We started out day off in Brussels. Since the hostel did not have a free breakfast, I ate the rest of the waffles I’d bought in the corner store the night before. And then we had to wait until 7:30am, because their reception didn’t open until them. No 24 hour reception is one of the most annoying things.
We checked out and walked back to the train station. Once we arrived we headed to the Eurostar platform. From Brussels, we were heading to London by rail. The only way to do that is through the Chunnel (English Channel Tunnel). We first had to go through customs. It was a british lady and she was extremely rude. The wifi at the hostel the night before was terrible, so we didn’t get the address for the hostel, and we told her we were going to look it up once we got there and she said, “So you’re going to ask strangers where this place is? Sounds like some good planning there, guys.” I thought, is it our fault the internet didn’t work? Exactly. She was a douchebag. I’m still annoyed just thinking about her.
Anyways, the train wasn’t quite as nice as a Railjet, and it did get a bit stuffy, but it was alright. I was surprised at how quickly the train traveled. It must have been going faster than 120 km/h like the Railjet. The entire trip was about two hours and we were in the Chunnel for probably only 20 minutes. There is no warning going in or out, or else I would have paid closer attention, but there we are. Once we arrived in London, I plopped down and opened my laptop. Luckily, I found I had the information for the hostel opened in a tab in Firefox, so we were able to get the address without even asking anyone. Take that, rude customs lady.
Right after that we got an Oyster card. “Pray tell, what is an Oyster card!” you ask? It’s a card you get in the London Underground stations that is awesome. You get reduced fare tube rides, and you can even use it on the DLR (D-something Light Railway) and buses! You put some money on it, and you can use it on all those different lines without having to mess with cash or correct change. It’s not a perfect system, but it was pretty convenient. We didn’t want to pay for the tube right away, so we took a train from St Pancras/King’s Cross, where we landed, to Swiss Cottage, where our hostel was. The bus took *for ever*. It’s definitely not a quick means of getting around, but I do suppose it beats walking.
We stayed at Palmer’s Lodge Hostel in a 28 bed dorm. 28 beds sounds like a lot, but it was set up pretty nicely! There were two floors and each bed was it’s own separate bunk. We had a reading light, curtains, and a locker right under the bed. It was fantastic! The common room was large, the wifi was great, the breakfast was delicious and it was just a good vibe. There were not millions of 12 year-olds running around like in Berlin, thank Zeus.
Once we put our stuff away we tried to find Finchley road. Notice I said “tried.” Right at the beginning we took the wrong brance and ended up walking in a different way. Once we found we were not in the right area, we backtracked and made our way to Finchley road! There was a shopping center there and we found the theater and looked at show times. Then we went and grabbed some lamb burgers at Chicken Cottage, which was was basically a fast food place. But where else in America can you just get lamb burgers like that!? It was great.
What moving times were we checking out? Oh, I’ll keep you in suspense for just a second longer. Or maybe two sentences. Three sentences would really just be cruel. Five just too many, so I’ll end here at four. We were looking at times for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price, that’s what! We saw it at 4:30 and I remember it just like it was yesterday (which it wasn’t, because this was around 5 days ago now). The movie was pretty good, although there is something about every Harry Potter movie that is slightly awkward. I can’t place my finger on it exactly, but some of the dialogue between Harry, Ron and Hermione is just… off. Some of the CGI was really disappointing as well. Other than that, I enjoyed it. The movie was nice and dark. They did leave some stuff out, but I think it was a decent adaptation.
After we got back from the movie, I checked email. Earlier I’d sent one to my friend Sarah Sessler, who just so happens to be studying abroad in London this summer. We manages to connect and she told me of her evening plans and also extended an invite. Charles and I headed out to Greenwich and the Up the Creek comedy club. We took the tube and then the DLR. It ended up taking quite a while to get there. Greenwich is toward the south of London, and therefore on the opposite side of where we were staying in the North. The Oyster card ended up freaking out at the Canary Warf stop, and ended up charging me 1.10 pounds for a trip I didn’t make. That was very frustrating! That’s like $2.00! It was 10 pounds to get into the club (which I wasn’t expecting), but we saw 3 comedians. They were pretty good. There were some British references I didn’t get, and sometimes their accents were hard to decipher, but I enjoyed myself! Then we went back to the flat where Sarah’s living. We had some drinks with her floormates and played a game of Euchre. We left from there around 2:30 am. Missed the first bus by literally under a minute, so we had to wait another 20 minutes for the next night bus. It was pretty cold! In total, it took 2 hours to get home by bus, including finding the connecting stops, walking to them, etc. That is an insane amount of time. Waiting around takes a large majority of the time. We did eventually get back. Glad the hostel didn’t have a lockout! Reception made sure we weren’t just some random guys by checking we had keys, which was a nice security touch.
I ended up getting into bed around 4:30. And then I fell asleep. So that is the end of this tale. Good night, all in all!