My whole goal today was to stay awake until 7pm because I knew if I slept during the day, I would be an even bigger wreck tomorrow. I took the NBC charter last night which was a red-eye with grade A service.... only problem with that is they basically kept us up all night trying to give us food and drink. I know, I know, #firstworldproblems. But when it's 2am and all you want to do is sleep, it's pretty annoying to be offered wine.
Wait - did I just say that? What just happened here? I wonder if London makes me a prissy prude? China made me dumb so it's only fitting that London would effect me somehow. hmm... I'll be on the lookout for symptoms. Because that was pretty much the stupidest thing EVER to say - I was annoyed at being offered free wine. Holy crap, what is WRONG with me??!?
idiot...
Sooo.. anyway, in order to stay awake until 7pm, I hit the streets of London to see some British stuff. The last time I wandered these streets aimlessly, I was 13 and my mom had no idea. (sorry, mom!) This time around, I'm not necessarily any wiser, but I do have a credit card.
I've been seeing the pictures of the Olympic rings hanging from the London bridge and so I decided to hit that up first because, well, because I'm a nerd. So I jump on the train. And I jump off the train at the next stop realizing that I've just gone the wrong direction. Ok. No problem. Out the door (which, in London, you have to actually press a button to make the train doors open. I figured that out after I stood there like an idiot for about 30 seconds waiting for the door to open). Back up the stairs and onto the going-the-other-way train.
The Olympic-nice-people issued us all these things called Oyster cards which gives us access to all of London's public transportation for the entirety of the games. Felt a bit like a golden ticket today!
Made my way to the London bridge
Look up and realize I'm not seeing the Olympic rings so I (obviously) think, oh, I guess the rings are underneath the bridge.
Clearly, I was not thinking clearly.
But because I'm me, I stood there for a good two minutes trying to figure out where they put the rings and how I was going to get under the bridge to see them. EVEN THOUGH I have seen this iconic picture for weeks and had ingrained it in my brain that I wanted to see it in person in London.
I finally looked across the street and realized that the rings were on THAT bridge, not the London Bridge. Sheesh. Der. (It's too early to claim zombie induced stupidity so I have to just go with some sort of UK induced fever)
And in other "dumb things I did" news - on the plane this morning, I was trying to turn my tv off but it was dark and so I kept jabbing at buttons. Apparently, I was hitting the flight attendant call button over and over again. The very nice and very concerned attendant walked over to see if I was ok. When he leaned over to ask me something, I went to take of my headphones so I could hear him. Instead of removing my headphones, I removed my glasses. Soooo.... that didn't really work.
Anyway - after I found the bridge and the rings, I made my way over to Westminster (the underground is surprisingly easy when you're paying attention). It was getting hot and I was starting to fade so I snapped some pics and called it a day.
Don't these stairs seem to be missing the point?
Pancake truck? Yes, please!
Media. Everywhere.
This guy looks like he just smelled a fart.
Ah, yes. And the security. Hi, giant gun! I keep forgetting about the security aspect of the Games. I was washing the travel filth off of me earlier today when all of a sudden, the alarms in the hotel went off. I sort of shrugged them off at first and then about 30 seconds later, I caught myself. "Oh, RIGHT, this could be real." I checked the hallways for screaming hotel workers but didn't find anyone. The alarms shut off after about 2 minutes, so clearly it was a false alarm, but it was a sobering reminder that I should at least be careful.
And this is where Team France will go to do French stuff. Like eat cheese and then take off their shirts. And smoke. And talk about how much they hate fat people. I mean, that's france in a nutshell, no?
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