Chapter One: London Bridge is Falling Down

Captain's log. Stardate 1545935. Nerd blog post #1.

I was in London for about 30 hours, and in true Hinckster style, it was a whirlwind.

Wait.. I should preface this nerd blog before I jump into it too far. Facebook notes are lame and mass e-mails beg for replies. This is just a little travel log. If you get bah-red, you don't have to visit! I do, however, want to have a more popular nerd blog than my scientist brother, Adam D. Hincks, so I will make popular references and shout outs to keep the readers happy. Whoever collects the most shout outs will win a free DQ something different cool treat upon my return. A shout out, Raffi, is when I make reference to something only YOU would understand! If I am in a place where I can't put up pictures, you will see: *** and can look latron. If google image search provides a better picture than I can take, you won't see one (ex. Buckingham Palace). If it can't be google searched, I'll put it up (ex. me in front of B. Palace). If you ask questions that you wouldn't ask in front of my dad, I will lie or ignore them. If you read every post, I will buy you a chocolate bar. Enjoy!

The flight was good. I was on the plane for over nine hours as it made a stop in Scotland, but I slept about eight of the hours, thanks to my travel pillow. Arriving at Gatwick, I took a train from the airport to Victoria Station, downtown London, and then the tube to Piccadilly Circus to find my hostel. This whole experience would have been smooth if it weren't for my luggage which weighed close to a hundred pounds, all told. No one offered help, which reminded me that I wasn't in friendly Canada anymore, where even a pregnant woman in a wheelchair would have stopped. But that's alright.. The hostel elevator was broken, but luckily a trio of Frenchmen helped me carry my bags up to he seventh floor, where I chose the cheapest room available - a ten person, co-ed room. Standart.

The African in me has made me an overly cautious traveler, so I locked my suitcases AND locked them to the bed. I then wandered Piccadilly Circus and its surroundings, decided I would see a show, and bartered a Lyceum theatre ticket down to £12. I think Doctor will be the only one to really understand what I mean when I say that I dressed up in high heels because I was playing a game and went for curry and then the play. It was a lot of fun. I think I'll get heckled if I say what show I saw, but I'll give a clue that it included a replica of my mane man (except this one had to wear a headpiece to prove his lionhood). It was a fun thing to do, and the first time I've seen a show alone, without any affiliation to the production. The Lyceum Theatre was beautiful.

Returning to the hostel, I met two guys from Washington DC and we hung for awhile. The pubs close at 11pm and the clubs stay open until 3am. Not wanting to dance with my dorky safety pouch under my clothes and with my laptop and camera in my purse, and too nervous to leave anything anywhere, I opted to just chill with my new friends at the hostel. Also, I had misunderstood the many people who invited me clubbing, mistaking "£1.50 drinks!" for "POUND FIFTY DRINKS!" and thinking it would be way too hectic.

I went to my room to go to bed around 1am, which is when I met my roommates for the first time. Five Germans, two French, two Americans. All men. Thanks, St. Christopher, patron saint of travel! They were all nice, and I immediately enforced a name game and then some other games that I made up. I got to practice my French and German and it was all good.

I met the Americans from the night before in the morning and we went to the National Gallery. There were tons of really famous paintings there, most notable, perhaps, was Van Gogh's "Sunflowers." We spent a couple of hours there and then I left them to check out Big Ben, the bridge, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace. If you're into shopping, London's great for that. I'm more into horses, so I took the tour of the Royal Mews, and wore one of those stupid headsets that tells you what's what. I saw her carriages, Rolls Royce's and, of course, horses. It was great.

Photos of me with officials. I love officials. Especially when they're wearing silly hats:




By this point I'd seen a ton and was tired of walking, so returned to the hostel to chill a bit. I bumped into the three Frenchmen who had helped me with my luggage. They're straight up Parisian gangstas, complete with tons of bling like it ain't no thing, who invited me to the casino to play billiards. I went. The tables were waaayyy smaller than what I'm used to, so I dominated. Obv. It was good to speak French and I found out a lot about Paris. One of them, Alexandre, is a semi-pro soccer player who often plays in Rennes, and he says the people there are really nice. They offered their place in Paris and to show me around whenever I like. They also helped me truck my luggage back down the stairs.

Here they are:


I tubed to the bus terminal to catch a bus to Birmingham (where my dad's brother, Claire's dad, lives). After a harrowing journey, the ticket man told me they were sold out for the 630pm bus, so I had to change plans and tube to a train station to get the train. Being that I don't graduate until November, I've milked the student discount wherever possible, and the train ended up being fairly cheap. My uncle met me in Birmingham and brought me to his place.

I'll explore Birmingham today and take my first shower since Canada. Even I know that's gross, but the water at the hostel was icy cold and I couldn't do it.

So London was great. It was the perfect balance of doing things on my own, and meeting new peeps to do things with. I was going to make a list of the highlights, but everything was great, except trucking my stuff around, and that was inevitable, given that I'm going for so long. I'm looking forward to a more relaxing time here in Birmingham, and then settling into Rennes.

And so, my readers, Chaper 1: London Bridge is Falling Down, is over. I don't know if it's too much information or not. This is how I'd tell the news to my mom, who likes the long version. Whenever I start to tell a story to my dad, he asks for the short version, but I'm not good at that one. SLS prefers the short one, too. I'm new, though. They can only get better.

Love to Canada. It was a sad goodbye, but I'm happy to be here now, and haven't been homesick. I'm excited to see what the next couple of weeks bring.

Signing off,
Hinckster.