It’s time to write down what happened during the trip to UK! Or I will just forget what happen, although certain events are really quite unforgettable. The first day when we reached we were supposed to meet ade’s friend, Lee Wei at presumingly South Kensington since Imperial was nearer to South Kensington. Turns out that Imperial was near South Kensington but the friend’s hostel is nearer to Gloucester. So we alighted from the wrong station and that station didn’t have any lifts and the both of us girls were carrying 46kg worth of luggages! And there were so many flights of stairs and escalators. It was a torture just carrying the luggages out. Especially since there was this period when we couldn’t contact Lee Wei cos of some telephone number confusion. But the Londoners were nice people. And strong too! Cos they are able to lift our heavy luggages with one hand! And carry both at a time! Thank goodness for nice people. But when we got out of the station, that’s when the other problem started. Because the pulley thing for my bigger luggage broke!!! OMG. And so we can’t easily pull everything to the hostel. And it was a damn long walk. So ade and Lee Wei pulled the other 3 first and I waited (in the cold) for them to come back. Wa, it was very sad, suddenly I was regretting coming to London and bringing so much luggage. Called my Dad to tell him about the situation and started looking at the people open their businesses for the day. Since it was early morning, like 7am. After a long while, they came back and we tried so many different ways to carry that 1 piece of broken luggage that weighed so much. As we moved it along, it really fell apart. The wheels, the bracket, the strap holding the luggage together. But at least the contents didn’t fall out. The base of the luggage was worn from friction as we dragged it along in the end. But at least, we made it to the hostel in one piece. And we all felt very accomplished even though also very sian and tired. And homesick.
After that we went to check into the hostel. The reception was also a bar! During the whole time my mind was full of stuff, like getting a new luggage and transferring the stuff over and accommodation in Delft. Luckily we saw a luggage store and quickly shortlisted one, which cost me 215 pounds (that I eventually got). Then we met another one of ade’s friend and went to eat Mexican food (which wasn’t all that nice) and see the London Eye. Walked around everywhere for shopping but failed to get anything. I think the only thing I got at the end of the day was the 215pound luggage that proved to be a really good investment! Because it’s got 4 wheels and can move in all directions and it’s big and sturdy with 3 years warranty! And it moves with almost no noise! At night we went back to the hostel to sleep. Didn’t sleep really well, ade’s talk about hostels being not safe made me vigilant. Turns out it wasn’t so bad, the bed was clean and warm.
We woke up at around 6am the next day since we had a bus to catch to Manchester. But we took the wrong direction of the underground and in the end had to run all the way from Victoria station to the Victoria Coach station. And we were carrying our very heavy bags as we ran. Had to keep asking for directions since we didn’t know where it was. Plus the coach was right at the end of the entire station! We were so lucky, arrived at 0803. The bus left at 0805. Phew. Thank goodness we made it, it was a good exercise too. The bus was fairly empty so ade and I occupied 2 seats each. Stoned a lot and slept a lot throughout. Spent many hours thinking thinking about many people and feeling sad again. Found out that IA results were realised so got Shijie to check for me. She was shocked by my password. Haha. But she was really slow, I managed to check the results myself when I arrived in Manchester. The bus was early and there was an internet Kiosk in the bus terminal. Got an A-. Many aero people got As though. But I am happy already, especially since I enjoyed a slack life in CAAS. Melvin came to pick us up and took us to his hostel and afterwards brought us to eat lunch and then took us shopping. It was really quite fun, got my head off all the problems and the missing home issues at that point. Met his hostel mates as well. All nice people and there’s this Japanese guy that ade keeps saying he’s quite cute. Which is true to a certain extent. Hahaha. Of cos okada is the best la.
The next day Melvin brought us to Old Trafford and Cheshire Oaks for shopping. Old Trafford was fun! Ade and I don’t know anything about soccer but we still had fun. In the player’s dressing room we took pictures with the Rooney and Ronaldo jerseys. Cos we didn’t know who the other players were anyway. It was a pity since we were leaving the next day and missed the chance of watching a match. But it’s fine, we’ll go to Emirates stadium when we go back to UK in 6 months time! Cheshire Oaks is in Chester and we had to catch a train up. We ran again to the train station but missed the train by minutes! Ah but we had lunch while waiting for the next train. Chester is a really pretty and quaint town. Cheshire Oaks is shopping heaven! There were many factory outlets for Gap, Polo Ralph Lauren, Fred Perry, Ted Baker, Burberry etc etc. Bought some stuff from there and went home feeling quite happy. Had nice fish n chips too!
Melvin took us to Baabar at night. We walked passed the gay street but didn’t manage to see much stuff. Baabar was cool, it had really nice interiors. Only we wore too much clothes cos the locals wore really little but it was freezing outside! Met a few of Melvin’s friends but I mainly kept quiet, being anti-social.
Went back feeling very tired and sleepy and was overcome with some more home sickness. Slept at around 2-3am. Ade’s cough got to me and it was quite terrible. Coughing like mad. The next day Melvin brought us around Manchester Uni and the local church. Felt a bit more peaceful. The past few days were not very smooth. The trip from Manchester to London was quite 0k, stoned more and wrote postcards. Didn’t really get to sleep. Because in the evening we will have to rush to Lee Wei’s hostel to grab the luggages and carry them back to the coach station for our ride to Rotterdam. Lee Wei told us that the Circle line was closed so we had to take an alternative route. The trains and stations were packed with people! But we managed our way back to the hostel. No chance for dinner. While dragging the luggages out to hail a cab my small luggage broke and it was impossible to pull it along anymore. Loading the luggages up the cab would have been impossible if not for Lee Wei. He’s really our saviour! Without him it would be so hard for us. I was worrying quite a lot about the possibilities of getting a cab cos Lee Wei said people usually book cabs in advance and it is impossible to take the tube with the crowd and the heavy luggages. Thank goodness we managed to hail one. And thank goodness the cabbie was nice too. With Lee Wei’s great help we managed to push the luggages to the bus lane and checked in on time. But during that time I was feeling very very bad once again. Because we were talking about what to do with the luggage on our way back since our return flight is in London and during that time, Lee Wei would have gone back. So there’s no place to deposit the luggages while we tour and stuff. Thinking about all those plus the difficult time in moving the stuff awhile ago made all the stress come back. Texted john and was surprised he replied cos it was already 3am in the morning. But then he usually sleeps really late. But still thank goodness for him. The stupid bus driver cheated us of 10pounds because he said we had excess baggage. Didn’t want any more problems with the luggage so we just paid up. Many people found that unbelievable because there’s no such thing. When we reached the UK – France border we had to get off to get screened. I almost thought we had to lug the huge bags down but thankfully we only needed to bring the hand carries down. They were really strict, asked many questions and stared at the visas so closely. When we were about the board the ferry the police randomly pulled out 5 bags for screening. And my broken one was one of those. Thankfully didn’t have to drag it for long!!! Got up the ferry and talked a bit before getting back to the coach when we reached the other side. There were giant maltesers for sale!
The coach reached Rotterdam so much earlier than expected. It was sososososo cold when we got off! And because the people coming to pick us up was supposed to come an hour later we were feeling pretty bad. I went around scouting for a place where we could seek refuge but there was non, all buildings were closed except the Westin Hotel. I decided to drag one luggage (the broken one) there but got refused entry so had to walk all the back. But the walk made me feel warmer. Ade looked like she almost froze. But she still managed to call the people and they came to pick us up. That was the beginning of all things good except for accommodation issues even though we signed the 1st house we saw. Shall continue the Rotterdam journey in the next post.
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