This was the moment I had looked forward to since the beginning of the year. I was in London!!! This didn’t seem real, but it was. I could hardly sleep the night before and left early to avoid a hassle. I arrived at O’Hare airport at 3 pm but due to maintenance delays, I took another plane at 9.30 pm because the one assigned to me was still delayed.
I arrived at Heathrow airport looking lost but excited and using my trusted friend, google maps to get to the agreed meet up point with Toto. My previously planned itinerary was thrown to the wind because the probability of a delay was not factored in, coupled with the unaccounted factor of my fatigue after an 8-hour flight.
Watching a YouTube video on how to get an oyster card helped me to familiarize myself with my surroundings. Following the instructions, I obtained the card with ease. With this card, I took the train to meet my friend at Green Park Station. Amidst the crowd at the station; I did not locate my friend and I could not call her because I had no sim yet.
With no other option, I did what they do in every book; I looked for the nearest café with free internet connection. Finally, I was able to reach her on the phone and found that she had not even left where she was. Getting comfortable at Caffe Nero, I decided to order brunch consisting of hot chocolate and a sandwich as shown below.
My friend eventually arrived by 2 pm and we searched for a bathroom with an app called sit or squat. This app helps you locate nearby bathrooms ranging from clean to fairly clean. We found one located at a nearby hotel called the May Fair which was exquisite and as clean as they had predicted.
Afterwards, we went to get a sim from three that functioned in all European countries. It had unlimited data in the UK and 19GB in other European countries that I roamed in. I never had to worry about losing connection to the internet wherever I was located because the connection was amazing.
We had an all-white themed birthday party to prepare for later in the week and as such we searched for the perfect outfits. We did not find any outfits on this day but had fun shopping anyways. Finally retiring to our Airbnb in Canary wharf, we planned for the next day.
