may 20th - first day
wah!! first day in england!! so tired!! hahaha.. where to begin?? i guess toronto.. haha.. dave's parents drove us to the airport after an intense suitcase packing session. that stereotype of filipinos being amazing packers is entirely 100% true. i saw it with my own two eyes... haha.. dave's dad took the 407 to get us to the airport in record time. we checked in as soon as we got there and there were no problems at all. our flight was scheduled to leave at 9:50 p.m. and the lady told us to be at the gate by 8:50, latest. we were there ato 7:00.. haha.. kinda overkill but better safe than sorry. we found a duty free shop to buy my cousin some duty free goodings and then went and loafed at our gate. we ended up being the last group to board cuz we were in row 11 which is near the middle of the plane where the emergency exits are. omg, the plane was SO unbelieveably small. i guess that's what you get for saving about $200 on airfare. it was sooo cramped and i knew it wasn't going to be a pleasant flight. i had all my junk food and GUM in our 1 hand carry luggage and as soon as we got on the plane, that bag was shoved into the overhead compartment and never seen again till we landed. so i had no gum, no nothing.. to help with the popping of ears. of course, as soon as we took off, i felt air sick. the first 2 hours were quite unpleasant until i fell asleep. the first in-flight movie was "last holiday" starring queen latifah. i tried watching some of it but it made me way too airsick.. i managed to sleep for a few hours (i think) and i felt a lot better afterwards. dave, on the other hand, started getting air sick after i woke up. it was hard for him to sleep sitting upright and so cramped.
anyway, i ended up sleeping for a bit longer.. the flight seemed sooo much longer than i thought it would be. i guess it was cuz it was so uncomfortable. bleh..
anyway, getting off the plane was fine.. legs felt like jelly, but it felt good to get up and walk again.. when we got into gatwick, it was kind of confusing.. lol.. we were supposed to go through customs but we couldn't figure out where to go. a nice security guard directed us into the right direction.. ..right behind a HUGE LONG line.. omg.. it was all wind-y and out the door and around the corner.. and yeah.. but it actually moved pretty quickly.. unfortunately though, we were carrying HEAVY carry ons so arms were starting to get tired. lesson learned: PACK LIGHT when on a chartered flight.. lol.. no room to put anything.. sigh. we got through customs just fine and found our luggage really quickly. and those rolly rolly carts are FREE unlike pearson where you have to pay $2 for it. so yeah, that was a positive note. so we followed the signs with all our luggage on the rolly rolly and found ourselves in a train station, which is where we wanted to be. we bought return tickets for the gatwick express so we could go to victoria station to hop onto the TUBE to earls court where our place to stay was.
surprisingly, we didn't get lost.. haha.. we bought our rail pass ok (a 7 day pass for 22.40 pounds) and hauled our luggage up and down way too many stairs and finally arrived at earls court studios. i am eternally grateful to dave for dragging and lifting the heaviest luggages. >_< i'm sorry i'm so weak.. hahaha.. anyway, as soon as we got to earls court studios, my aunt agnes was already there, waiting for us! we met the manager guy (don't know what his name is.. haha) and he seems extremely nice. we were assigned to room number 15 and it's up like.. 5 flights of stairs.. omg.. so killer.. haha.. and they're pretty narrow too. poor dave.. >< but as soon as we got into the room.. O______O WOW NICE. i mean, it's small, but it's huge in london standards. it's like a bachelor apartment (but probably smaller). the bed is next to the counter which has the sink, microwave and oven.. so we're basically sleeping in the kitchen.. woo.. the washroom is really nice too.. very new.. everything looks sooo nice! we got really lucky.. haha..
well, first thing was first. SHOWER. omg, so sticky and nasty from the plane ride + the dragging of lots of luggage through the streets of london. felt so much better. then, dave activated the sim card we got at victoria station and i gave my cousin jennifer a call (or a "ring" as they say here.. haha).. we decided to meet at the Tate Modern since they close pretty late on saturdays. after me and dave finished getting all our gear together, we all went to my aunt's place so she could check into her room. OMG her room is SOOOOOOOOOOooo small. it's about the size of a walk in closet. lol. it has a desk, a small closet/dresser.. and the BATHROOM.. omg. is literally like.. 4x4 feet. maybe smaller. the doors to the washroom look like closet doors. haha. i didn't even know there was a bathroom there.. took some pics cuz it was nuts. will definitely post 'em as soon as we find internetings.
so after my aunt was all checked in, off we went to the Tate Modern! we hopped onto the tube and went to Blackfriars station. lol, we really didn't know where we were going and i really think we just found the Tate Modern by pure luck. haha. we had to go over this bridge called the Millenium bridge and it was SO windy. the bridge is all metal and is above the Thames River. the Tate Modern is huge. both inside and out. it's SUCH an amazing gallery. words cannot even describe. it was free to see their regualar exhibitions, so when we met up with jennifer and her friend laura (i think that was her name), we wandered around the 3rd floor. OH MY.. oh my oh my.. picasso, monet, matisse, braque..! my mind! she was blown! so much modern art! all there, right in front of me! and i know i will say this for the duration of the entire trip, but DAMN.. art looks SO MUCH BETTER in real llife. textbook pictures really.. REALLY don't do them justice. we saw a monet.. i don't even remember what it was called (it was one of his waterlilly paintings) and the first thing that struck me was.. the sheer size of it..! it was HUGE.. HUUUGE.. and WOW DETAIL! all the detail gets lost in translation from painting to photograph. my eyes were like O______O and i was in art heaven.. haha.. we didn't really stay there for too long though cuz we were really tired and HUNGRY so we ended up leaving a bit prematurely to find food. ended up a little down the river at a pub and ate there. haha, highlight of the dinner = MUSHY PEAS. ok, so apparently mushy peas is a STAPLE, TRADITIONAL side that goes with fish and chips. it is completely and totally normal for one's order of fish and chips to come with a pool of mushy, smashed peas. and dave wasn't too happy about that. haha.. oh my, the look on his face after trying the mushy peas was priceless.. haha.. so yeah, it was pretty hilarious. jen's friend kept laughing at dave's non-liking of the glob of mushy peas. oh, another thing to mention was the weirdess of the ordering of foodings. so, apparently, at this pub, we had to go up to the bar and order our food. and then PAY for it there after ordering. and then the food gets brought to us! it was so weird..! so there was no tipping, no giving of the bill. and the food came really fast too.. O_o gonna take some getting used to..
anywho, after din din, my aunt went back to her place, while me, dave, jen and her friend went back to the tate modern. we stayed at the the gift shop on the main level for a bit (yes, there is more than ONE gift shop holy cow) and then me and dave headed "home." we made a short detour across the tate to st. paul's cathedral to take some pics. it was so funny, you have to see the pictures to understand.. haha.. after that, even though we were tired, we decided to go to the supermarket down the street from our place to do some grocery shopping before going back to the studios. lol, the supermarket was so full of .. obviously everything unfamiliar, but also SO COOL. unfortunately, we weren't able to find a wide variety of foodage since it was closing soon. managed to walk away with some fresher foods like bread products and meat so it was totally worth it. and so here i am now. haha.. we still need to find some internets. i'm just typing this in wordpad as i.. type.. lol.. hope to post pictures too! i'm so giddy with the art-ness.
anyway, i ended up sleeping for a bit longer.. the flight seemed sooo much longer than i thought it would be. i guess it was cuz it was so uncomfortable. bleh..
anyway, getting off the plane was fine.. legs felt like jelly, but it felt good to get up and walk again.. when we got into gatwick, it was kind of confusing.. lol.. we were supposed to go through customs but we couldn't figure out where to go. a nice security guard directed us into the right direction.. ..right behind a HUGE LONG line.. omg.. it was all wind-y and out the door and around the corner.. and yeah.. but it actually moved pretty quickly.. unfortunately though, we were carrying HEAVY carry ons so arms were starting to get tired. lesson learned: PACK LIGHT when on a chartered flight.. lol.. no room to put anything.. sigh. we got through customs just fine and found our luggage really quickly. and those rolly rolly carts are FREE unlike pearson where you have to pay $2 for it. so yeah, that was a positive note. so we followed the signs with all our luggage on the rolly rolly and found ourselves in a train station, which is where we wanted to be. we bought return tickets for the gatwick express so we could go to victoria station to hop onto the TUBE to earls court where our place to stay was.
surprisingly, we didn't get lost.. haha.. we bought our rail pass ok (a 7 day pass for 22.40 pounds) and hauled our luggage up and down way too many stairs and finally arrived at earls court studios. i am eternally grateful to dave for dragging and lifting the heaviest luggages. >_< i'm sorry i'm so weak.. hahaha.. anyway, as soon as we got to earls court studios, my aunt agnes was already there, waiting for us! we met the manager guy (don't know what his name is.. haha) and he seems extremely nice. we were assigned to room number 15 and it's up like.. 5 flights of stairs.. omg.. so killer.. haha.. and they're pretty narrow too. poor dave.. >< but as soon as we got into the room.. O______O WOW NICE. i mean, it's small, but it's huge in london standards. it's like a bachelor apartment (but probably smaller). the bed is next to the counter which has the sink, microwave and oven.. so we're basically sleeping in the kitchen.. woo.. the washroom is really nice too.. very new.. everything looks sooo nice! we got really lucky.. haha..
well, first thing was first. SHOWER. omg, so sticky and nasty from the plane ride + the dragging of lots of luggage through the streets of london. felt so much better. then, dave activated the sim card we got at victoria station and i gave my cousin jennifer a call (or a "ring" as they say here.. haha).. we decided to meet at the Tate Modern since they close pretty late on saturdays. after me and dave finished getting all our gear together, we all went to my aunt's place so she could check into her room. OMG her room is SOOOOOOOOOOooo small. it's about the size of a walk in closet. lol. it has a desk, a small closet/dresser.. and the BATHROOM.. omg. is literally like.. 4x4 feet. maybe smaller. the doors to the washroom look like closet doors. haha. i didn't even know there was a bathroom there.. took some pics cuz it was nuts. will definitely post 'em as soon as we find internetings.
so after my aunt was all checked in, off we went to the Tate Modern! we hopped onto the tube and went to Blackfriars station. lol, we really didn't know where we were going and i really think we just found the Tate Modern by pure luck. haha. we had to go over this bridge called the Millenium bridge and it was SO windy. the bridge is all metal and is above the Thames River. the Tate Modern is huge. both inside and out. it's SUCH an amazing gallery. words cannot even describe. it was free to see their regualar exhibitions, so when we met up with jennifer and her friend laura (i think that was her name), we wandered around the 3rd floor. OH MY.. oh my oh my.. picasso, monet, matisse, braque..! my mind! she was blown! so much modern art! all there, right in front of me! and i know i will say this for the duration of the entire trip, but DAMN.. art looks SO MUCH BETTER in real llife. textbook pictures really.. REALLY don't do them justice. we saw a monet.. i don't even remember what it was called (it was one of his waterlilly paintings) and the first thing that struck me was.. the sheer size of it..! it was HUGE.. HUUUGE.. and WOW DETAIL! all the detail gets lost in translation from painting to photograph. my eyes were like O______O and i was in art heaven.. haha.. we didn't really stay there for too long though cuz we were really tired and HUNGRY so we ended up leaving a bit prematurely to find food. ended up a little down the river at a pub and ate there. haha, highlight of the dinner = MUSHY PEAS. ok, so apparently mushy peas is a STAPLE, TRADITIONAL side that goes with fish and chips. it is completely and totally normal for one's order of fish and chips to come with a pool of mushy, smashed peas. and dave wasn't too happy about that. haha.. oh my, the look on his face after trying the mushy peas was priceless.. haha.. so yeah, it was pretty hilarious. jen's friend kept laughing at dave's non-liking of the glob of mushy peas. oh, another thing to mention was the weirdess of the ordering of foodings. so, apparently, at this pub, we had to go up to the bar and order our food. and then PAY for it there after ordering. and then the food gets brought to us! it was so weird..! so there was no tipping, no giving of the bill. and the food came really fast too.. O_o gonna take some getting used to..
anywho, after din din, my aunt went back to her place, while me, dave, jen and her friend went back to the tate modern. we stayed at the the gift shop on the main level for a bit (yes, there is more than ONE gift shop holy cow) and then me and dave headed "home." we made a short detour across the tate to st. paul's cathedral to take some pics. it was so funny, you have to see the pictures to understand.. haha.. after that, even though we were tired, we decided to go to the supermarket down the street from our place to do some grocery shopping before going back to the studios. lol, the supermarket was so full of .. obviously everything unfamiliar, but also SO COOL. unfortunately, we weren't able to find a wide variety of foodage since it was closing soon. managed to walk away with some fresher foods like bread products and meat so it was totally worth it. and so here i am now. haha.. we still need to find some internets. i'm just typing this in wordpad as i.. type.. lol.. hope to post pictures too! i'm so giddy with the art-ness.
posted by [sa.n.do.ra] at 11:38 AM
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