December 30—what day was that? I am so out of it right now that it's hard to remember. Wednesday, yes. I went to bed around 2 a.m. after going to dinner with Johnathan and Duncan, attending my last High Five youth group for a few weeks, last minute packing, buying an airline ticket (yes, 'twas last minute of me—but just so you don't think I'm too crazy: the ticket was for part of my return flight....not my journey to Europe), and gathering up addresses to write people. You fortunate few who receive mail....oh how lucky you are. Haha, just kidding.
So, on with the story—(if you haven't noticed, this is one of my first blogs, so I'm not sure yet where to draw the line between telling you about my trip and writing you a book on the subject. Either way, don't expect them all to be this long...haha). I woke up at around 5 a.m.—and no, this was not "bright and early" like the common phrase; this was "pitch-black and early." I gathered my things and headed out the door with my parents to the airport. Thankfully, the snow that graced the ground during the night was not too much for our Suburban to make it through to the aiport in Walla Walla.
After checking in, saying goodbye, and passing through the ever-present security check, I was on my way. The flight was short, as usual, but I was particularly surprised by the airline's upgrade in snacks! Maybe it was because I was on the early flight, but the pretzels they gave out were cinnamon-sugar coated! Yum! I don't really like pretzels, but these were palatable! :)
Once in Seattle, I had to kill about 5 hours of layover. I ate a couple bagels (pictures to come) and meandered through the Borders bookstore. Then got on my flight to DC. The movie on the plane was "500 Days of Summer." The title itself was enough to convince me that sleep was going to be more worthwhile (those of you who have seen it, feel free to correct me, if necessary).
Had an hour layover in DC. Just long enough to go to the bathroom and get in line for boarding. On this flight, the plane was much bigger. Thankfully I had an isle seat and the people beside me didn't need to get out much. I started watching "Public Enemies" (Katie, take note...) but then stopped because the screen was small, sound was a bit hard to hear, and I was tired (Katie, stop taking note...haha).
Plane lands in London and I go through Customs. Had to explain to the guy what Couch Surfing was :). Got my bag and then went to wait for Ryan Aqui to arrive. I'm glad I'm the type of person to be very aware of things and ask questions...cause as I looked at the Arrivals board and noticed that there was no flight coming in for Ryan, I decided to go ask someone and learned that I had to go to terminal 5 (I was in terminal 3). I rode the train to 5 and waited for Ryan.
Once he arrived, we traveled into town, I called my couch surfing host, William, and then we continued on to see a bit of London city before dark. After taking some photos (to be uploaded soon, I hope), we went to William's place for a bit. William made some great tea for us and then I got to change into warmer clothes (it's FREEZING in London!).
Ryan and I traveled into town and walked around for hours (over 5, for sure) to see places. We couldn't find Buckingham for the longest time, but finally came across it. Turns out tourists are the most reliable people to ask questions to—the "natives" we found couldn't tell us where it was :).
New Year's celebrations in London are HUGE! We went to see the big firework show at the London Eye. There were thousands of people there. Thousands upon thousands. We stood around for a few hours waiting; packed in amongst people of all ages. The fireworks came and went (like William told us, they only went off for about 10 minutes). They were beautiful. I've seen Disney do just as well, I think—but they were impressive overall :).
After making our way out of the huge crowd, we found the Tube and traveled to Hammersmith (a station that had connections to where Ryan and I were separately going). Ryan went on to Heathrow and I went back to William's. William and I talked for a few hours after I arrived. He's a great guy—I really enjoyed our converstations.
Then I went to sleep.
And that's what I'm going to do now....
Goodnight, friends!
I'll post again soon, I hope!
