Trains and Leaky and Orlando - Oh my!

Okay...I'm in an internet cafe right now trying to deal with this weird keyboard. Who would have thunk that the keyboards are different in the UK than in the US! Some are the keys are in different places.

Anyway, I left Monday morning from Kate's to get to the Grantham train station to catch the train there to London Kings Cross. Well, I got there about 10 minutes before my train was supposed to leave, I got my tickets and walked out onto the platform. It said "cancelled" for my train! In fact, all the trains that were going to London Kings Cross and Doncaster were cancelled. As it turned out, some lines went down and the "light trains" or electric trains on that line couldn't run! So I panicked and called Kate who was about 10 minutes away after she dropped me off. Her and Nancy were going to go watch PotC: At World's End since they hadn't seen it yet. I went to the ticket office and asked and they said I could take the train from Peterborough to Stevenage to London Kings Cross. If it wasn't for the fact I had the hostel for that night and Mo in London, I may have just stayed at Kate's another day, but I had to go so I said it was okay. When Kate arrived I told her and we said bye again. I got onto the train, which was 30 minutes late (was supposed to leave at 11:40 or something) and it arrived around 12:15pm. I got on it and got off at Peterborough and then there was a mad dash to the platform for the one to get to Stevenage because the train to Peterborough was PACKED!! I was very thankful it was only a 20 minute ride because I had to stand. I got a seat on the train to Stevenage, which was a diesel train, and we stopped for a good 10 minutes just sitting there (not sure why, they told us but I couldn't understand). Well, while sitting on the train, I got to know the British guy sitting next to me. He was older and asked where I was from and I said California. He asked where, so I said Central. He said "Sacramento?" I said no, and told him a few hours south of San Francisco. So he says, "San Jose?" I was blown away. I was thinking if he knew about San Jose he had to know about Monterey so I said Monterey and he said, "Oh yeah. I know where that is. I've gone golfing quite a few times over there. Carmel is very nice." I couldn't believe it! What a small world! So he then he started to name off all these golf courses and such and we sort of talked about it. While on the wait, the conductor (or whoever he was) came on and told us that he has been given permission to take the train directly to Kings Cross! I was so excited! In fact, so was everyone on the train. We didn't have to get off.

Anyway, I arrived in Piccadilly 2 hours the time I was supposed to. I got off at Kings Cross, went to the ticket box to get an Oyster Card (knew the one I wanted and everything!), hopped onto the Tube and headed to Piccadilly Circus. I found the hostel with some guess work. I checked in and paid for the room and all. The room is SMALL. There's a double bunk bed. You know the type with the double bed on the bottom and the twin at the top. A small walkway, sink, small closet, window, and a type of shelf in it.

After dropping all my stuff off, I went and walked around Piccadilly just to walk around. I happened upon Leicster Square and walked to it about 4 different ways. Mo called me telling me they got out of seeing OotP and would meet me back at the hostel, which we did. Then we all went out to dinner.

After dinner, there was talk of seeing Wicked, but I had said I didn't want to spend more than £15 (~$30). In L Square the cheapest earlier in the day was £18.50. We decided to go from Laurie's hotel to see if there were any tickets left at the box office. The show was completely sold out. We ended up with 2 tickets for a total of £20, which we gave to Laurie and Kelly. Laura and Mo had talked about "stalking" Orlando Bloom. Turns out, he's doing a play here in London called The Celebration and some girls had stopped by at night and gotten his autograph. So Laura, Mo, and I decided we wanted to go do that! Why not? LoL

We stopped by Borders to get a LotR book for him to sign and I also picked up the new Jasper Fforde book First Among Sequels since it was out (came out a month before the US, though it's now out in the US) and they had signed copies in the bookstores in London since he's from Wales. Anyway, we walked to the theater around 9:30pm and waited till about 10:30pm. We were second guessing ourselves and all that, but a lady walked his dog out (how cute is that?) and put him in the car and the bodyguards told us to not surge Orlando and that he would only be signing programs and tickets for The Celebration. Well, we put our books away, got our cameras out, and got out the little card/flyer thingy we had picked up to see if he'd sign it.

He came! I have some pretty good pictures of him in the mayhem and he was signing the card/flyer thingy, butI had turned my attention away to check my camera and missed the moment to put the card in his face. LoL Then I walked away thinking he wasn't coming back in my direction and he did! Oh well. It was absolutely fun - total adrenaline rush. It wasn't one of those "OH MY GOSH, ORLANDO!!!!!" things. It was the same type of feeling of standing in line 6 hours before HP or PotC comes out at midnight. It was just fun. We also stood in line with a girl who was from the states and she took some video of him and got her program signed. The funny part about that was the fact she didn't realize it! Her friend told her she got hers signed and the girl next to me told me she didn't get hers signed. Her friend said, "I thought he did." So she checks her program and sure enough - he signed it! It was pretty neat to see and Orlando was just so nice. He would ask people how they were, did they like the play, etc. He just seemed like a really nice guy.

With that said, Mo and I bought tickets for the 7:30pm play tonight for £13.50 (discount ticket place). LoL We're going to try and have him sign the program tonight and if not, maybe tomorrow or I can try Thursday night since Mo leaves Thursday afternoon. LoL You never know!

Today we went and had breakfast, went to get our tickets for the show tonight, and went to see the London Tower. Mo and I think the London Tower was neat, but Edinburgh Castle was better. Plus, the tickets were cheaper at the Castle than the Tower. As we were walking back to the tube entrance, we ran across a clothing line - Next - filming for their fall/winter line of clothing. It was kind of neat! There were cameras and everything in this park and street. We took pictures of it.

We had lunch there and now we're back in Leicster Square. We'll go to the play tonight and then tomorrow we're going to head to the Natural Science Museum (where Jo was on Friday night) and walk around those museums there. I want to see an exhibit at the Natural Science Museum on Antarctica.

Overall, London is nice. I liked the area the London Tower was in more than Piccadilly. It's just TOO much of a city for me and absolutely crazy. There are people EVERYWHERE and you're constantly having to dodge them. The people friendliness can vary too. It's just so different from being at Kate's and Edinburgh. I absolutely loved Edinburgh. I would love to go back and tour around Scotland more (Glasgow for one). The people were so friendly and I loved the atmosphere. London is nice, but Piccadilly is just insane. I may like it more if I wasn't such in the center of London. Also, everywhere is so expensive here! The exchange rate is just killing me.

My cold is doing better. I don't feel as bad as I did before so I should be over it by the time I get home. The rain has cleared up too. It's the first nice day we've had since I've been here. Granted, it didn't rain Wednesday and Thursday, but it wasn't sunny weather. It's actually kind of bright today. Yesterday and Saturday in Edinburgh it just rained and rained. Saturday wasn't too bad, but yesterday wasn't all that fun.

Oh! I forgot to mention. While standing in line to buy our tickets today, a guy with his daughter asked me about my shirt which is my Monterey Bay Aquarium Student Oceanography Club shirt and he asked me if I was from there. I told him yes and he's from Watsonville! Who would have thought! He and his daughter are visiting friends (and family?) in Spain for a few weeks and made a 4 day stop in London on the way. It is just a SMALL world.

Last note before I go. Our hostel is on the 7th floor and the elevator can basically only hold 4 people (it's SO small). I must say, I am SO TIRED of stairs! Going through the Tower today had lots of those small, circular stairs and then the hostel which its 7 flights of stairs, stairs are just screwing with me now. I've been acting like I've felt like I've missed a step or seeing double of stairs more often of late. It's kind of scary, but also kind of funny because stairs are just NOT fun. So Mo and I sort of avoid going back to the hostel since we have to go up the stairs or go up the tiny elevator. :P

Okay, with that, I should be off.

Money and Dates

Well...I found out my bank charges me a 10% "foreign transaction fee." Lovely. I guess they do have to do a conversion, but still! I also can't get an Oyster Card on-line. It says the starting date is on the 26th and I leave the 27th! So I'll have to spend a bit of time at Kings Cross and get one there (hopefully). If not, I'm buying a one-way ticket that costs £4 and I'll need another one for meeting up with everyone later too. So...I'll have to figure out something because I can't afford £4 for everytime I go onto the Tube! An Oyster card drops the charge quite a bit.

I'm hoping our hostel is fairly nice and we don't run into any problems. Apparently some of the other Leaky people had a LOT of troubles with the hostel they stayed at the last 3 nights in London. That is just a big bummer. So far we've had a really nice time of hostels. Castle Rock was really old (it would NOT pass any building code/inspections in the US, that's for sure), but it was cute and the location was fantastic. Piccadilly also has a great location, so I'm hoping it's also good!

Anyway, I must be off. We need to leave in a few for the train station! By golly, those train tickets cost a lot!

Oh, I've kept meaning to write this for a while now, I've got a dumb cold. So I'm hoping it goes away this week before I return home. Sleep seems to help it, but I get random amounts of that. :)

Edinburgh!

Maria and I are here! We're actually sitting in the lounge right now on her laptop. We're going to go see OotP tomorrow in theaters with Kate and also another Leaky person, Marie. We need to find a theater and time.

Anywho, I'm still having troubles adjusting to the time difference. I fell asleep last night around 10:30pm, which was good because I needed to be up around 5 am this morning so Trevor could take me to the train station (2-3 minutes away from their house) on his way to work at 6am. Well, I woke up at 2 am! One reason because I had to use the restroom (I didn't give in to it - LoL) the other because I had slept 4 hours - a normal nap time for me. I was starting back to sleep and about a half hour-45 minutes later my cell phone goes off. I kind of ignore it and check after it stoped and it said "Borders." I was thinking that work knows I'm in the UK so they shouldn't be calling me then I thought of all this stuff that maybe was wrong. I decided to ignore it anyway and get it when I was more awake. Well an hour later (almost asleep again!), the phone rings AGAIN and it says "Borders" so I decided to pick it up since they called twice. Well...I get this recording from Jim Dale reminding me to pick up my book tomorrow and to press 1 for how to pick up my book. I was NOT thrilled. I ordered the special edition and the regular edition so they called me twice. I almost thought they'd call me again because I ordered the audiobook too, but they didn't. Anyway, I fell back to sleep for a bit, but ended up waking up on my own close to 5am again and just decided to get up then.

I got to the train station and waited about a half hour. I was glad there were other people getting on because I don't think I'd have known how to get on. LoL First off, Heckington's station is so small they don't have a real crossing gate. A guy comes and moves these "fences" into place to block the road off and moves them back to clear the road. Anyway, the train came (2 cars) and it looks like BART, but it's much nicer inside (more like an Amtrek type). The thing is, you have to push a button to open the door. They don't open automatically. I didn't know that. It's the same for when you get off too. I paid for the fare on the train and had issues with my lovely GBP. I couldn't find a 50p, so I gave him £1, but accidentally put one back and it was just one of those "dumb foreigner" moments. :P At Grantham (30 minute ride) I got my tickets from there to Edinburgh Waverley. They never checked tickets the entire time I was on it. The train was nice (much bigger) and it took you along the country (absolutely amazing, when I could see it (lots of trees along the track)) and even along the coastline when you got closer to Edinburgh. The coastline reminds me a lot of Monterey, except it's not as rocky. I didn't sleep on the train at all, so I'm a bit knackered at the moment, but fairing well. The ride ws pleasant and that's the important thing.

I got to Edinburgh around 11:15 am and saw signs for Waverley Bridge and Princes Street. I had put directions on my cell phone and thought I could use them from Princes Street since that's where we're getting our book from and all that. Turns out, I couldn't. Lucky enough there's the tourist information booth close to where I came out and I found another map along the way and figured it out. I got to the hostel without getting lost or having to turn around. I was amazed! Turns out, now knowing where I was supposed to go, I skipped over the Waverley Bridge and went to the next road (further away) to Mound. It meant I went a lot farther, but oh well. After checking my stuff into the hostel, I walked back to the train station since Maria was coming in soon. I walked around, went into Waterstones, went into the tourist place again, into a few shops, saw the Balmoral hotel (where Jo finished writing the books), and walked along North Bridge. I eventually made it my goal to find Waverley Bridge and when I did, I noticed the bus from the airport stopped there and after 5 minutes of waiting, Maria showed up! It was perfect timing. We walked back to the hostel (all up hill, did I mention that?). We dropped off her stuff and met Moriah and Marie (Leaky people) so we could meet up with some more Leaky people for lunch. We went to the At World End tavern. There was 8 of us in this small pub. It was kind of funny. The food was pretty good.

After lunch, we walked back to Castlerock so we could check in. We switched from a 4 bed to a 3 bed room, which saves us money and the lady said the room was much nicer anyway. Well...we like our little (it's little!) room! It's on the top floor (3rd floor) and it has a VERY nice view of the castle and a sky window that opens up and we can actually see over and out across the way from the hostel. It's nice. It's the "Matrix" room. I must admit, it's a wee bit scary walking up the stairs and hallway to the room. The floorboards aren't the straightest and creak and (I'm sure) one felt like it gave or shifted underneath my foot, but it's still a nice room and excellent location.

Well, I should go. We need to look up movie times, walk around, and then meet up for dinner at 8:30 with the Leaky peeps again. Most of them are taking an overnight train tonight for London.

Oh, I almost forgot, last night Kate's family and I went out for dinner at the Tally Ho pub. It's in the country (the countryside in the UK is AMAZING!) and it was fun. Nancy, Kate's oldest, drew me a picture of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. :) Ellie was a bit cranky, but Kate has two cute girls.

Last thing. The buildings in Edinburgh are really cool. You just don't see buildings like these in the States and it's a got a city feeling too. So it's just different. I'll probably end up taking loads of pictures and (yes, Kristi) I did take pictures of our little hostel room and the view from it! I should have taken pictures of Nancy's room (it's also cute). Maybe I'll do that Sunday when I go back to Kate's.

All for now.

Welcome to Piccadilly!

Laurie and I have our London reservations for where we are staying!

We are staying at the Piccadilly Backpackers in a double room for 4 nights (arrive 23rd, depart 27th). We decided on a double/twin room because it gives us more privacy with all our stuff. Though each room comes with a small locker of sorts, having a room to our own will make us just that much more relaxed to know no one else can get to our stuff. This hostel also had the best location of any place we've checked out, so far. Good location (pretty central London) at a "cheap" price. We could have stayed at somewhere cheaper, but further out from central London and then we'd have to take the bus in or something. Just didn't seem worth it to us.

On another note, JK Rowling announced yesterday that she will be in London for the book release (20th). She will be doing a book signing for 1,700 fans/kids. Unfortunately, you have to send in an entry and Scholastic (for those who live in the US) only allows it for people under 21. Bloomsbury (for those who live in the UK/Rep. of Ireland) allows anyone of the age of 6 and older to apply. Thus, Laurie and I are a bit, uhm, screwed. :) I'm 21 NOW. *sniffles* Oh well. Kate and Maria can both apply, but Kate wouldn't want to go if she can't without us and Maria can't change her flight, so what's the point? Anywho, this long rambling paragraph is to say that we will be continuing on with our plans to go to Edinburgh for the release. Does it kill me? Yes. Will l get over it? Probably.

Days till departure: 53

I'm getting to the point where I'm excited, but also depressed. The book will be finishing and that means summer is almost over TOO! Hahaha. Must look at the good points; I'm meeting Maria, Kate, and Laurie and I'm going to the UK!!

The Castle Rock Hostel

This is where we shall be staying while in Edinburgh! Squee!

Castle Rock Hostel