Let's go!
Wednesday, 18.07.2012
Our adventure started on Wednesday 18th July 2012 at 4 am! Our train left Neustadt a.d. Aisch at 5:19 am to Nürnberg Main railway station. During our train ride we were sleeping. In Nürnberg we had some minutes to buy prezels (Brezen) and pastries. Then we went to the platform where our train left Nürnberg to München (Munich) at 6:10 am. In the train we talked to each other, ate and were full of anticipation.
Our adventure started on Wednesday 18th July 2012 at 4 am! Our train left Neustadt a.d. Aisch at 5:19 am to Nürnberg Main railway station. During our train ride we were sleeping. In Nürnberg we had some minutes to buy prezels (Brezen) and pastries. Then we went to the platform where our train left Nürnberg to München (Munich) at 6:10 am. In the train we talked to each other, ate and were full of anticipation.
We arrived in München and outed us immediatly as country girls, because Kadda dropped her luggage, clumsy as she is. I couldn't help her because I had to catch the suburban train. Sorry Kadda.
At 8:15 am we both sat in the suburban train and slept 40 minutes until the train arrived at 8:55 am at the airport. It hasn't taken a long time until we disgraced ourselves. Our airline was EasyJet and in front of the cloakroom there was a fixture to proof if your hand luggage has got the right size. It looked like this: |
We are really geniuses, as we didn't read the sign and thought that this fixture is for our luggage and not for our hand luggage. Therefore we tried to crimp our suitcases into the fixture. We succeeded! The suitcases fitted into the fixture! (Luckily there weren't many people at the airport who could see us). But he had to use a lot of our strengh to force our luggage in that thing!
After a small shoppingtour we decided to check in our luggage. This wasn't a problem and then we had a lot of time until the boarding. We looked around and sat in front of a store. There we talked about our planned year in Japan and agonized to floor our 0,5 l or 0,75 l bottles. Very difficult! It tooked ages and we began to joke about our situation: 'Probably we will miss our flight because we can't manage to floor our bottles!'
The bottles were empty and we went to the check-in. It was my first time flying and therefore I had no idea what I had to do. I Iaid my bag contents on the band-conveyor like in a supermarket. The airport worker was bewildered and asked me if this is my first time at an airport. Through the security check we came without 'piep piep' and after we had our complete hand luggage, the airport worker approached us with a small ball in his hand and asked us, if this is ours. He was jerking us around! What cheek!
We had about 1 hour before the boarding started. We decided to sit down, because the amount of water we drank before was not very good for our stomaches. We spent our time looking at photos and expenisve watches.
The boarding started and we as (former) pupils had got the best requirements to get a good seat. However, we were standing ahead of a women with SUPERboobs! Our heads are so tiny in contrast to her breasts! O.o A bus drove us to the plane.
In the plane we snaged seats side by side and I sat on a window! Perfect! It took some time until everybody had his/her seat, enough time to look forward to London. The plane left at 11:20 am and it was very sunny. During our flight we enjoyed the view, filmed and slept. Shortly before landing we got heavy earache. This was really horríble. Luckily it didn't take very long until we could leave the plane, but the earache didn't ease off. :(
It was 12:15 pm and we were saluted by … typically English weather! Rain, rain, rain. Welcome to London!
We had to use a bus from our airport Stansted to arrive at the centre of London. We had booked a bus before our trip started. Kadda had ensured me back then that the passport check and collecting our luggage wouldn't take more than 15 minutes. Therefore our decision was to book a bus at 12:45 pm. We missed the first shuttle (which should bring us to the passport check) and had to wait another 6 minutes for the next one to arrive. We looked at our watch. It was 12:25 pm. It would be run short but we were still opitmistic. The shuttle arrived and we went a short way to the passport check. There were hundreds of people!! They dispersed in 5 queues. A further view on our watch made clear that we won't reach our bus. Before we could solve this problem, we had another embarrassing accident. Ok, not we, but Kadda made a fool of herself. Our queue became shorter and Kadda went bravely to the airport worker. She had to discover in the following conversation that her English isn't perfect as she thought.
The airport worker asked: 'Which airport do you come from?'
Kadda: Germany!
Airport worker: What?!
Kadda: Germany!!
Then Kadda understood the question and answered: Stratford...Standford...
The airport worker was somekind bemused and allowed Kadda to pass through the passport check. Then it was my turn! The airport worker didn't ask me something, maybe because I looked at him very scared.
We found our luggage very easily and another view at our watch told us that 1:00 pm is too late. We missed our bus. But we saw a light orange sign of EasyJetBus. We went to the store and asked for a rebooking. Luckily it was possible to use every EasyJetBus within one hour as long as there are free seats. The man in the store was little bit confused that the paper was cut. I had only done what the signs told me on the paper! There were sicssors and therefore I cut the paper into two pieces.
We could use the bus at 1:40 pm. That was a close shave! We went to the bus stop and waited for our bus.
The bus driver said to us that we had to wait next to the bus, because he had to look if there were seats left. After all passengers were in the bus, we could go in, too. Lucky us! We listened to the English radio. Party music! Yeah! But we didn't hear really good, because we had still pressure on our ears. I could hardly hear anything on my left ear the whole day! This sucked! After 90 minutes we arrived in the greatest street of the whole world. The Baker Street! The first thing I saw was the Sherlock Holmes Museum and I was so happy! WOW.
Now it was time to embarass ourselves again. We wanted to change money and went to the next best bank. The young man in his suit had to be very dazzeled when we (in our scruffy clothes and with our suitcases) were entering the store. He tried to explain us that we can't change money, because we aren't owner of an account of this bank and showed us the way to the next post office. There we could change our money and got our Pounds (Money ;D).
Next we wanted to buy a London Travelcard, in order to use the busses and tubes in zone 1+2. Behind the counter a man tried to tell us something, but I didn't understand him. Not even after he repeated it for the 3rdtime. I hoped Kadda understood him. She did and we paid. Now we were proud owner of the London Travelcard in the Olympic Special Edition.
After a small shoppingtour we decided to check in our luggage. This wasn't a problem and then we had a lot of time until the boarding. We looked around and sat in front of a store. There we talked about our planned year in Japan and agonized to floor our 0,5 l or 0,75 l bottles. Very difficult! It tooked ages and we began to joke about our situation: 'Probably we will miss our flight because we can't manage to floor our bottles!'
The bottles were empty and we went to the check-in. It was my first time flying and therefore I had no idea what I had to do. I Iaid my bag contents on the band-conveyor like in a supermarket. The airport worker was bewildered and asked me if this is my first time at an airport. Through the security check we came without 'piep piep' and after we had our complete hand luggage, the airport worker approached us with a small ball in his hand and asked us, if this is ours. He was jerking us around! What cheek!
We had about 1 hour before the boarding started. We decided to sit down, because the amount of water we drank before was not very good for our stomaches. We spent our time looking at photos and expenisve watches.
The boarding started and we as (former) pupils had got the best requirements to get a good seat. However, we were standing ahead of a women with SUPERboobs! Our heads are so tiny in contrast to her breasts! O.o A bus drove us to the plane.
In the plane we snaged seats side by side and I sat on a window! Perfect! It took some time until everybody had his/her seat, enough time to look forward to London. The plane left at 11:20 am and it was very sunny. During our flight we enjoyed the view, filmed and slept. Shortly before landing we got heavy earache. This was really horríble. Luckily it didn't take very long until we could leave the plane, but the earache didn't ease off. :(
It was 12:15 pm and we were saluted by … typically English weather! Rain, rain, rain. Welcome to London!
We had to use a bus from our airport Stansted to arrive at the centre of London. We had booked a bus before our trip started. Kadda had ensured me back then that the passport check and collecting our luggage wouldn't take more than 15 minutes. Therefore our decision was to book a bus at 12:45 pm. We missed the first shuttle (which should bring us to the passport check) and had to wait another 6 minutes for the next one to arrive. We looked at our watch. It was 12:25 pm. It would be run short but we were still opitmistic. The shuttle arrived and we went a short way to the passport check. There were hundreds of people!! They dispersed in 5 queues. A further view on our watch made clear that we won't reach our bus. Before we could solve this problem, we had another embarrassing accident. Ok, not we, but Kadda made a fool of herself. Our queue became shorter and Kadda went bravely to the airport worker. She had to discover in the following conversation that her English isn't perfect as she thought.
The airport worker asked: 'Which airport do you come from?'
Kadda: Germany!
Airport worker: What?!
Kadda: Germany!!
Then Kadda understood the question and answered: Stratford...Standford...
The airport worker was somekind bemused and allowed Kadda to pass through the passport check. Then it was my turn! The airport worker didn't ask me something, maybe because I looked at him very scared.
We found our luggage very easily and another view at our watch told us that 1:00 pm is too late. We missed our bus. But we saw a light orange sign of EasyJetBus. We went to the store and asked for a rebooking. Luckily it was possible to use every EasyJetBus within one hour as long as there are free seats. The man in the store was little bit confused that the paper was cut. I had only done what the signs told me on the paper! There were sicssors and therefore I cut the paper into two pieces.
We could use the bus at 1:40 pm. That was a close shave! We went to the bus stop and waited for our bus.
The bus driver said to us that we had to wait next to the bus, because he had to look if there were seats left. After all passengers were in the bus, we could go in, too. Lucky us! We listened to the English radio. Party music! Yeah! But we didn't hear really good, because we had still pressure on our ears. I could hardly hear anything on my left ear the whole day! This sucked! After 90 minutes we arrived in the greatest street of the whole world. The Baker Street! The first thing I saw was the Sherlock Holmes Museum and I was so happy! WOW.
Now it was time to embarass ourselves again. We wanted to change money and went to the next best bank. The young man in his suit had to be very dazzeled when we (in our scruffy clothes and with our suitcases) were entering the store. He tried to explain us that we can't change money, because we aren't owner of an account of this bank and showed us the way to the next post office. There we could change our money and got our Pounds (Money ;D).
Next we wanted to buy a London Travelcard, in order to use the busses and tubes in zone 1+2. Behind the counter a man tried to tell us something, but I didn't understand him. Not even after he repeated it for the 3rdtime. I hoped Kadda understood him. She did and we paid. Now we were proud owner of the London Travelcard in the Olympic Special Edition.
We wanted to try the project Couchsurfing, therefore we didn't book a hotel, but we searched for good hosts over the website Couchsurfing.com. Our first host was a young woman whos name is Tess. She told us that she didn't arrive at her home before 11:00 pm and we couldn't meet us earlier.
As we didn't want to look around London with suitcases, we went to the next big tube station in order to stock our luggage. We went by tube to King's Cross station and asked a man there where we could stock our suitcases. He told us that we had to go straight ahead (everyone in London told us that during our trip; whenever we asked for a way description :)).
Now I tell you the story of our word of the journey:
On our way to the 'left luggage' store we crashed almost into a woman. Only because she stopped, we could prevent an accident. Well, but it would have been easier for everybody if we had stopped. Kadda thanked her - rather sarcastically - and said Dankeschön!. As she said it in German and very aggressive, the woman had to think that Kadda said something negative. But we laughed about it and DANKESCHÖN became our word of the trip!
It was easy to find the store, but it was closed. Kadda didn't notice it and pushed and pulled the door until she saw a piece of paper. On it was written, that the store had moved. We found the store and the employee asked us if we want to stock two suitcases. We said yes and laid our luggage on the band-conveyor. This was wrong, because we had to lay one suitcase on it and then the other one. In conclusion we had to answer following questions:
What is our plan? Mmmh. We can go to the National History Museum!
We went to the next tube station. But on the way to it, we saw an art showroom. It was called Surface and was located in an old cellar vault. As it was free, we decided to see it. It was very interesting.
What was our plan for today? - Oh, yes, we wanted to the National History Museum. Let's go!
On our way, we were asked by a post officer if the showroom is still open. It rained heavily and we were in a hurry to go to the next tube station. We went by tube from Euston to Green Park. From this station we wanted to walk to the next tube station, Victoria. But we got lost and decided to walk through London randomly.
As we didn't want to look around London with suitcases, we went to the next big tube station in order to stock our luggage. We went by tube to King's Cross station and asked a man there where we could stock our suitcases. He told us that we had to go straight ahead (everyone in London told us that during our trip; whenever we asked for a way description :)).
Now I tell you the story of our word of the journey:
On our way to the 'left luggage' store we crashed almost into a woman. Only because she stopped, we could prevent an accident. Well, but it would have been easier for everybody if we had stopped. Kadda thanked her - rather sarcastically - and said Dankeschön!. As she said it in German and very aggressive, the woman had to think that Kadda said something negative. But we laughed about it and DANKESCHÖN became our word of the trip!
It was easy to find the store, but it was closed. Kadda didn't notice it and pushed and pulled the door until she saw a piece of paper. On it was written, that the store had moved. We found the store and the employee asked us if we want to stock two suitcases. We said yes and laid our luggage on the band-conveyor. This was wrong, because we had to lay one suitcase on it and then the other one. In conclusion we had to answer following questions:
- Is this your luggage?
- Did anyone else pack your luggage?
- Do you carry an object from another person?
- Did you leave your luggage alone?
- Do you carry munitions, blasting explosive or weapons?
What is our plan? Mmmh. We can go to the National History Museum!
We went to the next tube station. But on the way to it, we saw an art showroom. It was called Surface and was located in an old cellar vault. As it was free, we decided to see it. It was very interesting.
What was our plan for today? - Oh, yes, we wanted to the National History Museum. Let's go!
On our way, we were asked by a post officer if the showroom is still open. It rained heavily and we were in a hurry to go to the next tube station. We went by tube from Euston to Green Park. From this station we wanted to walk to the next tube station, Victoria. But we got lost and decided to walk through London randomly.
We walked through an exclusive and very expensive passage where the jewelry stores had their own kind of bodyguards. We were out of one's element, because we in our scruffy clothes between the chic British. Before we arrived the National History Museum, we dropped out of the tube at Victoria Station and looked around.
At the evening we reached our aim, the National History Museum, and noticed that it was closed.
At the evening we reached our aim, the National History Museum, and noticed that it was closed.
We weren't sad about it and walked forward, randomly through the city.
We saw the Prince Albert Memorial and wanted to get a closer look. The memorial is located at the Kensington Garden, which is next to the Hyde Park. It drizzled, but it didn't prevent us from walking through the Hyde Park. We felt really unathletic because a lot of biker and jogger obliged us. We reached the Serpentine (a lake) and watched the ducks, which was pretty funny. Kadda even forced me to take some pics of a duck-family. We then went on to the Diana Memorial.
Kadda was parching, therefore we hopped on a random bus and hoped to find a supermarket. We saw a Sainsburry and left the bus hastily. There we bought water, but with some difficulties. The automatic supermarket checkout are really strange. But we had the heart to try it out. It ended that an employee had to help us.
We had some time left and went by tube to King's Cross Station in order to make certain, that the 'left luggage' store closes at 11:00 pm. Then we went by a random bus, again. The scenery became ruralize and as we recognized a tube station we left the bus in a hurry, we didn't want to end up in zone 3 or 4. This was a really good decision, because this tube station was the last one in zone 2. Finsbury Park.
We had some time left and went by tube to King's Cross Station in order to make certain, that the 'left luggage' store closes at 11:00 pm. Then we went by a random bus, again. The scenery became ruralize and as we recognized a tube station we left the bus in a hurry, we didn't want to end up in zone 3 or 4. This was a really good decision, because this tube station was the last one in zone 2. Finsbury Park.
We went back to King's Cross Station and picked up our luggage. We waited in the hall and began to write down our adventures.
At 10:00 pm we started our way to Tess. In the tube someone threw a bitten pear at us. We were standing in the tube and before the doors were fully closed the pear was thrown into the tube! The following passengers looked at us angrily because they thought we threw the pear on the ground. As if we did something like this! Tess sent me a way description and we found her flat very fast and easily. At 11:00 pm she arrived and aluted us. |
It's a strange feeling to get to know someone new and sleep with this person in a room, but Tess is such a lovely and friendly person and we talked to each other and drank tea.
We could sleep very well.
We could sleep very well.