London, England 9/8-14, 2006

We land in London's Heathrow Airport about 4 a.m.  Thru customs and to get my bags.  Janeen is coming towards me with her bags, my small bag but not my big bag.  Another girl looks for her bag too.  No bag so I look for customer service and the guy tells me to go back to the conveyor belt and see if it is behind the belt and on the floor and there it is.  Whew!!!  First time that has happened.  Now we go to find a room.  What a hassle.  First to the I with no help, sent to the hotel reservation desk and she's not much help.  She tells us a room will be 40-50L, that's $75 to $94 a nite.  YIKES......One of them gives me a brochure on hostels.  The exchange here in the UK is l.88L = $1.  We get change and I start making calls while Janeen is asking people.  I lose my coins.  Ask the hotel lady again and she says we should have no problems with the phone, use a different bank of phones.  Start again.  Janeen gets information on using the Internet but comes back and expects me to do it!  I'm getting very annoyed with her.  I have called most of the hostels with no answer, a fax number or no room and finally find one at Oxford Circle but Janeen comes back with 2 hostel names from the hotel lady with numbers.  The hostel I have found at Oxford Circle requires transfers on the tube.  I call Journey Backpackers and get a fax number, am frustrated and let her call.  She makes one call and then goes to the lady again.  She is driving me nuts!  She makes a call again and there is a dorm for 19L and no change of different trains.  Just get on the Piccadilly line (dark blue) and take it to King's Cross.  I ask her to give me the phone for directions.  She is later annoyed by that!  We take the bus from Heathrow's terminal 4 to the tube.  On the bus I get the case ready for my back.  In the station we buy a ticket one way to King's Cross .  Off the tube and find our way pretty easily.  Janeen does OK with her 3 bags too, amazingly.  We get our room at Journey Backpacker with 4 beds, co-ed and costing us $35.72 each a nite.  The bathroom is down one floor and down the hall.  All 4 bunks are available so I take the lower bunk near the window to the front and she takes the lower bunk running alongside the right side wall.  I buy time on the Internet too, 1L for 75 minutes.  We go to bed after some conversation about our disagreements at the airport.  I doubt we'll ever see eye-to-eye.  I awake in the night and notice someone in the bed above Janeen, but don't really think it is real. Awake again and it's light and there is a pair of shoes that are clearly not Janeen's because they are very large.  Someone is trying to get in the room.  I wait to see if Janeen will respond. Finally I get up and open the door.  It's a very young guy, I go out of the room, close the door and quiz him about the code and am slightly annoyed.  He is turning the know the wrong way.  We both come into this small room and I am bitching , "Welcome to the world of hosteling!".  The kid leaves, leaving his towel and we never see him again.  Later when I get up I tell the story to Alex at the reception desk and she finds it quite amusing.  We take sowers, have breakfast and get our laundry together.  Check the Internet and then go looking to buy the oyster card for the tube, costing L3 for the card which will be returned when we leave and put L6 credit on the card.  Finally find a laundry about 4:30 or so.  We start the wash and walk back to The Canal to sit on the deck and  have a glass of wine.  Back to finish and dry the clothes costing me $13.35.  Sitting on the deck of The Canal was nice.  It's a beautiful day and people are riding their bikes, walking and a tour boat comes up the canal.  Finish at the laundry and walk back to the room to hang stuff that has not dried or am not drying in a dryer.  Quite a feat!  A bit of a disagreement again.  Get another L1 for the Internet.  En route to dinner stop at the grocery for water, crackers and a pear to the tune of $2.73.  Then Casa Mamma for a very good dinner of gnocchi w/Gorgonzola cream, rocket (ricola) salad and wine to the tune of $29.23.  It's expensive in London.  Back to the room with some left over gnocchi, it's very good and to sleep.  Up and dressed and to breakfast downstairs at the hostel and checking the Internet which is here at the hostel too.  Today we'll use the tube.  Take it to Leister Square to see if we can get discounted tickets for the show "Wicked" which is playing here in London.  It's the story of the witches of Oz from the Wizard of Oz.  There are several places selling tickets and the shows are on the board.  Wicked is not on.  Janeen asks and he says no they are not for sale here and discounted because it's a new show.  That's all I need to hear and have sort of realized that from the brochure which says tickets are discounted by L10 for 9/7-27 at the theatre for the first few showings.  She is a disbeliever and stops 2 more times at the discount theatre shops.  She's annoying me again.  We are hungry now so try to find the pub for the Sunday Roast.  Finally go in the right direction and find "The Sussex", a very cool pub with beautiful hanging baskets all around the building which is on a V corner.  We get the beef roast and I have 3 glass of wine to the tune of $37.60.  Head for the Thames and walk along the river.  Past Big Ben, the London Eye and to London Bridge, viewing the Tower Bridge and The Tower of London off in the distance.  Take the tube back to the hostel and the end of this Sunday 9/10/2006.  Up early.  Went to the Internet and made calls to Amy and Roger.  Bought a lip pen sharpener en route.  Stopped by the grocery store for a tomato, an onion and 2 bagels, double ended mitts for the oven and 2 pens.  Back to the room and stopped by a dentist who will fix my cap for L48.  My cap on the second tooth from the middle in the front has been loose for a very long time and I have been nervous about it.  I no longer have any temporary cement that I took with me from the States because I loaned it to Janeen twice when she lost her front tooth in Chile and then again in Australia.   We made several attempts in many other countries to purchase it, but not one of the countries sold it.  I'm not totally comfortable with him so ask at the desk.  They send me by bus to a nearby dental hospital.  Janeen is patiently accompanying me on all these trips.  No luck here and they send me up the street to a private practice.  They want L170 for a consultation and then more charges probably.  The girl here tells me about another clinic that is a part of their healthcare system and will help me. We take another bus to a neighborhood called "Angel".  A very cool neighborhood reminded me of Lincoln Park in Chicago.  They will cement the cap for L50.  We sit waiting in the waiting room for quite some time and they finally take me up stairs to one of the rooms.  The dentist here is Russian and has to pull the cap off with pliers, telling me that the cap really should be replaced because of the application.  The cap has a steel post inside which is cemented to the root canal channel of the remains of the tooth.  I really could have waited till I got home but I had no idea the cap was on so securely by the cemented post.  Now that is over and I am $94 lower in my finances and we have to put more money now on the oyster card as we have been using it for the bus fare.  We catch the tube to Victoria Station where the theatre showing Wicked is across the street.  We buy tickets to Wicked for tomorrow night's performance costing us $84.60 each.  From here we take the tube to Herod's shopping as Janeen has never been there.  I buy Mark some expensive shaving stuff and myself some thigh-high stockings for way too much money.  Hope they hold up.  Got a piece of chocolate and it was just OK.  We go to a fish & chips place for dinner near the theatre and it doesn't open for a half an hour yet.  I go to the pub on the corner for a glass of wine and sitting on their outside picnic tables of this glorious sunny day in London.  On to dinner at the fish place which was very good, this dinner $39.48 then back to the hotel and to bed.  Up early, breakfast and then I go to the Internet to upload pics so I can send the CD home that I have been carrying.  I call Inge in Denmark.  She is my sister's Danish exchange student of 35 years ago.  I had Amy look her number up on my phone bill of April 2005 where I called her to tell her of my sister's death.  I had forgotten to bring the number with me.  I talk to her daughter Mie who takes my email and Inge writes me.  She's invited us to stay with her and is so excited as well as I am to see her.  Work at the Internet and finish one of the CD uploading.  Get cleaned up to go to the theatre.  Leave about 5:15 and the Victoria line has had a terrorist alert so it is slow.  We finally get there and go to a local Italian restaurant for diner before the show.  I order risotto, bruschetta and wine, Janeen the bruschetta and carbonate.  My risotto is terrible.  I send it back.  The waiter/owner or whoever he is gets smart with me.  Brings the menu back to prove no cream.  I make it clear to him that I said creamy no cream and that risotto should be even creamy without cream.  He indicates I will have to pa for it.  Janeen shares her carbonara and we finish and now it's 7:10 and no check.  We get up and go to the exit where the cash register is.  I see my plate sitting there and tell the waitress if I am paying for it to wrap it up as a take away and I'll have the pleasure of throwing it out!  She says I'm not being charged for it.  Overall the whole restaurant left a bad taste in our mouths.  Go get our seats at the theatre and I get a glass of wine.  The show is quite good.   At intermission I get a strawberry cream ice cream.  Take the tube back to Journey's BP and to bed.  Up again relatively early as I had gone to sleep immediately after our return last night.  All these days here at Journeys, we do not have another room mate but have the room privately to ourselves.  I go over to the Internet again this morning to finish the CD pic uploads.   Call Alicia to let her know I am going to see her daughter Danee in Ireland next.  Back to the room and we decide to take the tube to Buckingham Palace and then to Hyde Park.  Take some pics of Janeen at the Palace and then find a place to eat, The Spaghetti House.  Have the best Caesar's salad, cannelloni, wine and coffee for $50, very expensive city but our dinner is very good.  Tomorrow we leave early to fly from Standsted airport here on the outskirts of London to Dublin on Ryan Air.  Have to top off the oyster card with 50 pence as it has only L2.60 on it now and you have to maintain L3.  Back to the hotel, brush my teeth and clean up.  Get my food from the refrig and go to sleep setting the alarm for 3:30 a.m.  Unfortunately the tube will not be running that early in the morning so we have to book a driver to the airport.  The alarm goes off and we're up.  Downstairs at 4 a.m. and the driver is waiting costing us $37.60 each.  Off to Standsted airport by 4:45 a.m.   The airport is packed with people.  Can't believe it.  We find the counter and the line is unbelievable.  I check my big bag but transfer things I cannot carry on in the small pack to it.  The lady checking us in says I'll probably have to come back with the small bag.  Janeen has to check hers and pay overweight.  I get to the security line which is also very long, and then have to go back to the check in and check this bag too.  The lady says my weight was OK so didn't have to pay overweight fees.  The Ryan Air flight to Dublin is costing us $90.23.  Get back in line and now I'm getting nervous about missing the plane.  Finally get thru security, taking off my boots and still being searched.  Walk forever and see Janeen is at the gate.  What a relief.  I would have left without her and I told her she needs to have the contact information with her in case something like that happens.  She comments she would not go!  How stupid!!!and costly!!!  The flight is quick and we're in Dublin.........next is Ireland........