July the 2nd and 3rd, a.k.a. Grace's 36-hour-long day.

Check out the tiny plane we took from Windsor to Toronto!

I did not sleep a wink on the flight from Toronto to London. So I was already stumbling when we landed in Heathrow, and from there it was a very long time before I could find access to either water or toilets, both of which ended up costing me money. I miss America where the water can go in and out of you for free. I had to pay 30 PENCE to pee today! I don’t know if that’s a lot. It feels like a lot.

Anyway, I landed in Heathrow and went through customs behind these two remarkably tall and beautiful redheads who were either dating or brother and sister (or both) and also looked eerily familiar to me as if I'd seen them before. Once in London, I wandered down to minus-1 floor at the airport and bought myself an Oyster Card so I could use the underground, and then I got on it and took it to Earl’s Court where I connected to the District Line which I took to Fulham Broadway, the closest station to the Queen Elizabeth Chelsea.

Amazingly free of incident, I followed the very over-simplified walking directions from the station to the hostel. Among other things, it did not include the sixth sense that Brits have that lets them know it’s safe to cross in the cross-walk when the sign is clearly still a red hand and the way that there are almost no street markers whatsoever. (I tapped some poor woman who was on her way into her apartment on the shoulder and asked her what road I was on.)

When I got to the Queen Elizabeth Chelsea, there was a Dane in a striped polo shirt at the bar and he checked me in. I feel like our first conversation was a pretty clear indication of what kind of people work here.

Me: Hi. I’m staying here. At the hostel.

Danish Man: (smiling) Oh, really? How do you know?

I’m using my inductive reasoning to draw the conclusion that the Danish Man is Danish because he has the same kind of accent as Mads Mikkelsen and also the same kind of nose.

Anyway, I was too jittery to go to sleep right at 2pm, so I headed aimlessly back to the Fulham Broadway Station with the idea of getting onto the train and then deciding where to get off once I'm on it. 

What I ended up doing was getting off at Euston Square, which is right near the door and care that they use as 221B Baker Street in BBC's "Sherlock." It took me 4 tries to find it - I went in literally every other possible direction before finally choosing the correct one. 

When I found it, there was a girl in a deer-stalker posing in front of the door so I took advantage of the fellow dorks and had them snap a terrible photo of me in front of the step. Although it turned out impressively well given that afterwards it occurred to me that they were so confused because they didn't speak English.

Other than Speedy's, (at which I did not actually eat because it looked like it was closed) my other two accomplishments of the day were trying this French chain restaurant Pret-a-Manger, which I love, and bought myself a 20-pound cell phone that has 120 minutes and unlimited text messages and was sold to me by a very cute young man named Chris. I asked him what the top 3 things he would suggest to a person who wants to experience London in 2 days were and he said the British Museum, Covent Garden, and Tottingham Court Road in general, which is the heart of the city in his opinion. (This was after some serious deliberation.) Anyway, he was really nice and now I have a phone. 

The view from my bunk, including my own left foot.

Now I'm back at the hostel, where there are primarily white guys sitting around ignoring each other which is fine by me because I'm that kind of tired where you don't feel tired at all but your brain can't perform basic normal functions, so I"m turning in soon. I picked up an evening paper and found a really intriguing article about a 12-hour long interactive performance of Macbeth that is being staged on an entire street block later this week and the audience stays the night - I SO wish I could be here to experience it. 

Here is a list of famous people that I was convinced that I saw today:

Donny Osmond

A Jonas Brother

Skylar from "Breaking Bad" (main character's wife)

The cop who is always showing up on "Community" to teach them about gun safety.

Now I'm going to go brush my teeth and finally FINALLY sleep. Tomorrow my day is going to be PACKED. PACKED!!!!