[This is a continuation of my travel diary from the summer of 1999, when Steven and I had the opportunity to go to Europe. In case y’all are wondering (since my 19 year old self was wondering) the plane we flew on was a Boeing 777. It felt safe enough. I still don’t like planes. — Present-day Carrie]
On a bus going to who-knows-where. Neat little houses everywhere, very quaint. Okies are also on this bus (from Oklahoma). Haven’t met up w/ Ganstas (L.A.) & Taters (Idaho) yet.* Didn’t sleep at all on the plane. Stupid jet lag. Theres a guy in the middle of the street selling flowers. Odd trees. Saw some English cows. Got a 2 pound coin, which is like a 2 dollar bill, therefore I’m not gonna spend it.**
The plane was really nice. Had individual TVs in the back of the seat in front of us, w/ different channels and headphones. Really really spiffy. I’m going nuts ’cause I can’t say ‘boogers,’ ’cause its too close to the british ‘bugger,’ which translates into “f***.” Ah well. Good grief, a McDonalds.
The Dr. Pepper tastes fruity, like it’s got cough syrup in it. Instead of ‘speed bump’ the signs say ‘hump.’ Got a picture of it. Not to mention we’re on the wrong side of the road.
Whoa, going over river. Cool boat.
Whoa, a castle-looking thing. Thing its a cathedral.
Mac^ keeps pointing out cars of all things. Britons seem to like flowers and trees. And hanging their laundry out on the balcony for all the world to see. I wanna live here someday just so I can say that I did.
When we got off the plane, we didn’t have one of those walkways; we went down those metal steps like you see in old movies. Too nifty. Straight to the outside.
Right outside Holland Park.
Hey, we’re in Notting Hill, like in the movie. Going to be out our hotel soon says the guide.
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Now we’re in some park — biggest park in London. Just Steven and I; everybody else went thataway —->^^ Don’t have to be anywhere ’till 2, and it’s only 10:44 now (London time, of course). Really nice park, fountains and huge grassy areas. Big fly on my foot. Went away. Lots of pigeons too. Supposedly they’re famous. Uh huh.
Really nice weather. Sunny, no humidity at all (so used to Alabama’s liquid air) & a nice breeze. Didn’t expect to get this much free time, even if just this once.
Airplane and Hyde Park (bigger)
*We were part of a group of four different classes. Us Alabamians were all from my high school French class (I signed up when I was a Senior). The others were from the three states mentioned. I’m sure we were the ‘Rednecks’ to them.
**I still have this coin.
^Arrow actually drawn to point NE, if one assumes the top of the page is N.
^^Mac is from our group, but we don’t like to claim him. You’ll hear more about him later.