Day One- Arriving

"How the hell did I get here again?" was the first thought that ran through my head upon landing. I suppose I could have approached the situation with more confidence, but I apparently have a tendency toward bewilderment upon arriving in foreign countries after ten hours worth of airplanes and airports during which I get one good, solid hour of real sleep. I picked up my luggage, exchanged a traveler’s check for pounds and immediately began using my natural and God-given talent for incessantly screwing up.

I wandered through London Gatwick Airport in a torporous daze, not only unsure as to where to get a train into town nor how to get a hotel, but completely incapable of remembering what language they speak in England. One of my problems was solved by the places in airports or train stations where, for a fee, a person can have a hotel or hostel reserved for oneself. This is incredibly useful when landing in a foreign city after a long flight and the people are speaking the same language you are, so there is no way in hell you will ever find decent phrase book. The other two problems were each solved within five minutes and half-an-hour, in no particular order.

Either way, with hotel reservation receipt in hand, I hopped on the Circle Line around London (going in the wrong direction, of course) to Paddington Station, went to the hotel room and took a quick bath (my hotel room had a bathtub, but no shower) and enjoyed a long nap that was still way too short. With the cleansing and refreshing finished, or at least attempted, I headed back to the subway station to find out that the Circle Line was not serving Paddington station all day. As to whether I was on Candid Camera or in the Twilight Zone I am as yet unsure, but suffice to say I did finally end up where I wanted to be: London proper. Relatively rested and free of that all-encompassing layer of grime particular to travel, I set out from Victoria Station into downtown London with a confident stride, mercifully free of any clue as to where I was going.