Day 24: Ugh Travel.

Today is my travel day from Liverpool and uuuuuuuuuugh it has not gone well.

The challenges really started last night, when for some reason a whole series of Asian girls decided to show up scattered throughout the night in two hour increments, starting at about eight. And for some reason, unlike everyone else in the world, Asians don't have a problem turning on all of the lights in a room where five other people are asleep at 3AM. So that happened a lot and I hardly slept at all. -_-

Then I was almost late checking out because I was on the phone for longer than I had anticipated, but that was totally worth it, so it's okay. :) Except then I learnt from the reception dude that I couldn't get to the train station by bus, which wasn't a big deal until I turned around to see that outside it was pouring Texas-style. You know in cartoons when the person is walking along the side of the road and then someone drives by and they get soaked? Yeah, that was my life for about half an hour as I walked the half mile to the train station.

By the time I got there I was soaked and I had to struggle through the stupid turnstile to the bathroom with my luggage to get dry(ish) and then sit around in the freezing cold station with my wet bags for two hours. During that time I went to get lunch, but the couscous I bought spilled all over the floor and the pudding thing I got was awful. So that sucked. And to make things worse, that stupid train station - I kid you not - had exactly zero trash cans in the whole gigantic place. Not one. When I finally found a maintenance person and asked them why, he said "Security." I personally am not afraid of trash cans, but if I were a safety officer at a train station I'd be just as worried that someone would hand the poor custodians a bomb. And what's to stop them from leaving them under the seats? Or lying around as litter? It was frustrating. :-|

When I finally did get on the train, to my dismay there was not a space to put my luggage, so I had to ride with it all under my feet the whole three hours. And then when I got to London and taking two underground lines, I still had to walk half a mile uphill over cobblestones, then up six flights of stairs with my luggage to get to my room. Ugh.

But then I discovered that there's a white duck and a family of black sonethings and their six babies! Auntie Hannah, can you tell from my pictures what they are? They have spindly legs and a red beak, and the babies are very fluffy and awkward! :)

After I watched them for a while I walked through Holland Park to Kensington High Street, got some dinner at a little Arab-run patisserie, then walked around some and bought a £3 book (Time Travelers' Wife, because the movie was cute) at the Oxfam, a really cool kind of upscale good will that's all for charity. It's really cheap but good quality. Someone should invent that in the States. After that I just dirt of wandered, going into one store having a going-out-of-business sale. They have CRAZY good sales here, it's ridiculous. Don't you just hate it when you find something that's cute, useful, and totally on sale but you don't have the means/intention to buy it? That's what happened. I need to learn just not to go into stores when I don't have money, but this giant polka dotted canvas rolling duffel bag for £15 compared to its usual £75 was just so tempting! I didn't buy it of course, but I wish I had had it back when I was packing for this trip. It would have been perfect. Sigh....

Anyway, now I'm just going to go back up to the (rather strange) Holland Park hostel and relax and read and stuff.

Also, there is definitely an opera happening in the park right outside my window. Wut? O_O

Day 17: Back in England, and Striking Out On My Own

Well, today involved a lot of traveling, some of it quite nerve-racking. After getting lost time and time again trying to get to the train station from our hotel in the most frustrating navigation my grandmother has ever done we finally made it onto the train - but not before I met a new friend.

She was meowing loudly from under the rental cars in the parking garage, and a man seemed to be calling her. When I saw her dart between cars, I knelt down and wiggled my fingers; the poor hungry thing crawled up to me, meowing like crazy, and shoved her little head into my hands and rolled over onto her back. She was young - still a catten - but so adorable and helpless. Also, she was dirty, which I discovered when I picked her up. The man, when I asked if it was his cat, shrugged and said that she'd been there for days, probably lost when a family returned their car. He told me to take her, and goodness, I wanted to. But obviously getting a stray cat back to the States would be difficult, not to mention that my family hates cats. So yeah. That made me sad. Good luck to you, dear cat! I hope you leave the parking garage and go eat rats on the farms! It's not too far. :(

Anyway, we took the train to London, then caught a cab, which dropped me off at Marylebone Station to start my journey on my own.

Oh oh oh! But I forgot to tell you! In the train station in Brussels, miraculously, there was a shop selling Tin Tin stuff! So much stuff and I wanted it all! I bought a pin, which I would show you a picture of except my grandparents took it with them to Maenporth, along with all the other stuff I don't need to carry around the country with me. So that was awesome . :D

Anyway, back to London. I got my ticket, which was easy, and then sat around awkwardly as I waited for it to show up on the board. The fact that I mixed up the Departures side and the Arrivals side probably didn't help my anxiety when it didn't show up. I had to ask the info desk people more than once what I was doing wrong. Anyway, I felt ridiculous and awkward, as I have ever since traveling by myself. But it's getting better.

Anyway, I got on the train and hoped that it was the right one and I was in the right seat. But don't worry. I was. :) I got to Stratford-upon-Avon (hoping that it was the right stop) and promptly got hopelessly lost. A nice lady pointed me in a direction, but either I did not see what she meant or it was the wrong one, because I continued to be lost. Then, after wandering around with my bags for a good long time, a merciful bus driver asked me what I was looking for, and when I told him, kindly informed me that the bus I needed did not run this late, and my options were to walk 4 miles or take a taxi. So yeah. I took a taxi. -_- it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be, and the driver was nice. I feel like a lot if people can tell immediately that I am a tourist, lost and alone, which is probably not a good thing but what can I do about it? I've never done any of this before by myself, and there's a gigantic chance that I'm doing it all wrong and am actually an idiot.

Anyway. I made it to the hostel, but it was dinner time and there was no one at the front desk so I waited and waited and wondered what to do, feeling, again, awkward and stupid. But someone eventually came and a very nice lady checked me in and gave me a membership and sent me up to my room.

I sat in the room a long time, looking at the other beds and wondering who owned them, and hoping it wasn't someone crazy or easily offended. I would, after all, probably do a lot of things wrong this first time and might not be the best roommate ever. So I waited and made my bed and got myself organized and eventually a woman came in with her young daughter, Lisa and Sophia, respectively. I was so relieved! Somehow, when I'm stressed out, it's easier to talk politely to an adult than to talk friendly to a fellow teenager. I don't know. You already know I'm awkward, and that's probably why. It's a lot harder to make friends than to be polite and nice and companionable. But she's very nice. The other two ladies I'm staying with are also older, although the hostel is full of kids my age who speak a weird mix of Romanian-or-something and cockney English.

So yeah. Now I'm gonna go to sleep in this creaky top bunk and hope I don't ruin everyone's night by being too loud.