Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

May 28 2012

London trip, part 2

I woke up, exhausted, at the Pudong Airport Hotel. We had the usual Chinese hotel breakfast downstairs in the atrium, and then spent the next couple of hours casually taking photos of people in the terminal. It was a fine day to be sitting in a light-filled airport lounge. I sat in the lounge, closed my eyes and just listened to the conversations and announcements going on around me as I took advantage of a charging station to fill up my camera batteries.

The flight was long. Though I’d snagged a window seat, there wasn’t much to see. Luckily, it was a new plane, an Airbus with entertainment systems. I watched The Artist, which held my interest fairly well, though it frequently had me wanting to shout, “WHAT DID HE JUST SAY!” And a few other movies. Got up to walk around a bit. No map system on the plane, so no idea what lands we flew over. All I knew was we were over Siberia, or possibly Mongolia. Disappointing.

London was bathed in the light of the afternoon sun as we approached, crossing the paths of several other jets on our way in a slightly disconcerting fashion. I was a bit nervous in the immigration line, which seemed to be occupied mostly by people of South Asian origin, but we got a pair of reasonable officials, one training the other, so a lot of “Oops I didn’t mean to key THAT in!” but no real hassles.

The underground was located, appropriately, under the airport, and after obtaining Oyster cards from a bored official, we took the hour-long train in and found our hostel near Kings Cross, which doesn’t seem as prostitute-infused as I’d been led to believe. The hotel is an old three-storey building, with creaky stairs and worn carpets, and our room holds two metal-framed twin beds and a tiny bathroom. Sufficient for our needs, and the location is quite convenient.

It’s late and I’m tired. Tomorrow we’re going to Oxford.

posted by Poagao at 6:11 am  

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