My left ear still hasn't popped from the plane

Trip Start Jan 01, 2009
1
Trip End Jan 11, 2009


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Where I stayed
The Home of Becca's Grandparents
(Sevenoaks hotels)

Flag of United Kingdom  , England,
Wednesday, December 31, 2008

I arrived at the Heathrow airport in England approximately one hour before New Years. I had previously had some pretty terrible experiences at that particular airport, but this time I did not have to catch another flight. This time I met my old friend Becca and jumped on the underground to get to the train station. Standing underneath the station ceiling in London, listening to the fireworks going off that symbolized the change to the new year, I was hit by a wave of exhaustion that mixed with a weird time travel/surreal feeling I couldn't place. 2009 had arrived and I was in England. The first moments of my year would be spent there. It made me wonder how many more of the moments, holidays, and events that until then had been spent with my family and friends at home, would be spent in strange places, in new "homes".

Our first day in England we took a train into London. My ears were still awkwardly popped, so my ears were frustrating me, and I seemed to have gotten a bit of a cold from someone on the plane Sevenoaks Train Station
Sevenoaks Train Station
 . As much as that could have upset me however, I was happy to be on my way into the city. Everyone sees pictures of Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye as thew grow up, and now I was going to see them in person. I expected them to be big and surrounded by tourists, and I was right about that. However, I never would have guessed that the buildings would be so impressive even though I had seen them in countless pictures. Parliament and Big Ben in particular were breathtaking.

We visited some other pretty famous locations as well. We entered the Tate Modern and had our fill of strange art for the rest of time. We saw the Tower Bridge, Hay's Warf, and the Globe Theater. We actually ate our homemade peanut butter (not as good in Europe, by the way) sandwiches on on the outside part of the Globe Theater while a guided tour walked around. We kind of ended up as part of the tour, so we just kept eating and tried our hardest not to giggle.

We ended our first day in London with a British dinner at Garfunkel's where we witnessed the robbery of a hard boiled egg from the salad bar and the odd collection of ham, egg, baked beans, and sausage all on the same plate. Oh English food, how interesting are you.
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