Chapter 9
Finally we got off the train at Waterloo and took the tube to the Wellington
Halls of Residence. However we had to walk through a part of London, which
was mildly seedy, and with many drunken idiots wandering around. George
carrying the balloon in her mouth and thinking how good it would be if the
damn thing would just pop, and she wouldn't have to carry it. As always the
A-Z was invaluable.
Upon arrival at the Wellington hall we were told that the rooms hadn't been
booked. Great. However a very friendly and helpful receptionist said that as
Edd actually had the receipt for booking the rooms, he'd try to sort it out.
Thus we were finally given rooms, and unsuccessfully trying to hide the
balloon behind the desk, we walked down the corridor and found them. George
decided that she'd never been so glad to sit down in her life. Her feet hurt
so much. Owie! The bedrooms were very basic- not what you'd expect from Kings
College, Broomington style ! But the worst thing was the noise.It was so hot
that we had to keep the windows wide open. Walking into the rooms was like
walking into Times Square in New York!
However all slept soundly that night. The breakfast the next day was very
nice. Complete with croissants, for those who wanted them. And tasty Muller
yogurts, not "Lactels". Horrid things. Even lots of nice Japanese boys.
We sorted out the room booking, aided by an Oxford student looking like a
vampire, who blamed the problem on the "incompetent apes" who hadn't
registered Edd's booking.
Next we stepped out into the busy streets of London. We caught the tube to
Waterloo where we could, for �4.00, leave our luggage all day. However Emma
unfortunatly lost one of her slippers, and far from being upset at losing it,
wondered what might happen if someone found just one slipper in the tube!
Hilarious.
Having reached Waterloo we put down our luggage, coats and RC balloons and,
happy to be without heavy luggage, ran off towards the Thames. Emma then
decided to put her contact lenses in, but failed as George didn't make a very
good wind break. However Edd solved the problem (no offence, we love you
really!), and we sat, enjoying the sun and smell of oil coming from the
river. It was quite nasty, especially as Edd said that the Thames water has
been processed at least 5 times. Poor fish.
We finally got up and George stood, A-Z in hand, wondering where North was.
Suddenly a well meaning local rode up on a crazy bike and told us to go to
"Page 44" of the A-Z. We could go swimming in a lake at a park on this page,
IF we wanted to. We decided that we'd stay in the centre, and as it was a bit
chilly, we'd probably get hypothermia/ pneumonia if we went swimming.
Next we walked under the London Eye. Suddenly George was hit in the eye by a
drop of water, which scared her considerably.Looking up and expecting to see
a pigeon, she instead saw that she was directly underneath the carraige at
the very top of the wheel. The water was probably condensation, falling off
the carraiges.
Chapter 10 > > >