout out to Mac the romantic comedy whore). Besides Notting Hill, I am right next to Holland Park, Kensington Garden, and Hyde Park, so I guess lots of lounging in gardens (seeing as I’m not freezing). Anyway, that is the plan for the first day, lots of walking to stretch my legs after the flight and trying to stifle the jet lag. I know that this is a coup out, I have not really laid any solid plans down, but don’t worry, there is more to come and believe it or not I think I have most of day two planed out. More to follow.

To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world – Freya Stark