Eight Days In London

Day One: London

I arrived in London, England around seven-thirty in the morning. It was still dark out by looking outside my plane window. As the plane started to land I began seeing the city lights of London gleaming its elegant history of beauty. It was freezing cold, I was tired, hungry, and sleepy for I couldn't wait to get settled in my own apartment located on thirty-one Rosary Gardens, London, England SW7 4NH. After a full day's worth of travel I had finally made it to the Heathrow International Airport carrying two heavy bags of luggage around my body.

I thought about taking The Underground Station as what the English call "The Tube." However, with the draining toll of traveling I decided to take a taxi cab. I arrived outside of the airport where several taxis were aligned on the side of the street. A guy in an orange and yellow outfit came up to me "come to take a taxi?" he asked me in his British accent. "Yes sir" I replied as another guy came up to me that was a taxi driver. "Where to?" he asked me.

The taxi driver had black thick lenses for his glasses having short greyish hair like the drummer from the band called The Police. "Thirty-one Rosary Gardens located in South Kensington please" I told the driver. The driver looks at me for a second thinking "Yes, I know where that is get in" he told me walking to his cab opening the door for me. I looked at the cab it was a black taxi cab that looked rather small on the outside for it reminded me of those old fashioned black taxis in the movies. When he opened the taxi door for me my eyes became wide with surprise.

I have never seen so much wide space within a taxi cab for it was nothing like any of the taxis back home. By the time I got into the cab it started to snow heavily with the snowflakes falling all over being scattered. I sat in the back with my two bags, taking them off, and setting them next to me on the seats. I soon saw the driver getting on the driver's side for it was really neat seeing the wheel of the car on the right side instead of the left. The driver I had wasn't a talker for I was hopping the driver to be mellow, that would make you feel at home giving conversation, but nope that wasn't the case.

I asked him while he drove "What do you like about the city?" He didn't even answer me even though I asked him loud and clearly he didn't say anything. He made me feel like an outsider like I wasn't welcomed; maybe because I was an American, I don't know but I kept silent looking outside my foggy window from it being cold and snowy.

The highway travel was interesting as the traffic there reminds me of New York City or Washington DC. I noticed something quite odd motorcyclists driving in between the cars on the dotted white line that divided the traffic roads. The people riding them had the thick shielded helmets on driving on the white line not in the lanes of traffic. At a red light of course they would stop and wait for the light to change. When we got closer to the location of my apartment I began to see the elegant stylish apartments and houses of Central London.

Their architecture structures always attracted me in admiration. While looking at them you could see many people walking about randomly crossing the streets. I could also see several cars parallel parked on both sides of the streets while in the U.S. you can only park on one side.

Finally as the taxi driver turned onto a street I saw a big white sign with red letterings Rosary Gardens with slightly below on the sign in red was the zip code SW7. I began to slightly smile knowing I was close to the apartments I would be staying in. The driver gets on his speaker phone "thirty-one correct?" he asked me. "Yes" I replied as I saw the blue sign of the famous name of the actor and manager that lived there Sir Herbert Beebohm Tree 1853 to1917. A second later I saw the name of the apartments I was going to stay at called Astons.

It was encrypted on a glass window above the blue apartment door that had number thirty-one against the building. "That's it!" I said to the driver. "Alright, let me park here on the side for you" he said back. The driver parks the cab on the right side of the street as the other sides of Rosary were full of cars parallel parked. "Thanks, I owe you fifty-five pounds?" I asked him seeing the paying meter above was at fifty-five. "No, hold on" replied the driver pushing a button near the pay meter. When he pressed the button the price went up to fifty-eight pounds.