Eight Days In London

Day Two: South Kensington

I didn't get much sleep for I laid in bed hearing a few random drunk people outside the three A.M. hour. On top of that I had a hard time adjusting to the time zone being five hours ahead from where I am. Eventually I fell asleep waking up at nine A.M. When I woke up I could hear my neighbor in room twenty-nine talking really loud with his girlfriend or even his wife.

He wasn't yelling he just talked really loud as their TV was on also. Soon I got the will to get up and out of bed. I went over to the Kitchenette grabbing the box of cereal called Alpen that I had bought at Londars. I grab a bowl from one of the shelves pouring some of the cereal into my bowl.

The cereal was flakey like a horse's serving of oats. I didn't know what to think for I started to feel unsure about the cereal. "Do I really want to eat this?" I said to my self pouring some milk into the bowl. I grab a spoon taking a huge scoop putting it in my mouth. I chew as I begin to get an awful look on my face literally forcing myself to eat the bowl of cereal. The cereal as I chewed it tasted like bird seed, and no I have never eaten bird seed before, but I have rolled in it...

Yeah... Long story short back in my home state of Ohio I got invited to one of my friend's church activities and I decided to go for when I got there I found myself in the activity the youth pastor set up for everyone. It was an obstacle course full of mats you had to roll on as one of those mats had bird seed on them.

Anyway, while eating the non-sugary bird seed type cereal I turned on the TV having it on BBC-One. On the channel they talked about the current news along with the weather. Due to yesterday's storm many flights were canceled as many slept within the Heathrow Airport because all the hotels were fully booked. They also said that more snow would arrive tomorrow. Soon I finished my bowl of cereal doing up the small amount of dishes I made for myself. After that I turned off the TV finding myself back to bed.

I awoke four hours later looking at my watch it was one in the afternoon. As I was laying there in bed I thought I heard a knock at my door. I went over to open my door seeing I was wrong about someone knocking at my door. Instead I saw the man that walked by me while I was waiting for my apartment to be available. He had a key going into my neighbor's apartment to clean it for he was a maintenance man. "Oh, I thought you were knocking at my door" I said to him.

He chuckles "yeah it's hard to tell seeing the rooms are close. I will be going to your room next; do you need anything changed?" he asked me. I thought for a moment "garbage bags, towels, anything?" he added. "Uh no, everything is fine for now" I finally replied. "Ah ok then" he said as I nodded my head closing the door. I went over to the desk grabbing a map of London that my aunt gave to me before I left as she too went to London before.

I opened up the folded road map of London partly seeing the location of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. I knew I had to be not too far from the two Royal Parks so I decided to plan my route to get there today.

First I had to find my street on the map as eventually I did marking the street with my pen creating a star. My first attempt would be from Rosary go through Brechin Place then go left up to Gloucester Road to the Queen's Gate entrance where Kensington Gardens will be. I went out following my plan, it was cold, but it wasn't snowing. I went to Berchin Place with no problem going up the street. After reaching the end of the street I take a left turning onto Gloucester Road.

I went up Gloucester Road soon becoming discombobulated getting lost due to the confusing signs and all the people in the city. I started to learn the busy rush style that London strives on. It was difficult for me to adapt considering I'm from a more laid back environment. I went up to a crosswalk as I saw written in white on the street "look right." I look right noticing incoming traffic was coming in from the right.