Getting Lost

London Day 4/Berlin - Fri 24 Friday I woke up and had to catch the train to Gatwick, after I repacked all my stuff. Instead of going to Amsterdam for the weekend, like my original plan, I decided to hop a flight to Berlin, because Amsterdam's hostels were either sold out or exorbitantly expensive--what's the point of staying in a hostel if Im going to pay the same amount for a hotel? No thanks. I'll catch that city on Europe Part 2. Add it to the list.

I emailed my friend Johanna, who is kindly letting me stay at her place while in Berlin. She face booked me directions. 

So, flight to Berlin. easy jet, $193 Pounds. Not bad. But the one carry-on bag was. I'd bought a bunch of stuff while I was in London if you recall, and I already had 2 pieces of carry-on baggage from my first flight from Toronto (purse and a small backpack). I had bought a large beach tote on sale when we went shopping on Wednesday thinking 'this is great, I can just throw everything inside'...but it definitely was not big enough. I crammed it all in anyways and went on my way--the biggest problem was that with my backpack already occupying my shoulders, I had nowhere to carry this tote, so I had to walk in a perma-bicep curl with this bag that weighed 30 lbs (doesn't seem like much, but when you don't weigh enough to donate blood, proportionally it's HEAVY). I was sweaty and disheveled by the time I got to the airport, but managed to shmooze my way on the plane with this thing. T

The tough part was when I arrived, my arms were so tired that I was sort of dragging this  bag along while wearing this huge backpack, a coat, a lulu lemon sweater, a blazer, and 2 shirts, because none of it would fit in the bag, so I had to wear it. I looked like a crazy person. I'm sure that's why the customs officer took an extra long look at my passport before letting me through.

Once I was through, I realized to my dismay that the directions to Johanna's were sitting in my Facebook inbox...on the internet. which I had no access to. Cue me setting up shop in the airport, buying 5 euros of wireless, and emailing them to myself. So ridiculous. I had to take a bus to the subway, then get off at a certain stop and walk to her place--she said it was pretty easy so it shouldn't take too long.

I navigated the bus and the subway (thinking I was a rebel the entire time, because I didn't buy a subway ticket, until Johanna later told me it was included in the bus ticket..) just fine, and I got out, saw my landmarks, and started walking. And walking. And walking. It was getting darker by the minute, and I hadn't seen the next set of markings or street signs, but I figured maybe it's just a little further. I don't want to not walk far enough, and then have to double up in the end...naturally I got completely lost, I had no map, no phone number for Johanna (not that my phone was working anyway), and no actual street address. I was, in a word, screwed.

I kept trying different streets, thinking, you know Katy, you really suck at directions and that's exactly why you need to get yourself out of this predicament. But I was so hot, sweaty, exhausted, and just frustrated from lugging 60 lbs around for the past hour and a half, when it should've taken 10 minutes, that I just sat down and cried. 

Just as I was pulling myself together to give it another try, a group of people walked by and asked if I needed help. They said I looked lost, and I could only nod. THey used their iPhone to look up the street I was looking for (I walked in the completely opposite direction I was supposed to), and sent me on my way. Turns out they had just come back from living in Vancouver for the past 3 years, and commented on how nice Canadians were. THey saw the flag hanging from my backpack and thought it would be a nice way to pay it forward. So thanks for the flag, Mom! It's already getting me out of trouble.

I made it to Johanna's in the end, and the lessons I take from this are: 1. I still suck at following directions. 2. I should've gotten the iPad with 3G. 

Tomorrow is another day!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Happy Birthday to me! I woke up this morning not really feeling any different--it's strange not seeing my Mom though. Olly offered to take me for lunch to celebrate, so I met him at his office near Victoria station and we went to this cute place called Bumble. I tried lamb meatballs with spaghetti (SO not a fan), and tried to order a mimosa but discovered they don't exist in England. Olly was very amused. After that, I went back to Gavin's and just relaxed for a bit before heading to Gordon Ramsay's York & Albany restaurant for a birthday dinner. He has seven different restaurants in London, but this one was the closest (and most affordable--Savoy for $300 each? Maybe after I head to Mumbai and  become a famous Bollywood star. It's obviously going to happen. Can't wait to write that post). It was, in a word, disappointing. 

Gavin had the asparagus for an appetizer, and I had the warm goat cheese salad, which wasn't warm at all.  For some unknown reason I decided to be adventurous and order the "fish of the day", which was haddock with braised cabbage and mustard-egg ravioli. I thought, why not try some true English cuisine? 

Should've known it would  be terrible. The fish was overcooked and unbearably salty, and the egg ravioli...well lets just say I hate eggs for a reason. Gavin had the pizza, which he actually enjoyed, but I was so disappointed. Also, our food didn't come out to the table together; I was waiting about 10 minutes for mine. I've watched chef Ramsay yell at his contestants on Hell's Kitchen when this happens, so I just assumed he would require the same standards of service at his restaurants. GUESS NOT. I definitely will not be returning, I should have gone to Nobu instead. Maybe in October. I do think it's funny that the worst meal I had while in London was:  -on my birthday -supposed to be the best meal I had in London

After dinner, my friend from home Chris and his girlfriend Jen came by Gavin's flat, and we all headed out to go dancing. I had no idea Chris wasn't 18 yet, so he couldn't get in to the places we wanted to go--they ended up parting ways with us, and Gavin and I wandered around endlessly because he was SURE there was a great "hidden club, very posh" that he was at earlier in the week. Problem was, every time we used our GPS to locate it, its location would move. Walk to one spot, it jumps on the map. Walk again, it's no longer where it said it was. Damn you, Blackberry!

After a quick pit stop at McDonalds (.99 chicken burger, unreal--I would definitely be obese if I lived in London), we took a rickshaw (those tricycle things that the guys bike us to where we want to go? Not sure if this is the right term) to G-A-Y Late, one of London's best gay clubs. I'd never been to a gay club before, but I honestly had the time of my life there! It is definitely strange being on the outside of what's going on...no one cared what I did while I was there haha but at the same time that's what made it amazing! I could dance and just have a good time celebrating my birthday and the fact that I'm in London, for goodness' sake! We were also celebrating Gavin that night, as it turns out, he was named one of Canada's Top 40 under 40--so congrats Gav! So proud of you!

The night ended with a wander into Leicester Square, and finally a taxi home, none of which Gavin remembers. Good thing someone's responsible on her birthday :)

London Cold-ing.

Holy crap it's freezing. I packed light, considering it's summer and I thought I'd be worried about getting sunburnt everyday. Instead, I'm worried about having feeling in my toes when I wake up in the morning. Why is it so cold!?! I had to go shopping and buy a jacket, and I may buy some sweaters too. of course, I only brought one pair of pants, so these jeans are getting broken in pretty quick.

I hope the Mediterranean is warmer when I head there in september or I'm in trouble. At least this means I should be pleasantly comfortable in India this summer, right?

Anyway, I took the Gatwick Express ($17.90 one way) to Victoria station, where my friend Gavin met me. He's a friend of mine from Guelph who is potentially doing his PhD at Oxford, so he decided to move to London for the summer. He found this amazing loft on sabbaticalhomes.com, so I chose that over a hostel (tough choice, I know). So we are staying in a prof's flat who teaches political science at LSE, and is in Africa for six months. Pretty neat set-up.

Gavin convinced me not to nap when I got home, so instead we got changed, dropped my stuff off, and went on a walking tour of london. I saw - Buckingham Palace - Parliament - Big Ben - The London Eye (but we didn't go up, I refuse to waste money on that unless its a date in which case I shouldn't be paying anyway) - A telephone booth -  A traditional English Pub - The Prime Minister's House - St. James' Park

which is quite a lot for one afternoon. I was frozen and exhausted by that point, so we headed home for a nap. When I woke up we wandered through Belsize Park (the neighborhood we're in) and found "Chez Bob", a (you guessed it) french resto. It wasn't bad, I had chicken kiev--although I thought that meant broccoli inside--apparently in England it means liquefied butter. Bring on the heart attacks.

After that, I had a quick experience in a gay karaoke bar in Soho, which we exited promptly after a rousing performance of Celine Dion's "All By Myself." If you keep singing, I'm fairly certain you'll know why, buddy.

We headed across the street to O Bar, where they had amazing music and old couches with wood paneling-kind of reminded me of Pravda in Toronto, but authentic. At the end of the night, Gav and I managed to navigate the late-night bus system (the Tube stops at like 2 am I think) and found our way home.

 Tomorrow I am meeting up with Olly, (for you Beacon Hallers, Mr. Jeffery's nephew that was kind enough to meet me for a drink and chat for a bit) so I'll keep you posted. Until then, a good first day!