London Part 6

Day 6-- The final day

All packed and ready to go. Had the hotel hold my luggage after check out so I could do a bit more last minute exploring. Actually looking forward to sitting on the plane. I've been walking for 6 days straight. Starting to feel a bit like Moses. My legs are killing me. I think when I get back to NY I'm gonna have someone carry me around the city. There's no way I'm walking anymore.

Buckingham Palace is bizarre (I finally found it!). The shear amount of people there on a Tuesday at 10:45am is ridiculous. Waiting to get a glimpse of the queen. Who cares. Took my pictures and skedaddled. It was such a beautiful day so I decided to walk around Sloane Square and through the whole of Chelsea and back to Earl's Court. Then I almost got run over by a motorcycle. I don't understand these lights and crosswalks. Some crosswalks don't have sign so you don't know who goes first. And the crosswalks tend to be less clear the further you get from the touristy areas. I'm officially frustrated by this so I decide to just walk whenever I walk. If they're gonna hit me, so be it.
On my way to the airport, of course it started raining which delayed our flight for an hour. Boo. At least I had 2 seats to myself. I must say I did miss this place. Not the drama, or the bills, or the mundane routine of every day life, but the city itself. I love New York. As fucked up as it is....


Final Thoughts:

1. the food is weird: these people are big into mayo, eggs, and shrimp. Sometimes all on the same sandwich.
2. When you go to a restaurant bar, they make you order at the bar and then the waitstaff brings you silverware and the food. I don’t understand. They serve me anyway so why not do the whole thing? Why involve the bartender and have me get up?
3. None of the people working in starbucks were actually English. Ive been to about 8 locations. I'm at expert on this.
4. The trains are tiny. Tall people have to stoop. Seats have armrests which deters obese people from boarding. That’s what we need in NYC. I didn’t see really fat people on the train. We don't have any boundaries or limits in America. We need to know that a seat begins and ends at some point instead of just having long benches people can plop their fat asses on.
5. The English are way more civilized. I didn't see any riffraff on the trains or on the streets. And, I covered a big area. Only saw a handful of bums while I was here. Never felt unsafe even when I was on deserted streets. Wait, I take that back a bit. There were some shenanigans going on in my hood. There were some stringy hair druggies yelling at each other one night as I was coming home. Maybe the clean streets detract from the shenanigans...
6. I can see myself living in London. Don’t know how I would make a living though. I would have to be an English housewife. I'm ok with that. I would want to live in Chelsea or around sloane square which I assume are the most expensive neighborhoods. Of course. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting across from a little butcher shop in Chelsea on Fulham Road. I would love to go to that butcher shop every day.
7. People aren’t particularly out of their way friendly but willing to help when asked. It's the reserved English way.
8. The tourists here are almost worse than the ones who visit NYC. So rude. Mostly the French though. Who do they think they are?
9. All the pubs boast having the 'finest fish and chips'...that's like NYC having the 'best coffee in the world'. Congrats. Buddy the Elf style.
10. There aren't many bars there and they all have that pub/restaurant Pig n'Whistle feel. NYC can have an upscale wine bar on the same block with a dive you'll get an STD in, a neighborhood bar, a Packers bar and a frat bar. I like having options. They also don't sit at the bar and watch 3 different tv's like we do. I missed that. I didn't know what to do. One of my favorite things is grabbing a stool and sitting in a dark bar watching a sports game.
11. I never get to sit next to the hot guy on the plane and never get to have that love at first sight run away to another country to be together experience. What's with that? I always get the middle aged woman or 20 something chick.


I discovered on this trip that I'm pretty awesome. Ive learned this year that I can get through things. Even if they suck and I wish they weren’t happening or if I'm lonely. It's life. We’re always going to have to do things that are hard. We eventually prevail. I don’t know if I’d do it again on my own. Definitely not in a country that doesn’t speak English. Its just more fun experiencing things with someone else. I did learn not to be so attached to my phone. I used to check it every 2 minutes of my day. Perhaps I’ll use it less in real life…I don’t know about that but a girl can dream.

London by numbers:

Money arrived with: 337.50 (BP)
Money left with: 16.24 (BP)
Total trip cost: $2175
time on plane to London: 7 hrs
time on plane to NY: 9 hrs
number of overtime hours I will be working to fund this trip: approx. 185 hrs.

see you next year people....