We flew into Heathrow 9:45am and got hassled a bit at the UK border because we couldn't give the officer a definite address where we would be staying. We had their "email" (fecebook, which we apparently didn't have) and basically got the be-more-prepared-and-responsible talk. They ended up letting us in (because we were American) after our lecture. We stayed around the airport for a while trying to figure out how to get money for the internet, so we could get money, so we could pay for the internet, so we could get ahold of our friend's sister where we were offered to stay that night. The whole thing seemed to be a waste of time after no luck, so we paid for 2 tickets on the tube to piccadilly circus. After very little sleep on the plane, we felt oddly energetic. After we got off we walked around everywhere with our backpacks tents and guitar, ate subway at Trefelgar Square with the lions, checked out a protest in Westminister Square about the brits interfering in Sri Lanka... we were gonna set up camp in the square where a couple protesters had been "campaigning", not camping mind us, for years, but the peaceful protesters didn't turn out to seem so peaceful, especially toward Americans. So we talked a little to the police a bit and they turned out to have good senses of humor... They gave us some directions to a coffee shop we'd heard about and we seemed to have the hardest time finding it. Finally we found the scooter cafe and hung out there a little, then walked to an internet cafe down the road to check on our unreached contacts... this was around 9pm. Hope was slipping fast and we began to sort out our options. It was a toss-up between hopping on a train and riding it all night or taking it to a spot with a cool name to camp, finding a dark alley and sleep in shifts, or spending a fortune on the only hostel around not booked. We spent 2 hours online and didn't reach our friend's sister until our last 10 minutes before the store closed. It was definitely the hand of the Lord for her to happen to check her facebook at that time. It took forever to get there on the tube, but they were so good to us letting us stay over and take showers and eat and SLEEP.
Saturday, May 2nd
In the morning Ashely and Ben cooked us breakfast and we headed back into town. We looked up a bunch of coffee shops and kinda made our own coffee tour of london and rated the Flat White in Piccadilly Circus the best cup of coffee we had in london. There were a bunch of decent record stores and I couldn't help myself. Frank's Wild Years and Boys Don't Cry. We walked around everywhere finding some really amazing parts of the city, heading back to our friends' house where we stayed again that night. My perspective on london and england for that matter was changed, seeing that last time I was there I was 16 years old with my youth group in what seemed to be the trashiest parts of town.
Sunday, May 3rd
So we tried to get ahold of Daniel Fox in South London to meet up with him and go to their church in the morning, but never got a response. Had breakfast in the morning and jetted out to catch the tube to camden to stop at a record store we'd looked up, happening to show up right before an accoustic show was being set up. The store was packed by the time we came back for the show and the only way we could see was through the store windows, and they turned out to be sweet. Afterwards we asked about merch and bought a cd and they threw in another for us.
It seemed impossible for us to get out of London, so we put forth more of an effort to move on. We took the tube to Abbey Road and saw that patch of ground near the top of most internationally worshipped places in the world. It was so hard (and we didn't hide it much) not to laugh at the shutter-happy tourists stopping in the middle of the crosswalk to get pictures taken, egging on the road rage of locals trying to get from A to B. Some German photographers came up to us seeing Josh's guitar and asked to take pictures of us doing the cliche catwalk we thought so hilarious. Turned out they were putting together an article about the London music scene for a newspaper. Knowing that most Germans can't tell the difference among accents of English, we hoped they would think we were local, so we gave them a band name presenting British flare. He figured out we were from California, but it sounded like they'd still publish it. We moved on from there and took the tube to the furthest we could get, which wasn't too far due to the blasted common European deal that railways are in parts shut down or on a different schedule. But the guy at the last stop said there was a bus that ran to the end of the lane and hinted that nobody checks for bus tickets. So we took a double-decker bus for free all the was to Chesham, which could have been the coolest town we'd been to in England. We found a nice campground where we left our stuff to explore, and in town we had a nice hot meal and went to sleep happy about everything.
Monday, May 4th
Bank holiday. Every once in a while here the banks take a day off, and so do lots of businesses. But the same restaurant from the evening before was open so we treated ourselves again to the luxury of a hot meal when we woke up around noon. After was Cafe Nero. Terrible.
We got on the road and hitch hiked from the B485 in Chesham to the A40 to the M40, and took that all the way to Bristol. Some places hitching rides took longer than others, and some drivers seemed less sane than others. Nevertheless we traveled a good 80 or 90 miles and got dropped off near a bridge. Josh started feeling flu-ish. bummer. There were some trees, so we camped.
Tuesday, May 5th
This morning around 5:30 I felt oddly well rested and couldn't sleep at all. So I set off into town to find some coffee, but absolutely nothing was open. I came back to camp and walked to a lookout to the bridge, sat there for a while, read my NT and just enjoyed everything. Now we're packed up and at a coffee shop sitting and buying every hot drink that would make Josh feel better. He's pissed he's sick... I kinda think it would make things a little better in a way if I got sick too... This is probably the first downer we've had this trip. But I'm so happy, so much has happened and we're only 5 days into the trip. We're ready for anything.
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So we got the worst ride that actually set us back and dropped us at the most un-tactical spot to hitch hike. Eventually we headed to a rest stop, where we did as much as dance with signs for rides. "Going north, sir?" was every time followed with "Nope, going south. Wish I could help" or nothing at all. Nothing frustrated me more than the automatic downgrade to scum of the earth because of the sharpee on cardboard sign. I mean come on, at least look me in the eye and don't pretend to be distracted by something far off like superman charming snakes in the parking lot.
...
Hours passed and we changed locations once again. After a while two guys who came from Spain, one of them from Oregon, picked us up and drove us out of their way close to the border of Wales. We couldn't have been more thankful to get out of that wretched place. We hitched another ride all the way to Cardiff from a silly Welsh man listening to Nick Cave. A long walk to Queen Street and a desperate search to find a place to stay not camping. We found a hostel at a decent price (price definitely didn't matter at the time) and booked it for the night.
i'll add pictures on here later.
So we got the worst ride that actually set us back and dropped us at the most un-tactical spot to hitch hike. Eventually we headed to a rest stop, where we did as much as dance with signs for rides. "Going north, sir?" was every time followed with "Nope, going south. Wish I could help" or nothing at all. Nothing frustrated me more than the automatic downgrade to scum of the earth because of the sharpee on cardboard sign. I mean come on, at least look me in the eye and don't pretend to be distracted by something far off like superman charming snakes in the parking lot.
...
Hours passed and we changed locations once again. After a while two guys who came from Spain, one of them from Oregon, picked us up and drove us out of their way close to the border of Wales. We couldn't have been more thankful to get out of that wretched place. We hitched another ride all the way to Cardiff from a silly Welsh man listening to Nick Cave. A long walk to Queen Street and a desperate search to find a place to stay not camping. We found a hostel at a decent price (price definitely didn't matter at the time) and booked it for the night.
i'll add pictures on here later.
