Sleepless in Sea... London.

Good morning all. I thought I would start this post with something from an email I sent earlier. Apparently I can use this small internet cafe for 1 pound an hour. So I think I will use this several times over the week as it is close to my B&B. Anyways on to todays events...

I am very tired right now as it is 9:45am London time, 3:45am Kansas City time, and I have been up since 7:45am KC time. I tried to check into my B&B this morning and they overbooked, so they won't have a room ready for me until 11am. I tried to eat their very limited breakfeast, but found myself left wanting. All they served was toast, tea, and hard boiled eggs. So I went around the corner and got a chicken sandwich, again I was not impressed. The chicken was breaded but the meat was almost paper thin. I think this European style of eating is going to force me to lose 20 pounds before the end of the trip. At this point I will just be happy when I get to lay down for a few hours.

Before I go on, I know that some of you will ask the age old question, "How was your flight?", and I would have to reply that it was pretty smooth. Though that trans-Atlantic flight was waaay too long and I am incapable of sleeping on a plane. When we passed over Ireland in the wee hours of the morning I got to see a neat light show from the ground. So that was cool.

Also in todays events, apparently today I the British version of Veterans Day and the Queen will be in Whitehall giving a speech at 11am... the same time I am supposed to check in... between that and a lack of sleep I think that I will be missing those festivities. I hear that it is supposed to be a bit like Times Square on New Years Eve, so a complete madhouse. But I will be going out tonight.

As for the city itself... the people here are very polite and helpful. I met a couple at the tube station in Heathrow airport and they spent time explaining to me how to get around via the tube and all its intricacies. Which reminds me of something else about the B&B. I got there a little past 7am this morning and the doors were closed and locked with no way in... frustrated after knocking loudly for a few minutes and repeatedly hitting the buzzer I decided to walk down to a small convenience store on the corner and get an international phone card. The storekeeper was also nice enough to dial from his cell phone (and he dialed for me since I am a bit new to international calling) instead of making me use the pay phone across the street. Now I know many of you are wondering why I did such a thing. Apparently here in London, if you use an international phone card at a pay phone it charges about 8 to 10 times the amount from a card than you would get charged for the same amount of time from a land line or cell phone. So he really helped me out.

And finally, before I go, I wanted to tell everyone a bit about what I have noticed about London so far. When people say everything is really close together here I don't think most of us register just how close they really are. Literally when I exited the tube at Earl's court, every which way I looked there was a business or storefront. There isn't more than a 6-inch gap between where one ends and one begins. In fact, so far the only street I have been on that doesn't have a business one every inch of the street is the one my B&B is on. And even that street has about 12 businesses on it. I have also already seen a double-decker bus roll by. Wait, just saw another one. And wouldn't you know it, an American-sized SUV on the streets of London.

Ok now I am just talking about what I am seeing out the window now. So I will end this post here.

-Patrick