Back in the UK!

To continue the spring break chronicles...

Monday (March 13th) we set off on our journey to London. We woke up and scrambled downstairs in our Brussels hotel to make breakfast before it closed - good thing, or else we would have missed out on a whole wheat baguette and a croissant. Oh and some OJ from concentrate. We finished up breakfast and then did some last minute packing before setting off for the train station. We caught a train to Brussels airport and got to the airport in no time, leaving lots of extra time to shop the duty free stores and enjoy some Starbucks. When it came time to board, we boarded very quickly, with Athenas, Nora and I seated in the first (exit!) row of Economy class. The plane was not full at all but people had definitely stopped boarding and it seemed like we were about to start taxi-ing. LO AND BEHOLD... wait for it ... none other than Russell Brand swaggers onto the plane (looking a bit more kempt than the photo on the right) and takes his seat in first class. Being the only one who noticed this, I say to my friends "Oh my god! Russell Brand is on our plane!" to which Nora replies, "Molly, don't be silly, that's not him" and faithful Athenas looks ahead into first class, waiting for him to turn around, and sure enough confirms my assertion as soon as he got up to put his bag in the overhead compartment. I totally would have gone up to first class and introduced myself but plainly put, my friends didn't let me. I figured it was fine because obviously, we would chase see him at baggage claim.

The flight lasted about an hour, during which I listened to music while keeping my eye on first class, and Russell kept his sunglasses on while divulging into a book. It was a pretty great hour being within 30 feet of a celebrity. Though, as long as we're talking about this, I would have much preferred it to be Hugh Grant or Jude Law. But hey, you can't have everything. As soon as we landed, Mr. Brand basically booked it off the plane and through customs so we didn't see much of him. Though he did gaze back into economy class before he walked off the plane so I'm hoping he saw us and will recognize me next time we meet. Anyways, fame-excitement over, we went through customs where each of us were questioned quite a bit by our respective people. When I was asked why I was coming into the UK I said I was visiting family to which she asked what I thought was "Where are they?" so I rattled off a couple towns, to which she clarified not where but who, as in what kind, of family they were. Why they were so curious I don't know but I explained I had aunts, uncles, cousins and my grandma to visit. We finally made it through and hopped on the tube to make our way to our hotel.


Getting to the hotel took quite a while on the tube and we had to switch once so we were pretty tired from hauling all of our carry-on luggage around all day so we relaxed in the hotel for a couple hours, kind of napping and otherwise just deciding what we wanted to do the next couple of days. Around dinnertime we headed out to explore the area and find a pub to eat at. We ended up eating at one just a couple blocks down the road and all had delicious burgers/sandwiches and chips. We went back to the hotel for a bit after dinner before meeting my friend Michael from Macalester for a night out on the town, at a couple bars/clubs in Leicester Square. We had a blast and ended up getting into quite a few places for really cheap and even managing a couple free drinks, so the night was a success!

The next morning, I woke up on my own to make my way to Waterloo station. Funny story - when asking the hotel reception-man the easiest way to get there the night before, I had to repeat "Waterloo" about six times before he understood what I was saying. I know I'm American but seriously... it's three syllables. He also asked me if I was American OR Australian. A distinction I would think would be greater than to make my accent confusable as Australian. But who knows. Anyways, I was going to Waterloo to make the 11am train to Haslemere, where my uncle Packy was going to pick me up to go to lunch with my aunt (his wife) Jenny and then to go visit my grandma. I made it to Waterloo in no time, bought my tickets, had a nice cup of coffee and a croissant and then boarded the train. The train went through Walton-on-Thames (where we lived when we lived in England) as well as the surrounding towns (Weybridge, Esher, etc), which was definitely very nostalgic. I recognized a lot of the other stops as well. About an hour later I arrived in Haslemere where I met Packy immediately in the car and headed back to their house, Christmas Cottage. Here, we spent some time catching up as Jenny and her sister Ruth were home and their dog and Ruth's dogs were playing in the yard. We headed to the pub around 1pm for a DELICIOUS lunch of fish and chips and then Packy and I drove over to visit my grandma. It was a lovely afternoon seeing everyone - I hadn't been to England in about 5 years, even though it felt like a lot less, so I was happy to finally be reunited with some of that side of the family. After visiting my grandma, Packy dropped me off at Haslemere to catch a train back to London.

While I was with my family, my friends had done the usual touristy things like visiting Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and then going on the London Eye. They then met up with Katie (my best friend from home) who was coming into London that afternoon to spend the 24 hours or so with us (we luckily had an extra bed in our hotel room!). It worked out such that I met all of them at our hotel after they were done at the London Eye and we all just hung out some more, catching up and finding a great Indian restaurant to go to for dinner. It was so nice to see Katie! I feel really lucky that I've been able to see Lauren, Alex, Michael and Katie already this semester :) We found an Indian restaurant that had great reviews online so we set out on the tube once again. I started to not feel so well as we were going there so I didn't end up trying anything super exotic but I had some delicious naan bread and everyone else's dishes were delicious. After dinner we went back to the hotel for a lazy/easy night of lounging around and getting lots of rest for the next day.

Wednesday the five of us began our day visiting Camden Market and walking around the little stalls and shops there. Several were closed, but it was fun to shop around the several vintage stores we came across and just window shop in others. After this, Nora left us to go visit the museums of the city and the rest of us went to Top Shop and Harrods before having a light lunch in a cafe. After lunch, Katie and I went off to visit the Jack Wills store near Sloane Square, where we wasted a solid two hours just shopping around and trying things on that we didn't end up buying, but it was really fun. We then took the tube to the part of London where my cousin Holly lives and went over to her apartment. We sat around and chatted for a while, and I met Vita, Holly's daughter, who I hadn't met yet, and she is absolutely ADORABLE! Holly gave Katie a ride to the closest tube stop around 6pm, as Katie had to catch her train back to Norwich. I then had a lovely spaghetti bolognese dinner with Holly and her husband, Sven, full of lots of stories and catching up before I went back to the hotel to meet my friends to go out. We ended up going out with Michael again, this time to a couple bars near Covent Garden. We had a blast once again and got home ready to pass out!