Greenwich

March 28, 2010

Our plan for today was to get up and catch the 10:30 commuter ferry boat to Greenwich on Sunday. We ended up sleeping in a little to long and then taking our time with showering and eating so we got out of the house about an hour or so late. We figured we could catch the 11:15 ferry. When we got to the ferry dock, which was right by Big Ben, we noticed that Big Ben had just struck noon. Noon? We thought it was 11. Turns out Saturday to Sunday was daylight savings in London which we had all forgotten about. Well now we were about 2 hours behind our imaginary schedule which really doesn't mean anything at all, haha. We found the boat with ease and we're on our way. It was a fairly nice day out, a little sun and no rain so we got some really good views of the city from the Thames River -- which is apparently pronounced 'Tehms'.

Once we got to Greenwich we headed to the Royal Observatory which is the place Hilary was most looking forward to visiting. It was free so I was down. The Royal Observatory is located at the highest point in Greenwich park so we had a little bit of a climb. The sad thing is it really wasn't that bad, I'm just so out of shape that my legs and lungs were not feeling good during the climb. I recover really quickly but during the actually activity I usually feel awful. Hopefully that will change as this trip advances. I've never had very good endurance though, so maybe it's just in my genes to be awful at aerobic exercise. Jit, Hilary and I finally made it up to the Observatory without anyone passing out so that was a success. Once inside the observatory itself was okay. I really like astronomy and the depths of the universe is extremely fascinating. But I took an astronomy 101 class in college so I pretty much already knew everything the observatory had to teach. Hilary really enjoyed it though and I found ways to keep myself entertained. Mainly by watching all the little kids play with the interactive displays. Little kids are super cute when they are happy and intrigued.

The second half of the observatory was information on the Meridian Line. Greenwich is the official place to find 0 degrees Longitude. It is also the official clock for GMT. Which makes sense since GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time, definitely didn't know that before. I learned a lot more on this half as it talked about the struggle for sailors to navigate the seas before they could accurately figure out their latitude and longitude. Turns out it was establishing the GMT that was able to help sailors eventually figure this out. I'll spare the details on this but I was surprised how much I learned. At the very end we were able to take a picture straddling the official Meridian Line. This was pretty cool knowing the exact longitude on earth I was currently standing at. The weather was amazing at this time with some sunshine so we got really good pictures.

After the Observatory the weather was so nice we decided to just walk around Greenwich instead of going inside any more museums. We found an herb garden which Hilary loved and ran around picking all the herbs and smelling them. It was really cute. Then we continued walking through the huge park that seemed to go on and on. There were a ton of people out and it seemed most of them have dogs. I want a puppy so bad! I love and hate parks because of dogs. They are so freakin cute I love watching them play but it makes me want one even more and I know it's going to be years and years before my life is stable enough to get a dog.

We finally found our way out of the park and decided it was time to grab a beer and cheap food. Jit had a friend from CouchSurfing in the area, Eritta who ended up meeting up with us and the four of us landed in a pub. Hilary and I had our first real English beer and great conversation with Jit and Eritta. It was the first time we were really able to just sit and enjoy the company we were with it seemed. Eritta is originally from east Africa but had been in London for 19 years. Her views on life and London we're great to listen to. I'm not sure exactly how long we were at the pub for, but I hope to have a lot more conversations like those along our trip.

Once we were finished with our beers we hit a small Kebab shop which Eritta said is popular in the early AM hours. This was perfect for a couple of girls used to eating on the Ave in Seattle. Eritta had a friend Daniel who met up with us there. He was from Hungary and was a really outgoing guy. Unfortunately we were so hungry at this point that not much conversation materialized but it was still fun having a group of CouchSurfers together. While we were at the kebab place, there were two English gentlemen sitting behind us playing with Tarrah cards. I got interested while everyone else was paying and started ease dropping. The one doing the cards told the other to think of his question. The other clarified that it was a question about his love life and wanting a girlfriend, then I think he got a little self conscious cause he all the sudden noticed I was paying attention. He laughed and said never mind I've already got a prospect as he was looking at me and gave me a wink. I was taken a little aback but went with it and started talking to the guys. We had our introductions and then Hilary and Jit came back so I started to get up a leave. The one guy comically tried to convince me to stay with them but I told him good luck finding a girlfriend and went on my way. That was probably the friendliest interaction with a random local I've had so far.

Side note along those lines. The waiters and people working in shops are actually not very nice here. They all seem pretty rushed and don't really pay attention to you. I'm not sure if it's because tips are less here or what the deal is, but for the most part service is almost borderline rude. This is not something I was expecting and I'm not sure if this is the what most people experience or if I have just had a string of bad luck. Most of the tourists and locals here on the streets have all been really nice and helpful though, so I'm not really sure what the deal with service is.

After the Kebab shop we went back to Jit's to hang out, have a beer and take in the day. Jit had to get up early for work and we were getting up early to head to Windsor Castle so we ended up just watching a movie while we did more CouchSurfing, facebooking, emailing and blogging. With all of these different venues of communication through the internet it doesn't really seem like we are all that far away. Realistically I could still be back in Woodinville, WA and I'd be having the same amount of communication with my family and friends. I'm really glad I decided to bring my netbook, it has come in really handy and most of the CSers we'll be staying with have internet so I will constantly be able to be connected. It was a great decision. I got to talk to a couple of friends online which was nice getting caught up on life back home a bit. It's funny to realize that life doesn't stop when you go away. I headed to bed around 1am again and I think Hilary fell in to bed around 4am, crazy girl. I have no idea how she is surviving on such little sleep. She makes up for it by sleeping on most of our Tube rides though.