A Day Trip? To London?

"'I am well in body although considerably rumpled up in spirit, thank you, ma'am,' said Anne gravely. Then aside to Marilla in an audible whisper, 'There wasn't anything startling in that, was there, Marilla?'"
From Anne of Green Gables By L.M. Montgomery

Overall I've been amazed this year with the number of people from home who are study or visiting Europe while I'm over here - completely unrelated to my presence in the UK. Some I'll see, other I won't. When given the chance I plan on seeing as many of them as I can.

This week I got the opportunity to see a friend from home. Katie, a student who graduated from the school I worked at in Minnesota, is studying in Jerusalem and decided to come to the UK as part of her study break. She was one of my favorite students and I was excited to get an opportunity to see her. To do so, however, I needed to travel down to London for a day. After frantic Facebook messaging, with a sporadic internet connection on her end, we finally set a place and time for our meeting. I booked a bus ticket. People looked at me like I was crazy. They couldn't believe I would take a three hour bus ride to go to London for a day. It didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. If I wanted to see Katie I could either take the train or the bus. Considering that round trip the bus cost £14 and the train cost £75 - I was taking the bus!

The ride down to London was uneventful and I found my way to our meeting point, Buckingham Palace, with little difficulty. When I caught sight of Katie we nearly had the classic run and hug moment immortalized by so many Hollywood films - dumb tourists got in our way! Didn't they know this was an epic moment? That never happens in chic flicks. 

Katie and her friends - Claire, Paige, and Tim - didn't really have a plan for the day beyond wondering to the different landmarks. Since I had been to London and seen the traditional sights before, I was up for this, mostly because I really didn't want to overpay to go inside somewhere I'd already been. 

Almost immediately the Tour Leader version of myself kicked into gear.

I've discovered when I'm traveling with other people - especially students - I begin to plan, organize, and corral. I even made sure to bring them to the 'classic' photo spots. I gave them options for organizing the day and led them towards their desired destinations. It was pathetic on so many levels. 

I did, however, warn them of this phenomenon and give them permission to tell me to knock it off if I got annoying. They seemed perfectly happy to let me lead them around the Themes and give them little bits of history and interesting facts as we went around. And man, did I spout some strange facts! I don't even understand how I know so much about London! As we passed a dragon statue I said, "did you know that there are dragons around all of the official City of London, built to protect the city?" At one point we looked down a side alley and saw a tall monument with a golden flame on the top. I said, "I think that is the monument for the Fire of London." Yep, it was. I sicken myself sometimes. Oh, and there is more! I won't bore you with it because it is even less exciting when you aren't looking at the item/place in question. Let's just say I would have put most tour guides to shame!

The only issue I took with this pedestrian form of seeing London was that we walked - the entire time. Now, I'm all for walking when visiting places. You really get a feel for the city. I saw a number of things I'd not seen on previous visits to London. But even I have my limits. We first walked down the Themes from Parliament and Westminster to Tower Bridge with several stops on the way and crossing the Millennium Bridge (which they had to reinforce because when it was first built it moved too much on windy days - see, too much information in my brain!). We then traveled back up the Themes on the other side and stopped at St Paul's Cathedral. Okay, not to bad. Don't worry, it's just getting fun now. We got lost. In the Theatre District. In the rain. Good times.

In reality it wasn't bad. I enjoyed the kids, seeing the different theatre fronts all lit up (cuz the sun sets at four in Mid-England right now so it was dark), and having dinner at a true British Pub. I did not enjoy the blisters forming on the bottom of my feet from wet socks.

For those of you who have ever been in London I know there is one question you would like to pose at this point: why, if you're wet and tired, didn't you take the tube. Good question. I wondered the same thing. Any other time I've been in London my first stop if lost or tired was the nearest tube station; beautiful things, those. I wasn't forceful with the kids. This was their London experience. It seemed that they didn't want to spend the £2 to get unlost. They could figure it out. I totally understand the drive to figure it out for oneself. I am probably more guilty of stubbornly sticking to something than your average Jane. But I also love the tube.

Finally we found a random map and got ourselves back to Westminster and in the direction of Victoria Station, my way home. By the time I returned to the bus station I had walked over 10 miles! (I'm still recovering)

The last bus leaving at a reasonable hour departed London at 8:30pm. We rushed to Victoria Station and I left dear Katie and my new friends at 8:10. I knew it would be tight but I figured - how hard could it be to get my return ticket and get to the bus in 20 minutes? Famous last words.

Victoria Station is not a single building but a massive, unconnected complex with the coach station completely separate from the rail and underground. Frantically I rushed through the station, following vague signs promising me the coach station. At 8:20, sweaty and tired, I finally found coach buses. Were they the ones I was looking for? Of course not. I had to race through a random mall and across a street to the departures terminal. I got to the ticket counter at 8:29...yep, that's right. I missed my bus. Next one left at 11:00pm. Pause and do the math. Three hour bus trip, leaving at 11:00pm. What time would I arrive in Coventry? Sickening isn't it? Thankfully - because it was in the middle of the night, the bus would only take two hours and fifteen minutes which got me to Coventry Bus Terminal at the wonderful time of 1:15am. 

I'm not complaining. I had a lovely day with friends in a beautiful city and I had plenty of reading with that made the two and a half hour wait fly by, but man was I tired! I'd been up since 6am after only four hours of sleep! 

When the bus finally pulled into Coventry Bus Terminal I found myself faced with another conundrum - I only had £5 for a cab home. My original plan had included a nifty thing called a bus pass, something which allows me unlimited travel in Coventry buses. That plan went down the drain when I missed the 8:30 coach because that meant I missed the last public bus too!

Walking the little over a mile would have been fine - during the day. At 1:30 in the morning it wouldn't have been my brightest idea. So I headed over to the taxi stand and inquired, "how close to Earlsdon can £5 get me?" Not close, was the answer. Thankfully the cabbie took pity on my and told me he'd take me as far as he could but I should "dig deep" into my change to see if I could find more fare. Dug I did and in the end I came up with £6.50 which got me into Earlsdon - beyond the sketchy area inside the Ring Road - just not home. I hobbled the final half mile and nearly kissed the carpet in my bedroom.

Overall it was a great day! (I know it doesn't sound like it but I had a good time!)