London Spring Break: Day 1

March 06, 2015

London Spring Break: Day 1

A preface to this post: The plane landed nine hours ago, and I've been awake for 25 hours. I'm fighting the jet lag, although a power nap seems rather appealing. But truthfully, I'm probably too excited to sleep because London is so awesome. Just a warning, I can't guarantee the eloquence, coherence, grammar, etc. etc. due to my current mental state.

The flight was pretty decent — direct and uneventful. I was rather impressed with the mushroom and chicken airplane food with a side of vegetable orzo. I think airplane food must've come a long way since the food that gave it the reputation for being bland and unpalatable. I was surprised by the ample room from my position on the plane, and initially, I thought the extra space was lucky, but quickly realized its many perils.

For one, I was directly behind the business class. So the world of champagne, steamy towels and fully reclining chairs were taunting me the entire time. Secondly, the tv screens never turneded off, and the in-flight entertainment played throughout the night, which meant an endless stream of bright actiony explosions and nightmarish scenes throughout. Particularly disgusting was when I awoke to a man taking wire cutters to a hostage's fingers. Scarring.

I only managed some fitful rest on the plane. After landing, I successfully crossed the border, withdrew a few pounds and navigated the tube to my friend's apartment—all of which went according to plan. The only unforeseen situation happened when washing my hands with scalding hot water in Heathrow's bathroom and glanced at the lovely sign.

Not sure a warning sign is the best solution to this problem. But hey!

Later in the day I met up with my friend Matthias who gave me a fantastic walking tour of the city. He is an urban planning major, and knows a lot about urban development and how cities work. He offered a great perspective on London's development, and I learned quite a bit about the contention between traditional and modern architecture in the city. And I was surprised to see how many tall skyscraper-like buildings were being built around the city.

We then strolled along the Thames and these great little canals with their iconic houseboats. The houseboats remind of a tv show that Christin, Lauren and I watched as children called, "Rosie and Jim."