MARDI!

MARDI!!

 The clock strikes midnight. It's officially Tuesday.

The Hungarian girl and I were sleeping more or less comfortably. At least as comfortable as you can on a 2 inch mattress. Of course I was snuggled into my Forever Dreamie, so I'm pretty sure if there were creepy crawlies in the bed they wouldn't get me.
(If you happened to notice that I didn't mention having very many beverages to drink, very astute of you. I had to greatly diminish my fluid intake. Going to the bathroom, up or down a flight or so of stairs in the middle of the night when it's freezing is not fun. Thankfully my kidneys have recovered nicely.)

There's a Korean Boy Band named 2 AM. Who knew?
Sometime around 2:00, at least I think that's when it was. Two women come in with HUGE suitcases. They turn on the lights and proceed to have conversations on how hot it is, where to sleep, and all that stuff. 2 AM! From their accent, I ascertained they were Australian. And I heard a good amount of their accent. A SSHHHHH!!!!  came from the bed behind me. I pulled out my phone and plugged into an audio book. 



 If you've read other entries in this blog, you would know that I'm a very light sleeper. Add to that a touch of jet lag, and there I was. Two AM and no sleep. I was up for hours. Four hours to be exact.

 At Six AM, I used the flashlight feature on my phone to pack the extra bag in my suitcase. I filled with things to take down to the basement. This includes: shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, shower shoes, make up, moisturizer, hair dryer, brush, robe, towel, chemical arsenal, toilet seat covers, bathroom tissue, undies and clothing.



 I make my way down through the common room, which was full of people at this time, and down to the basement to shower.
Press pic of the Common Room


Here's the drill.
1) Find the driest shower stall - not too hard at this time in the morning.
2) Spray liberally with Lysol from chemical arsenal
3) While drying, undress and put on robe.
4) Take off robe and enter shower stall trying not to touch anything
5) Press shower button (?) to turn on water     
6) Screech a little from being doused with freezing water
7) Struggle to bathe and wash hair
8) Step out of shower stall
9) Use anti-bacterial gel to get the nasties off.
10) Don robe and towel


 Yes. Shower button. You press it, and if you're lucky 5 seconds         of water shoots out. Goes without saying that it takes a little bit       of talent to actually bathe. What a pain in the rear! After a luke warm shower, I donned my robe, wrapped my hair in the towel and went in search of an outlet to dry my hair. Oh yes, this is the UK. No outlets anywhere near water. Evidently people in the UK tend to dispose of themselves by electrocution. Sure, why not?

 In case you forgot, this is the shower: 

I got dressed but kept my hair in a towel. I didn't want to catch consumption if I could help it.

 I searched the entire place and found an outlet outside a co-ed bathroom. Inside the door to the bathroom was a sink and a mirror with another door that led to the toilets. Worked for me. I plugged in my hair dryer pulled the cord under the door and dried my hair. When my hair was more or less done, I put make up on praying that the bad lighting didn't make me look like a street walker.

I hiked back down to the Common Room for breakfast.

 Mmmm... what awaits?
Well, our choices are... corn flakes, white bread/toast, instant coffee and tea. Enjoy!
Hot water, instant coffee and tea. 

Honestly though, what smells better than hot toast?  Unless it's hot toast with questionable yellow goo (I can certainly believe it's not butter) or some type of squirt jelly?
Toaster with yellow goo and squirt jelly.

Well how about corn flakes out of an industrial size box then? I was wondering around and I saw a lady digging the cornflakes out of a huge box. At least it was lined with a plastic bag.
mmmm cornflakes
If I were to be honest, I would have to say this was disappointing. The last hostel at which I resided had several choices of cereals and fruit juices as well as toast. Be that as it may, I took my toast and yellow goo, filled a plastic cup with hot water, milk and sugar and dumped in a tea bag. I brought all of this stuff to a table in the corner.

After breakfast I went back to the room making sure to be as quiet as possible when opening and closing the door. Why? Cuz I'm a considerate person. Evidently not everyone in the world is that.

I had a few hours before anything opened so I settled in to doze and read.

I hid in my bed with the curtains closed until I heard all of my room mates depart. This was about 10:00. I was pretty sure the shops were either open or would be soon, so I re-taped my ankle, put on my coat and made my way out into London.


My first order of business was to find my way to my school. This brought me through Russell Square where I met this brute. He was hanging around an odd lady handing out walnuts to squirrels. She told me that she did this on a regular basis, always buying the nuts after the holidays because they were cheaper. Then she told me an odd story about a guy destroying raven's nests and that's a federal offence because Her Majesty owns all the raven's nests. I couldn't really follow what she was saying, but I did my best.

I found the quickest way to my school and from there I went where the roads took me. I wandered in and out of shops trying desperately to reign in my credit card, and for the most part I was successful. Until I remembered that one of the things mom and I wanted to do was to have tea at Harrods. That's when everything went in a southernly direction. I asked a guy in the Tube Station how to get there. He showed me on the map, pointed me in the right direction and sent me on my way.

Harrods. And there was much rejoicing.

If you're one of the few who aren't acquainted with Harrods, let me introduce you. Harrods is a huge department store with booths of every brand including Prada, LV and Hermes. I had to scurry quickly past those parts. They also sell fine art and fossils. As in real dinosaur fossils. It's a fun place to see weird stuff. I spent a couple of hours looking at the offerings then headed up to the Tea Room.

If you'd like to know more about the menu at the Tea Room, you can find it here.

I chose the Mayfair. Which is a selection of pastries, tea sandwiches and scones with jam and Devonshire cream, tea and a glass of champers. To this day I still don't understand the Brit's obsession with sparkling wine, but when in Rome...
Tea and Champers.
Tea Cakes and Scones
For my tea selection I chose the Special Afternoon Blend. I don't know if I had been spoiled by the fantastic teas I'd experienced on my previous journey, but this one fell quite short.
The cakes were small and not impressive, the sandwiches rather soggy and the experience was... boring. Not worth the 45 pounds I paid for it.


Harrods Christmas Lights
I was entertained by the very British looking woman next to me and her bratty kid. The woman was probably quite stunning in her day. She looked like an aging Glynis Barber. Considering the woman looked to be well off and of the right age, it just may have been.
Glynis Barber

I ate until I couldn't then asked to have my left overs packed up for me. The sun was going down and I was suffering from more jet lag. I found my way back to the hostel for a nap. 

 When I arrived, it seemed that the Hungarian girl had been replaced by two woman I dubbed 'the bovine twins'. Besides the impressive size of their rear ends, they decided to hog the power outlets. Oh, they weren't there. They went out on a pub crawl, but their crap was there. Plugged in. When they weren't. Taking up space. When they weren't. I'm supposed to be okay with this I suppose. The two women from the previous evening were there too. Joy. They, it turns out are an Aussie mom and kid. The mom was in town studying theology. The kid came along for the ride. Whatever. I curled up in my bed and fell asleep reading.

 For a little while anyway.
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