The Writing Nut

As the bus sped through the narrow country roads, we glimpsed green hills and lush fields of yellow.

A field of rapeseed

Alan, our tour guide, later on explained that the beautiful yellow fields we were seeing were filled with flowers known as rapeseed—which is actually where canola oil is derived from.

I mused for a minute about how a beautiful flower could have such an ugly name.

I wanted so much to soak all the scenery in, but the consequences of not having slept for almost a whole day were beginning to show. I gave in and followed Maiko right into dreamland.

It was almost 3PM  by the time we got to the final stop of our tour. I struggled to wake myself up as we got off the bus. I was still groggy and definitely tired.

Tour guide Alan must have gotten a refreshing nap because he seemed more energetic than usual as he guided as through the streets of Oxford toward our first stop.

Christ Church College, Oxford

The sight of the beautiful building before us immediately woke me from my stupor. I got my camera out and snapped pictures while Alan told us about the building before us.

Christ Church College, Oxford

Christ Church College, is one of the largest constituent college in Oxford University. Aside from having produced many notable graduates (13 British Prime Ministers according to my own research), the college is also known for its literary contributions.

The college is the setting for books such as Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Alan even pointed out the tree where Alice fell through when she followed the white rabbit. Alan also mentioned that the college has been used in the filming of many movies such as Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter.

My ears perked up at the mention of Harry Potter, and the last dredges of fatigue completely left my brain.

Alan wasn’t big on Harry Potter info (having never read or watched the series), but as he led us into Christ Church College, I recognized many of the locations they used to shoot the movies.

The first of these spots was the courtyard:

Hogwarts Courtyard

Courtyard stairs

Beautiful arches

I also recognized the stairs that Harry Potter and his friends often used to go up to the various halls and rooms in Hogwarts.

Hogwarts Stairs

It was hard to get a decent picture by the stairs as there were always people climbing up and down it.

Posing by the Hogwarts Stairs

This was also the stairway we used to go up to the most famous location used in the Harry Potter movies: The Hogwarts Dining Hall.

Harry Potter Hogwarts Dining Hall

We followed a long queue of people into the dining hall. It was easy to spot fellow Harry Potter fans, as they were snapping the most pictures and posing beside every other dining hall chair.

Right as we entered we saw a picture of Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, who wrote another favorite book: Alice in Wonderland

A portrait of Charles Dodgson in the dining hall

Seeing where they filmed the Hogwarts Dining Hall scene was an awesome experience.

I’m in the Hogwarts Dining Hall!

We even got to see the table where Dumbledore and the other teachers sit during meal times.

Headmaster’s and Teachers’ Table

I wish I could have had more time to compose better pictures of the dining hall, but we had to move on as there was still a long line of people waiting to get in before they closed the dining hall at 4pm, to prepare for the students’ dinner.

All set for dinner time

Maiko was so happy she got to see the “Hogwarts Dining Hall”, she practically bounced down the stairs.

Maiko enjoying the stairs

After seeing the dining hall, Alan ushered us out into the beautiful Oxford cathedral cloisters.

Cathedral Cloisters

Another view of the cloisters

We also went into the cathedral itself, and quietly snapped pictures.

Inside the Oxford Christ Church Cathedral

The cathedral led down and out into a small souvenir/book shop. Naturally, they sold various Harry Potter books and items.

Harry Potter items sold in the Christ Church College shop

Hedwig!

After touring Christ Church College and the Cathedral, Alan led us through the town of Oxford. He explained that Oxford University, was in fact made up of many different self- governing colleges and halls.

another college

Alan said that Oxford is actually known as the “City of Dreaming Spires” in reference to the beautiful architecture that makes up the city. He pointed out various buildings of interest, though I can’t remember all their names.

A bridge between buildings

I do, however, remember the Bodleian Library.

The Bodleian Library

The Bodleian library is one of the oldest (and biggest) libraries in Europe, and is actually composed of several historic buildings such as the Divinity School, Convocation House and the Chancellor’s Court.

The Bodleian

Divinity School

The library houses many rare books, manuscripts, archives, maps, music and a primary research collections. The Bodleian is one of the six libraries entitled to receive a copy of every book ever printed in the UK. According to my own research, the library is home to 7 million volumes, stored on over 110 miles of shelving.

Library courtyard

After letting us gawk at the many buildings comprising the library and its surrounding areas, Alan led us toward the center of the town to the martyr’s memorial.

He pointed to the Ashmolean museum a few yards from where we stood and informed us that that’s where the bus was going to pick us up. Maiko and I, and another tour member, did a little “restroom stop” at the Ashmolean.

The Ashmolean Museum

We had 45 minutes left before the end of the tour, so we proceeded toward the more commercial part of town where various stores and many shoppers could be found.

Oxford shops

We saw a T-mobile store and remembered our little problem with our cellphones. We had brought our smartphones on the trip, in the hopes of using the data plan, but for some reason the web function wasn’t working correctly. We wanted to drop by the T-mobile store and ask for help but we had only 20 minutes left, and we didn’t want to get left behind.

A few minutes before 5:00pm, we headed to the spot where the bus was going to pick us up. A number of our tour group had already gathered there. When the bus came, we all boarded and Alan did a head count.

He realized that one person was missing from the tour. It was the Malaysian girl we had spoken with during lunch in the Cotswolds. She was also the same girl who had gone with us into the Ashmolean to look for the restroom.

Five minutes passed and Alan was beginning to worry. He called up the main office to ask for a contact number for the girl. Maiko turned to look through the back window and spotted her running toward the bus. We all clapped when she boarded and she thanked us for waiting.

As the bus made its way from Oxford toward London, Maiko and I napped–tired from the day’s walking.

When the bus neared London, Alan went around asking where everyone was staying so he could plot the drop off points.

Maiko and I wanted to do some grocery shopping so we could make our own lunch and breakfast for the next few days. We requested Alan to drop us off near a grocery store. We were the last ones off the bus, as Alan decided that Victoria was the best place for us to go. A Sainsbury’s grocery store was nearby, and right across it was the Victoria tube station, which would take us back to King’s Cross.

We shopped at Sainsbury’s for sandwich supplies, snacks, water and some fruits. It was a good thing I always carry around a foldable grocery bag as the water bottles were too heavy for plastic bags to carry.

For dinner, Maiko and I decided to try out Pret a Manger—an organic sandwich shop which we saw everywhere in London.  Apparently they don’t sell anything that hasn’t been made the same day.

We bought tasty sandwiches, and had half of the milk chocolate that we had bought at Sainsbury’s.

Lugging all our groceries, we crossed the street toward Victoria tube station. We sat in the underground train, tired but happy.

The long, exciting day of touring Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon, the Cotswolds and Oxford was the perfect cure for jetlag.

I fell into a dreamless sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

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We arrived in Stratford-Upon-Avon at 11:45am, after a 15-minute ride from Warwick. Our tour guide Alan led us from a nearby parking lot toward the entrance to the main attraction of this part of our tour.

Parking lot sign. Windsor Street!

Stratford-Upon-Avon was placed on the map by one man: William Shakespeare. Three million tourists visit the 800-year old town each year to see the place where the great bard, poet and playwright was born.

I’m sure half of them were writers.

I know, because, I was shivering with excitement at finally getting to see the house where one of my writing heroes was born and raised.

Since the cottage could only accommodate so many visitors, Alan had asked us to pick whether we wanted to see the cottage first, or see the shop first. I made sure that we were part of the first group to see Shakespeare’s birthplace.

At the entrance to Shakespeare’s birthplace

A view of Shakespeare’s house from the outside

Maiko knew I was super excited and made sure that she took tons of pictures of me in front of Shakespeare’s cottage.

Shakespeare’s house behind me

Signpost to Shakespeare’s house

I stepped inside the cottage, my camera at the ready. An attendant was present nearby. He said we could take pictures in the entrance hall, but that we weren’t allowed to take pictures within the rooms of Shakespeare’s cottage, due to preservation issues.

So I snapped a photo of this fireplace in the entrance hall, and resolved to commit everything I saw to memory.

Fireplace at the entrance hall

Shakespeare’s house was a two-storey cottage. William Shakespeare’s father was a glover, and on the ground floor we got to see John Shakespeare’s shop. I’m not sure if they preserved it or recreated it to look as it was back in the day, but the shop looked like an authentic glover’s shop. You could almost imagine John Shakespeare using the various tools on the table to craft beautiful gloves.

We climbed up the stairs and saw the many sleeping rooms that made up the next floor. To the left of the stairs was a hall. Pictures and words depicting the history of the house lined the walls of room. An attendant dressed as a typical medieval maiden was assigned to the room. She talked about the various rooms of the house and how the boys and girls’ rooms could be found on a higher level of this floor.

We also saw a part of the original window that was taken down and preserved as it contained many notable signatures. Apparently, even in the olden days, many famous writers such as Charles Dickens, Walter Scott and Thomas Carlyle made a pilgrimage to the great bard’s birthplace. They autographed the walls and windows. Many of the signatures still remain on the windowpanes around the house, though the signed walls have been long painted over.

Maiko and I glimpsed the other rooms, and waited for our turn to see the room where the great bard was born. Another attendant within the room pointed out various objects within such as the bed where Mary Arden gave birth to William Shakespeare, and the crib where Shakespeare lay when he was a baby.

The attendant also told the story of how William Shakespeare had bequeathed the second best bed to his wife Anne Hathaway, in his will. The attendant explained that despite the many speculations as to why he might have done this, in the Elizabethan custom, the best bed in the house was reserved for guests. So, the bed William bequeathed to Anne would have been their marital bed, and thus would have had romantic significance.

I wanted to stay longer in the room and savor the moment, but we had to give way to the other groups coming in—plus we didn’t have a whole lot of time to explore Stratford upon avon.

We made our way down the stairs and saw the  kitchen where Mary Arden made the meals, and dining hall where the family gathered to eat.

Outside, a group of schoolchildren where gathered in the garden, listening to a lady dressed in Elizabethan garb, as she sang them songs from that era.

Maiden singing Elizabethan era songs

I took a quick snapshot of Shakespeare’s backyard garden, imagining how it might have looked long ago.

Garden at the back of Shakespeare’s house

Maiko and I exited the house and made our way to the shop, where we bought various souvenirs for ourselves, and family members.

We didn’t have much time to look around the town since we had to leave for lunch at 1pm, so Maiko and I just walked down the street and took pictures of entertainers and shops we found interesting.

Street musician playing his violin

A living statue of Shakespeare

We found a magic shop near Shakespeare’s house and went inside. There was a magic museum on the shop’s top floor, which you could see for 5gbp. We didn’t go up due to lack of time.

A magic shop

Inside the magic shop

A small alcove inside the magic shop

The post office box outside the magic shop

The Creaky Cauldron was a quaint little coffee shop which offered butterbeer and various teas and coffees.

The Creaky Cauldron

We didn’t sit down for a drink, but we did take pictures inside. I found a garden gnome in the corner and I asked Maiko to take a picture. Gnomes figure greatly in my own book and I saw it as an auspicious sign.

A gnome!

There were bookshops all over the street. Maiko and I went in one of the bigger ones. I found Usborne’s Stories from Shakespeare, which was a compilation of stories Shakespeare wrote, written in the kind of language children could understand and enjoy. After much deliberation, I bought the book.

In front of the Shakespeare Bookshop

An ice cream shop caught Maiko’s attention. The weather was warm and perfect for ice cream and we had been wanting to get ourselves a cone since we got there. But it was only our first tour and we were conscious of our budget, so we decided not to get any.

Moo-moo’s ice cream shop

After looking at various shops, we “fooled around” in front of the Fool’s statue in the middle of the town, and then headed for the parking lot.

The fool (I’m talking about the statue)

Fooling around!

We could have stayed a whole day in Stratford-Upon-Avon, but I’m kind of glad we didn’t. I would have bought way too many books and souvenirs.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Lunch was at the White Hart Tavern somewhere in the Cotswolds.

The White Hart

The food was okay, though Maiko thought 11gbp was a bit too much for lunch. I agreed with her and said that we should pack sandwiches for our next tours

Lunch at the White Hart

We chatted with two other girls on the tour. One was from the Philippines, grew up in Australia, but was currently living in London, and the other was a Malaysian girl. They were each traveling on their own.

After lunch, we all piled into the bus. We got to see a bit of the Cotswolds–a quaint region filled with rolling hills, verdant fields, old houses, and churches–

A Church in the Cotswolds

As we headed for our final stop:

Oxford.

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When we lay down to sleep at midight, Maiko and I expected to wake at six am, fully refreshed and ready for the tour that lay ahead. Of course that didn’t happen.

Jetlag and excitement  = the worst possible combination during a trip.

Instead, we pseudo-slept at 12MN, and woke up at 2AM. We started talking about the tour that lay ahead and how amazing it was that we were finally in London. At around 3AM, we decided that we should try to catch some zzz’s. We switched the lights off and closed our eyes.

Five minutes later, we were up again. We kept on trying to fall back asleep, but  we always ended up talking or surfing the net. Finally at around 5AM, we gave up and decided to get ready for the day.

We had some snacks left over from yesterday’s trip and had those for breakfast. The hotel provided us with an electric kettle, teacups, small plates, teabags, and sachets of instant coffee, creamer and sugar. After cleaning out the green gunk in the electric kettle, we made ourselves some tea and coffee.

The sun was already up by the time we stepped outside.

Outside the hotel early in the morning

We looked around for some shop to buy water for the day. We were lucky enough to find a small grocery store open at 6AM.

Hurray, an open store!

We had an extra hour before the tour company picked us up at the Holiday Inn, King’s Cross. We had some time to look around the neighborhood.

Gate to a public garden

We noticed a lot of people using these blue bikes to get to work. We found one of these bike stations nearby and studied it curiously.

Bikes for Rent

Apparently for 1GBP a day, you can rent one of these bikes. You can pick them up at one bike station and then drop them off at a different location. Maiko wanted to try one, but she knew I wasn’t a very good biker and that I wasn’t used to biking on the left side of the road with all those cars behind me. I promised Maiko that we would do some biking in (less busy) Salisbury, for sure.

The Holiday Inn-King’s Cross hotel was about seven minutes walk from our hotel. We got there early at 6:50 AM. A Premium Tours bus was supposed to come and pick us up at 7:15am. We waited, trying to guess which way the bus would be coming from.

At 7:30am, a big white tour bus appeared and stopped on the other side of the road. Maiko and crossed the busy street and climbed on board. The tour guide asked for the name on our reservation, and I said “Windsor.” He looked at me curiously.

Being Asian, and having the same surname as the Queen of England apparently will get you raised eyebrows and curious looks—every time.

The bus driver gave us a big scare with the way he careened down the busy, narrow streets of London. In one instance, he decided to do a 3-point turn on a small road. By the time he  realized that the bus was too big to even fit diagonally on the street, it was already too late, and he had already hit a tree. While the bus driver checked if the bus’s rear end was okay, a tour guide hopped on the bus and joined us for the duration of the trip.

The bus had to pick up other people from different hotels. Most of the people on the list weren’t waiting outside like we were. The tour guide had to go into the hotel and ask the hotel if they could check the records if the people who were supposed to go on the tour were staying at the hotel.

At the end of the rounds, there were only about ten of us in the big bus, and we were all going on different tours. The tour guide asked us what tours we were on and gave us the gate numbers where we had to wait.

We arrived at the Victoria Coach Station at around 8am.

Inside Victoria Coach Station

Maiko and I got off the bus and made our way to Gate 7, where our tour guide for the day was supposed to meet us.

Gate 7: Tour 5

Our tour guide soon appeared. He introduced himself as Alan and asked us to follow him to the medium sized coach that was waiting for us. He checked our names off the list. Smiling, he gave me that “you’re a Windsor?” look again. Alan told us to choose our seats, drop our bags and pop in to the loo for a “weewee” because we had a bit of a drive ahead of us.

Following his directions, Maiko and I made our way to the loo—or restroom, where we had to pay 30 pence to use the toilets.

A few minutes later, the coach was chugging out of the station, and Alan was doing Sean Connery impressions while telling us about the day ahead.

We were on way to our first stop: Warwick Castle.

Warwick Castle

Outside Warwick Castle

We arrived in the town of Warwick (pronounced War-rick) at around 10am. Alan led us through the castle entrance, and gave us an hour and a half to explore the grounds and meet back at the bus.

Being part of a tour group was great because we got to go into the castle before the grounds were open to the public.

Inside Warwick Castle Grounds

Maiko and I took pictures in different areas of the castle grounds, before heading inside the castle to check out the various rooms.

One of the castle walls

Beautiful view from a rampart behind the castle

An old catapult

We learned a lot about the castle’s history from Alan’s short history lesson on the bus, and from the various exhibits within the castle itself.

old armor and weapons

Double, double, toil and trouble. A cauldron used in kitchens of long ago.

Posing with Henry VIII and his six wives

A toilet used in the early days of the castle

The most interesting exhibit we saw was the Kingmaker, which told the story of Richard Neville, who in the War of the Roses in the 1450’s supported the Yorkists. When the Yorkists won in 1461, King Henry VI bestowed the title of Earl of Warwick on Richard Neville. But when fortunes changed, Richard the Earl of Warwick went against Henry VI and took him prisoner at Warwick Castle.

Wax figures in the Kingmaker exhibit

The Kingmaker exhibit featured waxworks by Madame Tussaud along with music and snippets of dialogue that demonstrate the life of everyday castle inhabitants and preparations for battle.

Due to the lack of time, there were many exhibits we didn’t get to see—such as Merlin: The Dragon Tower and the dungeon tour.

Entrance to Merlin the Dragon Tower

Maiko and I made our way up the narrow stairs toward the ramparts and towers.

I made it halfway up the tower

Halfway through, my acrophobia kicked in. I began to feel dizzy as I caught a glimpse of the ground from above one of the ramparts. I gave Maiko my nice camera and told her to go ahead and continue up the tour without me.

Up the tower

The stairs were actually one way only, but luckily, nobody was going up when I chickened out and decided to climb back down.

Maiko took pictures of the great view.

The view from the tallest tower

She even snapped a picture of me waiting on the bench below.

Waiting on the bench

We met up at the bench and Maiko told me that I made the right decision to pass on the tower climb. Her legs were shaking like jelly from fatigue after walking up 530 steps.  It was already 11:20 so we headed out of the castle.

Outside the castle entrance, an archer was showing off his skills:

Warwick Castle archer

Maiko and I passed by an old stockade  left outside the castle and decided to have some photo fun before heading toward the parking lot.

We could have spent a whole day there, but we had to move on to our next stop: Stratford-Upon-Avon.

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Two weeks ago, I took a ten-day trip to jolly old England. It was not only my first real vacation (meaning one that took longer than three days, and one that took me out of the country), it was also research for the book I’ve been writing, and a pilgrimage to the place that inspired the book.

I’ve been dying to go to England since forever. My desire to see it intensified when I finished writing the final draft of my book.

I had based my story in Salisbury and Amesbury. They are towns close to Stonehenge, which plays a central part in the storyline. While writing the book, I had used pictures and maps gathered from the internet to visualize the place where my characters lived. I also used Google Earth so I could figure out how my characters could go from one place to another.

I wanted so badly to walk the path my characters walked. I wanted to see the houses I had picked as a model for their residences, and to explore the towns they lived in. This was a far off dream, as far as I was concerned—something that could happen but only in the far, far future.

But a stroke of good luck, and a little help from God/the Universe made it possible for this dream to come true much sooner than expected. My aunt JD had joined the Wheel of Fortune as a contestant, and actually won. She knew about my dream to go to the UK and to see Stonehenge up close. So when she got her prize money, she made sure to give me a part of it so I could go to the UK. Thanks to her, and to my best friend Maiko, I got to fulfill a dream.

Maiko was the only one patient enough to read my first draft from beginning to end. She gave me some really good suggestions and pointed out inconsistencies, which I worked on in my succeeding drafts. She’s also read my fifth draft. In short, Maiko is the only person who has ever read the entire book twice. She’s seen the changes the characters and the story has undergone.

And she professes to be my number one fan. Naturally, she had to come with me to my England trip. She loved my story as much as I did and she was very eager to join me in my quest to walk my characters’ paths.

Now that you know the story behind my trip, and have been introduced to my travel partner, let’s get to the juicy part—the Journey.

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Our awesome friend Lena was kind enough to leave work a little earlier so she could drop us off at the airport. She took a picture of Maiko and I before we went inside.

At LAX, before the Trip

We had checked in hours before, so all we had to do was get our checked-in luggage weighed, scanned and loaded into the plane. I thought it would take us five minutes tops, but unfortunately, the couple ahead of us were taking up the sole attendant’s whole time as they frantically searched for the man’s missing ID card.

Another counter finally opened up and we managed to drop our bags off. We were headed for the security checkpoint toward the gates, when I remembered that we had brought a bottle of soda with us. I gave it away to one of the security guards, who took it after some hesitation.

The line at the security checkpoint wasn’t as long as I’d expected it to be. After getting my passport scanned and stamped, I got my first experience with the new body scanners.

I tried not to think of what my x-ray picture looked like as I stood there with my hands behind my head.

After we re-organized our clothes and our carry-on luggage, we headed for our take-off gate. We were two hours early, so we found a table near the coffee shop and parked ourselves there.

Hanging out at a coffee shop before the flight

While Maiko chatted with her mom on the phone, I bought some souvenirs for Frances (a former student I was going to meet up with in London), and exchanged my dollars for some British pounds. I had planned on exchanging just half of the money at LAX, and the rest of it in London, in case they had a better rate; but the lady insisted that LAX’s rate was better and they don’t charge commission. So I went for it.

Currency Exchange

(I would learn later on that I should’ve followed my original plan. Oh well, lesson learned.)

Being cheap—er—budget-oriented and smart travelers, Maiko and I had packed our own dinner. I bought a large soda at Burger King (I felt bad that we were using their table without buying anything), and we gobbled up the rice balls and croquettes Maiko had prepared at home.

We still had an hour and a half before our 8:30PM flight so we spent it wisely. Maiko worked on her book translation while I read. We tried to ignore the obnoxious teenager behind us.  He was skyping (rather loudly) with someone on his laptop.  Of course, he had to be on the same flight as we were. Thankfully, his seat was far from ours.

Before long, we were on Virgin Atlantic Flight 24 and headed for England!

Although the seats were a tad small, I was pleasantly surprised at the amenities the airlines had. Each seat had its own small entertainment center. You could play tons of games or watch movies and TV shows for hours.

They also gave away a complimentary pouch filled with a pair of socks, an eye mask, a toothbrush and some toothpaste.

Freebies

Blankets and earphones were provided, along with a decent dinner, snacks and breakfast.

Dinner

Cute soda cans

I also liked that they had a water station where you could fill up your water bottles.

Two movies, a few hours of sleep, and a relatively easy flight later, we were flying towards London Heathrow.

I saw many fields, hills and trees as the plane descended. England was a lot greener than California, and I could already feel my excitement building.

The excitement waned a little as we walked about two miles from the airport gate toward the main airport building. My excitement waned even further as we waited in line for an hour to get through the UK Customs Border.

The customs official asked what the purpose of our travel was, I told her it was for vacation, and also book research. She asked what my book was about and I said it was a middle grade fantasy book. She gave me a confused look so I said my book was like Harry Potter, only not as good. She laughed, stamped my passport and wished us a pleasant vacation.

We spent several minutes searching for the carousel that held our luggage. I finally spotted our bags yards away. The conveyer belt was moving fairly quickly so I had to make a mad dash for the bags.

After we’d gotten all our bags, Maiko and I purchased some UK Sim cards from a vending machine. We chose the T-Mobile brand, because we had heard that it had the best data plan and we wanted to use our smartphones. We plugged our UK sim cards into our cellphones, and were slightly disappointed when our data services didn’t work. We decided to just figure it out once we got to our hotel. At least we could make calls if we had to.

I had purchased an Oyster Card before we left for the trip so we used this to get ourselves on the tube.

Oyster Card – Lets you get on all the  underground trains and buses around London

We were happy to see that there was a line going straight from the airport to King’s Cross Station.

It was around 7PM when we finally arrived at King’s Cross Station, we had a bit of trouble orienting ourselves. We asked one of the station guards where Swinton Street was, but he sort of gave us the wrong direction. Finally, I asked one of the shopkeepers who pointed us in the right way.

We arrived at the Arriva Hotel and checked in. We lugged our bags through the narrow corridors, eager to relieve ourselves of the load.

Arriva Hotel

We had the surprise of our lives when we opened the door. It was the smallest hotel room we had ever been in. A step took us directly into the bathroom and three steps took us to the double bed that occupied most of the room.  There was a large cabinet with open shelves for our things, and a small fridge placed underneath a narrow table. The place was so small, you could literally open the fridge while sitting at the edge of the bed.

The story was the same in the bathroom. There was only enough room to stand and maybe turn around once in the shower stall. The shower stall doors slid sideways because there wasn’t enough space to place a door that opened outward. The sink and the toilet bowl, were both a step away from the shower stall.

It was a good thing we planned on being outside most of the time.

My mom had asked us to check on my stepfather’s aunt who lived in Islington. She’s 82 years old and lives by herself. So, after we got ourselves a little organized, we used the internet to get directions to where she lived. Luckily, it was a 15 minute walk from our hotel.

We headed toward Islington. Halfway up the street we passed by a Thai restaurant. We realized we were starving so we sat down and had our dinner there.

Dinner at Thai Aubergine

In London, they ask you whether you want still or sparkling water. And the water always comes in a fancy glass bottle, which looks more like it should contain some alcoholic drink instead of water. Good I think I did my research. I asked for still water, and we ordered our food.

We worked on our cellphones while we waited for the food. We figured out that the 10 GBP that we had paid for only for the sim itself, and that we still had to “top off” our sim to get some calling credits.

After gobbling up our meal, we had a bit of trouble figuring out how much tip they expect from customers in England. Maiko finally got the courage to ask the waitress, who said it was 12%.

We paid for our meal and headed up King’s Cross Road towards Islington. On the way, we passed by a small grocery store with a cellphone Top Off sign. We decided to each purchase 10GBPs worth of cellphone credits there.

The top off receipt was easy enough to figure out. After topping off our cell, we headed for Aunt Helen’s house.

We thought we were lost, until I mentioned that Aunt Helen was supposed to live up in the 17^th floor. Maiko started laughing and pointed to the only building in the area that could possibly hold 17 floors. We headed toward it.

It turns out Aunt Helen lives on the 22^nd floor.  She looked confused when we opened the door. But she quickly let us in when I introduced myself. I pointed to a family picture in her living room and said that was me standing on the left side.

Aunt Helen was the nicest and fun-nest person to talk to. She had a few lapses in memory and kept asking us the same question every five minutes, but otherwise, her witty sense of humor was in tact.

Aunt Helen

After she asked us if we wanted tea for the fourth time, we finally agreed. She made us a pot of tea and even spent several minutes looking for her best china.

English tea and biscuits

She served the tea with milk and sugar and a plate of jam-filled biscuits. I was so glad we finally agreed to have some tea, as it was the best I had tasted so far.

We bid her goodnight and at around 10:30PM, finally got back to our small (really small) hotel room. We showered, unpacked and prepared for the next day. Before we knew it, it was midnight and we needed to sleep.

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Join me this Friday for England Day 2: Warwick Castle, Stratford Upon Avon, Lunch at the Cotswolds, & Oxford

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