So here’s where i try to journal what’s going on with us as we travel through Europe seeking what God is doing, in a way that other people actually want to read. Because i don’t consider myself an engaging writer. Some people can make the most mundane things sound so exciting and funny; i feel like i just sound like a whiner. But the purpose of this is not to sound whiney. The nature of our travels is NOT that of the normal tourist or the latest family blogging their way around the world. I’m expecting this adventure to be full of difficulties, messes, thrills, and blessings. I don’t even know how frequently i’ll be able to post entries as it will depend on wi-fi connections and just overall craziness. But several people have asked for travel updates, so here goes my attempt. Enjoy!
First Day: The flight over here went really well, other than the fact that when one flies coach class one is squeezed in like sardines. We do not take for granted that we incurred no baggage fees, and even though we were asked several questions by “border force” that made me think the other shoe was going to drop at any moment, we got through with no problems. Our friend Oliver was there to meet us with 3 of his 7 children. He took us by a giant travel plaza-food court and bought us McDonald’s coffee treats, then on to his home where we spent the afternoon visiting with he & Leah and all their children. After dinner, Oliver drove us to our hotel. Now things are not going quite so perfectly.
At the time i made these hotel reservations (which are, in fact, the only reservations we made for this entire trip), we were hoping to book a place somewhere in/near Woolwich (a borough of London) so we’d be convenient to the Olivers & Sams. But as luck would have it, the Olivers were busy with sick, whooping-cough children and having their 7th baby, so they were unavailable to advise us about hotel locations. Booking a hotel was turning out to be no easy task as any that were remotely affordable were not available for our dates. We finally booked a hotel in Croyden (another borough), thinking partly that it couldn’t be that far away, and that maybe God had a reason for not having us any closer anyway. This is a Spirit-led trip, after all. The difference on the map of London is that Woolwich is basically on the central-southeast side, and Croyden is south. In reality, it takes no less than 1 hour to drive it, either by car or by bus. So when he dropped us off, we knew we were on our own for a few days.
Also, and i know many of you are going to bristle at this news, we came here expecting to pay cash for nearly everything this first month, because we’d done our research and decided that cash was very often better than card. And we knew that the international exchange rate for dollars to pounds was around $1.50. However, we didn’t know that the reality of exchanging the dollars would be a minimum of $1.68/1 pound. Ouch! So that basically means that we give away nearly half of our cash to non-needy people in order to be able to function in their country. And for the first 2 days we’ve been here, we’ve not been allowed to cash more than 100 pounds/day. Thankfully our hotel has allowed us to pay as we go.
All of that, combined with other nuisances with this hotel, and we looked into finding another hotel somewhere closer to Woolwich, but so far, still, nothing is available.
Thursday, our first full day in London, our only 3 goals for the day were to figure out where to get food and local cash, re-pack our suitcases to fit this trip (we had packed them solely based on carry-on/check-on restrictions), and to rest. We did all 3 fairly well, except for finding better exchange rates for cash, so we decided to take the bus to the city center (Regent Street) hoping to find more banks to choose from. We purchased our oyster cards, figured out where to go to get on the correct bus, and rode 1 1/2 hours to get to downtown. We really didn’t plan on getting off the bus till we saw a bank, but the bus forced us off at “the end of the line” at Regent Street. We walked around in all the frenzy that feeds the Global Fashion Industry; no banks. Trying to get back on the correct bus proved to be quite the ordeal, walking around looking for the correct stop, standing on a somewhat dark street after 8:00 for around 25 minutes, then another 1 1/2 hours back to our local bus stop, then the 15 minute walk to our hotel, and the 5 minute walk from the hotel lobby to our room via a series of halls, stairs, and doors.
Friday something between jet lag and culture shock hit me, and i didn’t want to get out of bed all morning. I did get myself ready, did some stretches, finished watching my first Bible study lesson (I’m doing Beth Moore’s Breath, a video study on the Holy Spirit), and then it was back in bed for me for most of the morning. Thinking, “i can’t believe we thought of something so reckless as this.”, “This is going to be a disaster.” “What are we even supposed to do?”
Saturday, Andrew did a couple of subjects for school in the morning, then we met Sam and his young son, Caleb, so they could take us on a private canal tour! (Almost) Perfect afternoon! We walked for about 2 miles along the canal, bought our (picnic-style) lunch at Tesco (grocery), then visited Sam's dad, who lives on a canal boat (his mom was out for the afternoon). Then Sam drove us to his house and we met Bethan and their other 3 children, and had dinner, and then he drove us back to our hotel.
Sunday, despite our best-laid plans to get to Oliver & Leah's church on time in Woolwich, we were 30 minutes late. We left our hotel at 8:30 to walk to the train station by 9:00, but the train we'd expected to take apparently doesn't run on Sundays? Even though the internet schedule didn't say that? So we were told to take a different route, except we got on the wrong train and ended up at Victoria Station (opposite direction of Woolwich). This happened because Randall had not had his coffee yet, so he & Andrew bought their espresso in Victoria Station, and on we went. We had to finagle our way to the Woolwich station, where Leah picked us up to take us to church. We got there during the prayer right before Oliver's sermon.
When church was over we'd been invited to stay for lunch with Sam & Bethan & littles. Cottage pie = so yum! Since the church doesn't have wifi and we couldn't FaceTime with Emily, we just texted back & forth so she could "join us for lunch," sending a pic of us at the table and her sending us a pic of her as she was ready to leave for church. Then we girls went over to Leah's for a bit, then back to the church for tea & cakes, then evening service, then more tea & cakes, then back to Oliver & Leah's so Randall could spray their house (several months ago a couple of guests left them an unwanted gift of roaches, and Leah had been anxiously awaiting our arrival so Randall could take care of it. The demand for his services has gone international!). While littles were being put to bed and Leah was emptying out her kitchen and Randall was supervising the clean-out, we face timed with Emily = totally fun. It was after 10:00 when Oliver got us back to our hotel, but what a fabulous day of awesome fellowship.
Tips i've learned so far:
-It might sound creepy to fly across the ocean to visit people whom you only know through facebook, but actually it’s not much different than people visiting pen pals over previous decades and even centuries.
-This is the cereal to eat in Europe. THere’s simply nothing better.
-Riding the upper level of double decker buses, especially at the very front row, is a great way to see everyday London life in action.
- Everybody in London seems to know how to work together to navigate traffic without getting hit or killed, meaning pedestrians, cyclists, car drivers, and bus drivers. It’s nothing short of amazing.
-When going for a walk along the canal with a London friend, these are not the shoes to wear.
(This pic doesn't show the terrain we walked on for 2 miles
to get to this point.)
- I may or may not have been willing to sell my birthright for a pair of flip flops at Tesco’s, but unfortunately they didn’t have any.
- When you find yourself with blisters all over your feet because of the beautiful ballet flats that have not been sufficiently broken in yet and Tesco’s doesn’t have flip flops, socks work nicely too. Even in London.
P.S. Moleskins and band-aids do not help in this situation.
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