I have to apologize for this entry as it's going to come across as quite negative but I feel that it is important to report both the good and bad in my experiences in both preparing and actually being abroad. This week I have been down to London and visited the Japanese embassy to sort out my visa papers and my god, it has been a stressful trip.
Due to financial reasons I couldn't get the train to London as I had to book it too soon after I came back from training to get any of the low fares so I was forced to take National Express which is a coach service. While it was much much cheaper and I'd usually recommend it to many travelers, my experience this time was unfortunately not a pleasant one! My day began at 5:50am which is always the best time to wake up at xD I managed to get down to the bus station in time and almost missed my bus as I struggled to grab my ticket from my bag but luckily the driver was nice and waited.
When I was on the bus I sat down for the long 6 hour journey that would take me throughout the North West of England before finally heading directly to London Victoria. I managed to go for about an hour and a half before I came down with travel sickness. The bus was taking a route through the hills and while it was very pretty, the roads dipped and wound in various directions and the heat didn't help! Oh god the heat... it turns out whoever had the bus the night before had set the heaters to 27 degrees! So with the intense heat and the movements of the bus, I sadly threw up and looked effectively dead for the next 4 hours. Eventually I managed to regain some of my health but sadly my comfort was short lived as we picked up a set of passengers and this woman sat next to me. She was in a phone conference call for THREE HOURS!! While very irritating, I must commend the Samsung Galaxy's battery life for this accomplishment. Eventually we got into London Victoria and I managed to disembark and pull myself together before heading to the embassy.
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| The National Express Coach |
Once in London, I needed to find a place that sold stamps as the Embassy needed a self addressed envelope. I went into a news agents with stacks of postcards displayed out front and was disappointed when he said he didn't sell them but to try the post office 'just up the road'. I'll warn you now, Londoners are terrible at giving directions! 'up the road' turned out to be about a 20 minute walk. After 15 minutes of walking aimlessly, I gave up and tried a Marks and Spenser supermarket but the lovely lady in there said they didn't sell them but to try Sainsbury's instead. She said it was just around the block.... It was actually two blocks away but eventually I found it. They didn't have the stamp I needed so I desperately asked where the post office was. The even more lovely lady in there pointed at the building outside and said it's on the next street. The 'next street' was actually two streets away but FINALLY.. I had made it. While everyone was very kind and lovely, their sense of direction wasn't the best :')
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| This thing cost me £6!!! |
I left the embassy happy that my day had brightened up (Until it started to rain because this is England after all.) I decided to go down to the River Thames and do some filming for my YouTube. However, the embassy is next to Buckingham palace which is a lot further away from the river than I thought. My legs were killing by time I got there. I started filming around the area and I began to film this pretty white building for a while and I was mid way through recording my vlog when a policeman armed with an assault rifle approaches me telling me to put the camera away. I was terrified as while the gun wasn't aimed at me, having a police officer shout at you with it dangling between you is very scary! It turns out the 'beautiful white building' was actually The Ministry of Defense's HQ so I got out the area quickly afterwards.
On the way back I wanted to find a McDonalds to get some lunch as I hadn't eaten at all at this point. However in Victoria it seems McDonalds ceases to exist and instead, subway reigns supreme so I was disappointed that I couldn't have my delicious unhealthy treat so I instead settled up a Subway. Oh but I found an elusive McDonalds about 20 minutes later! I managed to make it back to the crowded bus terminal where chaos began with trying to get home. They split us onto two different coaches both heading back to Manchester but one of them had to stop for 30 minutes at a service station.
Hoping for food I took this bus but oh boy, was that a bad idea in the long run. The other bus was full and was heading directly for Manchester without any stops whereas we were heading to Milton Quays first. At this stop we picked up three families. Two of which had young children who ALL got travel sick and threw up everywhere on the coach (not even in the bathroom like I had in the morning.) so the bus stank of sick for 3 hours on the way home. Oh and the service station we stopped at had no fast food outlets except for a burger bar which was closing when we arrived. WHO CLOSES A FOOD STAND IN A SERVICE STATION!??! Alas.. I went without food and it wasn't until 12:30 that I got back into my home town where I immediately ran into the nearest 24/7 McDonalds and ordered a large meal.
It wasn't until 1am until I got home and it was an extra hour and a half before I got to sleep so I am utterly exhausted while writing this. Overall it wasn't the best journey I've had to London and it's a shame really because usually I love going to the city but sadly I was in a bad mood for the majority of the day. I promise to be more positive with my next post! :3 But I feel it's important to give an accurate representation of the things I'm going through during my work with Project Trust. If you managed to actually read all of this then I commend you!
23 Days to go until departure!
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