Monday, July 6, 2009

London Calling

I have never been able to sleep on a plane or a bus or any public transportation. I have been able to sleep in a car, which I think goes back to when I was a kid. So, it was not surprising that I couldn't sleep on the plane from New York to London. I did watch a movie called "The Thief Who Came to Dinner", but I couldn't get into it. It was because of being deprived of sleep. As the plane got closer to London, we passed over Ireland, and I got to see the green hills of that country, and it made me want to visit it one day. I had always heard about the London fog. In fact, I had worn clothes made by London Fog. It was like pea soup coming into the airport. I was amazed that the pilot knew where the airport was, because we didn't see it until we landed. We landed at Heathrow, and I thought about The Beatles doing the same less than 10 years earlier. It still seemed like a dream. It was 7:30 there, when we arrived, but it was much earlier on our body clocks, so the tour gave us that day to get adjusted to the time difference. Everybody had jet lag. Most just wanted to get to the hotel and sleep. When we got to the hotel in downtown London, our rooms weren't ready, so some just collapsed in the lobby. We waited for what seemed like hours before getting into our rooms. Mr. Vivian (the tour leader) and I shared a room, as we were the only two males in the group of 16. Despite the fact that he was my college professor of Speech and Drama, I had no idea that he had a phobia for germs, and would wash his hands constantly. It became quite annoying in the room, and I found myself going out a lot. I went out that afternoon rather than sleeping. I was a bit of a zombie walking around London. I saw row houses and Hyde Park. I even had an American come up to me asking directions to the American Embassy. I used a British accent and sent him in the wrong direction. I went into a restaurant to order a grilled cheese sandwich. They didn't know what that was. After I tried to explain it to them, they ended up making me a quiche. That night, me and the other young people on the trip went walking around the neighborhood and found an underground mall. It was closed, but it was the first time we had been together without the adults. We decided then that we would experience the places besides the typical tour sites. We wanted to experience the night life and see the cites. We wanted to be with the people. It sounded like a good idea, but it would get us into trouble later in the tour. We went back to the hotel, and I finally got a few hours of sleep.

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