My train wasn't until 12:45, so I had some time to finish packing and do some homework in the morning. At about 11:20 or so, I headed out to take the metro to Gare de Nord ("The Train Station of the North.") I had no problems getting there, and had pretty much no trouble finding where I needed to check in for my train. Since the UK is outside of the Schengen territory (which encompasses most of continental Europe), I had to go through border control and all that jazz. I was expecting security to be pretty intense after everything that happened here, but it was just your basic metal detectors and x-rays and whatnot. I guess that's a little more than you would expect to find before getting on a train, though, so that's good. I was also glad it didn't cause any delays!
I got through the French passport control guy pretty quickly (and got a cute stamp!), but the UK lady was a different story. First, I had to fill out some obnoxious form with my personal and travel information, and then I got interrogated. I guess it really wasn't bad (she just asked me why I was going, why I'm in Paris, why Umme is in the UK, and that sort of thing). It was just more questions than I'd ever been asked when entering a new country!
After getting my UK stamp saying I was allowed to spend 6 months there, I only had to wait around for about 10 minutes before getting on the train. The seats were set up where it's like four seats around a table on either side of the aisle. No one sat next to me, but across from me were two French women, one about 50 or so, and the other about 30. Right away, the older lady and several other people around me whipped out sandwiches and started eating (classic French people). I'm pretty sure I definitely looked sad about this, as I totally regretted not bringing any food on board with me. Shortly after finishing her sandwich, though, the older lady busted out a pack of three muffins and offered one to both the other lady and to me. It was some sort of spice cake muffin--really yummy, and much appreciated. This didn't seem that weird to me; she probably realized she couldn't eat all three muffins, and then didn't want to store the other two, so naturally she offered them out to the people sitting with her. No big deal.
BUT THEN it got weird. She asked me something like, "Do you want a cookie?" (her English was decent, but she didn't seem super comfortable speaking it). I was a little confused, and then she said she was going to the bar. I said, "Sure," and off she went. I immediately started stressing out. Was this lady randomly going to buy me food? Was I supposed to pay her back? Is this normal French behavior? Does she think I'm a lot younger than I am and need to be taken care of? Does she think I don't have any money? I was so confused.
She came back with two little cups of espresso and two little Speculoos cookies. She let me have both cookies! I've never actually had coffee before because I think it's disgusting, but obviously I drank it anyway because she went and got it for me. It was gross, but thank God it was just a tiny cup. After that, I continued to worry that she might ask me to pay her back, but she never did. And when we arrived in London, she smiled and said goodbye to me. In the end, I think she was just a really sweet, generous lady. I have no problem with that!
I had been nervous about going under the English Channel because I thought my ears would be popping like CRAZY, but I really couldn't feel a difference in pressure at all. It was actually much worse when we dipped under little hills and things on land. As soon as we came out from underwater into England, my eyes were completely glued to the outside. It was all just green, green grass and sheep--just like I would've expected! And then it wasn't too long after that that I made it to London.
I arrived at St. Pancras Station at 2:00 pm. The plan was to go meet Umme at King's Cross (which is right next to St. Pancras) at Platform 9 3/4 (from Harry Potter). Her bus from Manchester also got in at 2, but she had about a 20-minute trip to King's Cross. Knowing this, I took my time getting to our meeting point. When I finally did go outside to cross the street to enter King's Cross, I was immediately caught off guard. THE CARS WERE GOING THE WRONG WAY. Obviously, this was not a fact about the UK that I was oblivious to before going there, but it's something else entirely to see it in person! Luckily, on the street, they very clearly remind you which direction to look towards so that you don't, well, get run over and die. The other problem was that they don't really have "zebra stripe" crosswalks; they're more like these path things that are not marked all that clearly. I basically just ran across the street and hoped for the best.
So I made it to King's Cross, and followed the signs that said "Platforms 9-11." I reached these platforms only to find that you couldn't access them without a ticket. I panicked for like two seconds and then looked to the right to see a huge group of people in line to take pictures at "Platform 9 3/4." It was the cutest thing ever! I waited a little while, and then finally Umme turned up. I was so excited to see her! Y'all have no idea. We waited in line for at least half an hour to get our pictures, but it wasn't a bad wait at all since we got to catch up some in the meantime. They take at least two pictures of everyone: one posed, and one where you're jumping. We were super nervous about the jumping one because we thought we would look like total idiots/weaklings. Surprisingly enough, though, we looked super cute! They also had us take a picture together where we're "dueling." I bought all three of these at the little gift shop afterward (and they came with cool magnets)!
Us being silly in the gift shop
So our place of stay for the weekend was at Umme's husband's cousin's house in Northolt, in the suburbs of London. Her cousin was actually out of town for the weekend, but a friend of his was going to be there. Our next thing on the agenda after Platform 9 3/4 was to go meet the friend, Raj, at Canary Wharf (where he was in a meeting) to get the key to the house. We wanted to go drop our stuff off before doing anything else. We both had heavy bags!
Reunited! Yay!
Canary Wharf
I had made plans with my friend Katherine from my EF Tour for us to meet her and her family for dinner that night. They had reservations at a restaurant called Victoria Stakes for 6 pm. We already knew we would be late, but we thought we could still make it on time even going all the way out to Northolt and back.
Picture taken from my first double-decker bus! Notice: this is cool because the cars are on the left side of the road
Unfortunately, though, Umme and I actually had no idea how long it does take to get around in London during rush hour on Friday. After figuring out how to get to the house by underground and bus, dropping our stuff, and then heading toward the restaurant, we were already way behind schedule. We took a few different underground lines, and had to walk a little ways, too, and all of this resulted in us not arriving at the restaurant until 8:20 or so. Rough, I know. Obviously Katherine wasn't there anymore, especially since she didn't have service or anything so I couldn't really contact her. I was pretty sad, but there really wasn't anything I could do at that point.
Umme and I still ended up eating at Victoria Stakes, though, which I thought was super good. I had fish and chips (the one meal I absolutely had to have in London), and it was AMAZING. It was a really cute place, too.
Served with pea puree and the only tartar sauce I've ever actually enjoyed
After that, we took the "tube" again down to the London Eye just to see it (since it was already closed for the night). It was lit up red, and was very pretty, especially with all these other Christmas lights and decorations in the area. We then crossed over the Thames to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, which was obviously really cool. It also ended up being 11:00 on the dot, so we got to hear Big Ben go off! I was super excited about that. Finally, we found our way back to the underground and made the journey out to Northolt to retire for the night.
All in all, it was a really successful first day in London! Or so we felt, at least. I was definitely looking forward to spending a full day out and about the next day, though!
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