Europe: Arriving in London

Our first day of true vacationing consisted of lots and lots of flying. I thought that we would be okay. After all, we brought a few things to keep us entertained: books, laptop with DVDs, crossword puzzles, pillow...But we there was no way we could prepare for the really uncomfortable seats on our long flight!

My brother and Maxwell Benjamin (bro's doggy) dropped us off at LAX for our 4-5 hour flight to DFW. Our flight took off late so we didn't have much of a layover. We rode the tram all the way around the airport and then speed-walked to our gate to catch our 9-hour flight to London. During our second drink run, hubby asked if he could have a cocktail. I said, of course! We're on vacation. :)

(This flight is when it was first established that hubby actually likes cranapple juice.)

By the time we landed, it was about 11 AM in London, but 3 AM PST. When we got outside, I told hubby, "Dang, I feel like we were just after-partying all night and just got out of the club at 6 AM closing time." Seriously felt cracked out. I'm sure having coffee didn't help our bodies at 3AM. We waited a little while until our scheduled shuttle picked us up and dropped us at Hilton Kensington Hotel London. We checked in and decided to venture out. I had read that there was a Westfield mall nearby so we walked a few minutes to get over there.

I was quite impressed with the Mall. It was huge! We laughed about some of the stores that might be considered old-fashioned according to our snobby American taste...like Esprit and Swatch. We walked around for maybe almost an hour to look at what stores there were. Hubby said that when I told the concierge my American nationality (to get a VIP pass), she cringed. I didn't catch it and thought he was maybe exaggerating.

As we kept walking, I saw a guy wearing a Hollister t-shirt that said Redondo Beach. For whatever lame reason, I thought it was funny to travel all the way to London and see a local wearing a shirt representing a beach just a few miles away from our home. That became a theme; as we continued our walk, we saw a few dudes wearing South Bay beach city t-shirts! When we walked by the Hollister store, there was actually a line waiting outside to get in. Apparently, Hollister is huge in London?

As we walked around, I connected to free wifi and e-mailed the family before going into Byron to eat. Hubby ordered a cheeseburger, “chips” (thicker fries), and a Coca-Cola that came in the old school glass bottle.
Me being the stereotypical tourist couldn't resist taking a picture of the bottle since it's such a rarity in the US of A. I had a chicken fillet burger (corn fed chicken fillet, baby spinach, red onion, tomato, mayo, and secret sauce).


It was all very yummy. It came out to 19.90 GBP. I caved under pressure for tipping more since the guy was standing there waiting. The guy was so appreciative. He must have said thank you at least 5 times and bid us well 3 times in a minute. Come to find out after that 1) he was only standing there b/c they utilize a fancy new hand-held device that lets them print your receipt as they stand by your table and 2) we totally over-tipped b/c we messed up on the conversion rate. Oh well; we chocked it up to over-tipping for good karma; a Vegas thing that hubby does.

All in all, my first few hours in a different country was filled with mixed emotions. I couldn’t help but be hypersensitive to the fact that we were considered foreigners. When we got back to the hotel, Hubby asked one of the employees, “Are you Filipino?” He said, “No, I’m too handsome to be Filipino…” Uh, okay. That was really awkward, especially since 10 seconds later, he asked Hubby if he is Filipino.