The journey goes something like this . .
I arrived in London around 12:30pm local time Tuesday October 4th. The flight was, to my surprise very smooth. The staff was super attentive and friendly. A elderly man one row ahead and to the left had difficulties breathing so the staff brought him a oxygen mask and handled the situation seemingly flawless. Anyways, London - I knew of some folks, Patrick and Melanie that lived in Lodnon. I knew them from when we were kids from a church we attended in Atlanta. Back then we were goofy buddies but we hadn't seen or talked to eachother in ohhh about 13 years. I emailed them on facebook a while back and told them I was coming through London on a long layover. Anyways several emails and a little un-easyness on both our parts later I was calling them from a pay phone from Heathrow Airport in London to let them know I had arrived. Patrick and I talked briefly and laid out a plan for me to call them again around 17:30, see where in london I am, meet up and go from there.
A bought a one day underground tube pass that ran me about 8 pounds. I was pleased with this purchase because this would be my primary transportation the next 22 hours aside from my legs. So I took the picadilly line into central london and got off at hyde park corner. Coming up from the subway there was a crowd of people waiting around with cameras in hand outside of a really nice hotel. Apperently lady gaga would be coming out any minute. I figured i'd try for a picture of this modern day pop star. I grabbed a really nice spot directly in front of the hotel front doors, chatted with a nice english lady, picked her brain about the area, let out some of my cheesy humor and that was that. I didnt wait long. I walked across the street to wellington arch and the ww2 memorial then down through the royal park which was pleasant. 10 minutes later i was standing in front of buckingham palace along with all the other tourists in london that day. Oh, it was a cloudy, cool day - kinda what you'd expect from London weather (atleast in my mind). I hung around the palace for 15-20 minutes, snapping pictures for fellow tourists and vise versa. It was a nice sight to see and the monuments around the palace were just as interesting. I was ready to keep moving so grabbed a americana (1.80 pounds) and went on a mission to find a donner kabob bc paul and andrea told me it was a must. Roughly an hour later i found the pocket pita stuffed with shaved to order lamb, lettuce, cucumber, tsziki, tomato, onion and weighed down with chili that cost 3.75 pounds. I ate it on the corner of am extremely fast pace intersection in the victoria district. As i indulged in the yumminess i people watched and was being people watched - in london and on my to africa, yea not much was bothering this guy. It was a good 10 minutes in my life.
Shortly after the kabob dropped suddenly into the bottom of my stomach - i needed a toilet or a "loo" as the english call it. It seemed i could not find a loo.
A girl outside a store was selling e-cigs, she called me "love" and that cute british accent sucked me right in. I did not buy what she was selling but i did explain to her that i needed a loo - she gave me extremely detailed directions to the closest toilet and off i went.
Relieved atlast I continued walking around purposely getting lost, found a payphone (are expensive by the way), and called Patrick. We were to meet at the westminister station at cafe nuro across from the parliment clock tower @ 18:30. And so i began my journey via tube and legs to the parliment building. I got off the tube at the westminister station, got lost in the station for a good 5 minutes and finally made my way up to the parliment building corner area. The parliment building was full of detail - a splended piece of architecture.
Patrick and i met as planned, shook hands and gave a hug. We walked down the westminister abbey church and a couple other places. We found ourselves stopping to talk most of the first 1/2 hour - catching up and highlighting the past 13 years of our lives. We met up with Melanie about 1/2 hour later - again, hand shake and hugs. Patrick laid out a plan of action of everywhere we would go - this came as a surprise to me bc i thought we would just grab a drink and that would be that. I was wrong- and was extremely happy about it. So the 3 of us emarked on a journey. Our first stop was the tower bridge, looking upon it from the london bridge. For me, that beyond a doubt capped off my time in london - i had seen more than i thought id be able to see. It was amazing. We continued on to a restaurant by the river. We sat outside, enjoyed an irish cask ale and talked about how we knew eachother from when we were kids in atlanta. We had some great laughs, you would of never thougth we hadnt seen eachother in 13 some odd years. We continued on walking down the back streets of london - seeing several cool buildings then back on the tube to a pub that quite possibly had every beer in the world. We found us a little corner and talked about life and all the ups and downs that go along with it for a solid 2 hours. It was so good to see them.
By now it was midnight and the last tube ran at 12:30 and i needed to get back to the terminal to sleep so we decided to go our seperate way, or atleast i thought. As we were leaving the pub that we closed down they offered for me to stay with them instead of sleeping at the airport. I was surprised and accepted with great thanks. So as a direct effect this meant we didnt have to take the tube and we could stay out and catch the double decker red bus back to there place later. So onward we went to a private club called the phoenix. Folks thought i was australian and we had fun with that. we made two friends named charlie and james -they were hillarious. Patrick, Melanie and I again found ourselves in a perfect little corner to sit. There was a little gate right in front of our corner table under the stairs, so we set up the gate and people would look over at us as if were someone of importance - it made for a good laugh. We drank guinness, laughed as old friends do and just simply enjoyed ourselves. Oh, it turns out that patrick and melanie personally know "mumford and sons" which happens to be one of my favorite bands. They knew them before they were big and they played at the Phoenix. My sister Missy will love this im sure.
After they closed we went and waited for the double decker bus. We sat on the top and in the front - i was like a kid on christmas on that bus! It was sweet! We got back to there flat, Melanie cooked some amazing pasta with red sauce - we chatted for about 1/2 hour and then went to sleep. It was late, real late. We woke up at 7:15. I took a shower in there electric designed shower - they walked me to the tube station, we said quick yet meaningful goodbyes and down to the tube i went. The tube was super duper crowded on the hour trek to heathrow. At the airport customs was easy and the parfait, oj and coffee never tasted better - some 5.90 pounds. I somehow connected with all of my flight crew so i traveled through the airport with them to the terminal. It made my life so much easier. The pilot, Stuart talked my ear off and i feel like he would have let me fly the plane had i asked him. Instead we shook hands at the terminal, i told him good luck and that was that. I waited maybe 15 minutes before boarding for Nairobi - the timing was great!
Re-connecting with Melanie and Patrick was refreshing, somewhat unexpected and a great way to start my journey to Africa. I am amazed at everything i was able to do and see in the 22 hours I roamed the streets of London.
"stay calm and carry on"
- the British way
Great adventure, Adam! So glad y'all got to reconnect AND had a super time to boot! Carry on, chap.
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