Then there was the ridiculous wait for the shuttle and New York Cabbie driving (as I explained to the woman next to me from Abu Dhabi, it's like riding a rollercoaster). Finally came shopping and dare I say boredom during my 4 hour layover in JFK.
Boarding my plane went smoothly. Too smoothly in fact. I believe just to spite us the Air Traffic Controllers held us at the gate an extra hour and a half past what we were supposed to be. After taxiing to the runway, we were subjected to another hour an a half wait. We were supposed to fly out at 7:30 but did not take off until 3 hours later. While I was thoroughly annoyed at JFK, I have to say that the crew on the VA plane were fantastic. We were offered dinner, drinks, and later breakfast and coffee for no charge and the in flight movie list was both substantial and recent. Even though they were very busy trying to deal with irate passengers for the three hours before take off and were not allowed to sell food until we were in the air, the attendants took the time to find me something to eat when I was feeling sick before take off. Definitely a fantastic crew.
Touchdown was slightly turbulent but otherwise uneventful. Customs took forever, during which I discovered that the public WiFi over here is subpar (and that's being rather kind). I retrieved my bag without incident and hopped on the tube. i promptly got lost.
I think it started when I couldn't exactly remember which tube stop my hostel was at. Merely that it was somewhere near Regents Park. I attempted to leave the tube at what would later prove to be the correct connection, but could not find my way out. Feeling like a rat in a maze, I hopped on a different train, after all, I had a day pass.
I wound up at King's Crossing where a very nice woman at the coffee shop informed me that I was no where near where I needed to be. She directed me to a library that offered wifi where I discovered the correct sequence of tube lines that would get me to my destination. Calling Mom and Dad on Skype lead to a very disapproving librarian so I said a quick goodbye and headed back to the Underground.
Of course the route I needed was under construction, so I ended up retracing my steps almost exactly. Hoping off at the correct stop this time, Google maps came to the rescue and guided me quite sucessfully to my hostel. A very friendly and accomodating staff and reasonable rates/accomodations and things are going well. A few problems with the wireless and my iPhone, but otherwise things are going well. My dorm-mates are all very nice and friendly and several have mentioned pairing up in cities later in the summer.
Overall a pretty sucessful first day. I'm wiped (I think I've been up for about 32 hours at this point) so I'll be off to bed pretty soon, just as soon as my equipment finishes charging. I'll need the camera batteries ready for tomorrow when I hit some of the sights. :)
My Hostel in London
My Bunk
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