As we left on June 12 I was feeling a mix of emotions: excitement, anxiety, sadness, anticipation. I was constantly being reminded how lucky I am to be able to be in different countries, travelling and studying, for so long. But 6 months still seems like a long time. Katie, Em and I flew with Qantas to London Heathrow via Hong Kong, which was pretty good, all things considered. We only had a quick stopover, which was great in terms of having a fairly short trip. The one downside was that we think it made us more jetlagged: we were pretty exhausted and dizzy for our first few days in London. When we arrived, we had fun navigating the tube and all its stairs with, between the 3 of us, our 2 big suitcases and 3 small carry on bags plus a handbag each. The worst (in hindsight, funniest) part was when Em, on her first tube ride, got left at a station on her own because Katie and I couldn’t get ourselves and our bags off the train in time. It was a combination of having lots of bags, and annoying Brits in our way, who knew we needed to get off, but didn’t help us at all – unlike helpful Aussies, we thought. Em was fine though, thankfully. After working out the tube Oyster card system, we eventually managed to get to the Old Rectory of St Helens Bishopsgate church in Southwark, London, a huge multi-storey house where we had a floor to ourselves!
In our 2½ days in London, we managed to prevail upon the kindness of a few different friends, do lots of shopping, and a little bit of historical stuff. On our first night we called (from a red phone box!) some Aussie friends living there and invited ourselves round for dinner. Excellent to be well fed… and of course see Anna and her twins, Kate and Sophie (who Kate Sugars had nannied last year) and Anna’s parents. We went to St Helens church on Sunday morning with Andy and Kim and their new baby Jonny: British friends who we got to know when they recently spent 2 years in Australia. Was great to see God working through this church on the other side of the world! Also with these 3, after church we had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant on South Bank. We said goodbye to Andy, Kim and Jonny to tube up to Oxford St, to begin our shopping. In those 2 days, we went to Topshop, Primark, Zara, H&M, Harrods, Boots, Tescos… can you feel my excitement? We did have fun trying to pick out fashion trends in London, and came to the conclusion (with the agreement of Kim, whose job used to be to buy clothes for big fashion labels) that London is far more individual and less clone-like than Melbourne. Although Kim added that Melbourne was better than Sydney in terms of individuality, you’ll be pleased to hear. As for the historical/architectural stuff, mostly we saw it from a bus. We bussed down Regent St, through Piccadilly Circus and to Trafalgar Square, where Katie and I had so much trouble climbing up the lions, hilarious! And later we bussed past Big Ben, Westminster, the London Eye and along Park Lane. As Kim and I walked to church, we went over London Bridge, through the Business District and past Leadenhall Market – awesome! Then as we went to lunch we wandered past the Gherkin and the Tower of London, and over the Tower Bridge. We did manage to have lunch in Hyde Park, but that was the best of our historical/cultural education really. It was a crazy few days all up, coping with jetlag and being on our own in a huge, busy place, but we had a good time.
