Plans are SO overrated

Yesterday was pretty much a wash. I left Toronto at 8:30 pm on Sunday and, with the time difference, landed in London around 8:30 am on Monday. The minute I got off the plane and walked into customs at Heathrow, I felt the surge of excitement that comes everytime I go overseas. All was going well.... for about, oh, 30 minutes or so. I got on the subway from the airport and the train ran into "severe" technical issues and kept having to stop in between stations. What should have been an hour subway ride turned into about 2 1/2. Considering I was sleep deprived and jetlagged, it felt more like 2 1/2 days.

My friend Christine is from Lancaster but moved to London about a year ago to take a social work job here. She met me where I got off the subway and showed me the way to her apartment in the north of London. She had to go back to work so I decided to take a short little "catnap". Yeah, four hours later she woke me up for dinner. We decided to stay in and make it a 'chill night', since I was still pretty wiped out.

Until right about the hour when it was time for bed. Then, of course, I couldn't sleep at all. I laid in bed wiiiiiide awake until about 3:30 or so. Jetlag is awesome. So then I slept later than I wanted to this morning, but finally headed out around lunchtime to see the city. If only it were that easy. Let me say now that I suck with directions. Big time. Christine had told me how to get from her place to central London and she even wrote it down for me. I still got on the wrong bus. I started to sense something was amiss and finally asked someone about the stop I was looking for. Her response: "Oh, you're WAY off. Not even close.". That made me feel a lot better. Had to get off then get on another bus going BACK the way I had just come from. Just to get back to my starting point, it took me a half hour. Thought I finally had it figured out... and then I got off at the wrong stop. Got BACK on and finally made it... and all just to get to the subway!

So I finally get on the subway and only then do I realize that I have no plan in mind at all. I don't know where I'm going, other than to Central London. Just a tad vague. Since I've been to London before and have done all of the "must-see" touristy sites, this time I felt much more relaxed and like I just wanted to spend the day soaking in the city. So I picked the first subway stop that sounded even vaguely familiar (Covent Garden) and started walking. I had no map, no plan, no destination. I walked and walked and this time, as opposed to my first time when I felt a sense of urgency to get to specific places in a certain period of time, I felt like I really "saw" the city. It was even more charming than I remembered from the last time and, as odd as it sounds, much more European than I remembered. There is so much beautiful architecture.

Considering my total lack of plans, I saw lots of cool things: Covent Gardens Market, the Royal Courts of Justice, Leicester Square (which was bustling as they were setting up for some major film premiere), Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and a whole bunch of things in between. Christine met me after work and we went for dinner to a yummy French restaurant. Not bad for having no agenda!

Oddly enough, I had several times today when either someone didn't understand me (one lady made me repeat myself three times) or I didn't understand them. Funny to be in an English-speaking country and still have a language barrier! Although, when I DO understand them, I love just listening to how they speak. I'm pretty sure they could be cursing me out and I would still find it totally endearing. Also endearing: watching people, as total second nature, give up their bus seats to both the elderly and women with babies. Old school etiquette at its finest.