London Trip Part 2: First day in London

The day has arrived. The day where we were supposed to leave for London. It was Thursday, 16 February 2012. We had class and presentation until 16:30 at school. Our bus leaves at 22:00 from Glasgow to London. Right after we finished our class, we went home directly. We packed our bags, and eat dinner. We leave our flat at 21:00 heading to Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station. To reach the bus station, we will only need a 30 minutes walk. We stopped for a while in Sainsburry (UK mini market) to buy our self drinks and snacks for the trip. Finally we've reached the bus station after a couple of minutes. We arrived in a perfect time. Not too early, not too late.

As the bus arrive, we head our self to enter the bus. We showed our tickets then enter the bus. There are no seat number on the ticket so we can choose our own seat. There are not so many passengers in the bus, so each person could take two seats. That's a good thing though. So we can rest well in bus.

We choose seats that are somewhere in the middle of the bus. We were happy in the beginning to receive the middle seat. But after the bus go, and people went in and out the toilet provided in the bus, our seat becomes so uncomfortable because we can smell the unpleasant smell from the toilet located at the back of the bus. Damn, we made the wrong choice...

I was also very difficult for me to sleep well. Maybe because I am not very used to sleep while seating. But I always keep the positive things in mind considering that I will have a big interview the next day. So I try my best to shut my eyes and get some sleep.

Finally, the bus trip arrived at London Victoria bus station. It arrives very early in the morning at around 06:30. Cafes and restaurants are not even open yet. People were walking so fast since they already know where they are heading. As a tourist having the first time visiting London, we found it quite difficult to know where we should head for the underground station. There are no maps. There are no people available to ask. So we rely on my friend phone GPS. After a couple of minutes walk, we finally found the underground station.



After arriving in the Underground Station, we buy an "Oyster Card". This card is a top up card for public transportation in London. For tourist, I find it important to have an oyster card since there is a big probability for us to be uncertain about our trip. "Oyster card" can be used for underground subways, or city bus. So it is very convenient to have one. The first thing you should do is buy an "Oyster Card". To do so, you will need to give a GBP 5 deposit. After that you can top up your oyster card and use it for your ticket of transportation.

Then we do small learning on the Underground Map. My friend is from China and he is very used to reading underground map when he was living in Beijing. So first thing is that we need to find the nearest underground station stops to my office location. The nearest one is in Bond Street. So we head to the Bond Street with the underground train.

It took only 5 minutes with the underground train to reach Bond Street station. Since coffee shop and restaurants are not opened yet, we decided to take a walk to find the exact location of the office in which I will be interviewed at noon. We have found and reached 20 Manchester Square, London.

The office is located in the city center. So we decided to walk through some coffee shops that are ready to open. Luckily, just near the office location, we found a Starbucks coffee shop that are already opened. Their coffee shop also had a great place to rest. It has a good place also for my friend to wait while I was being interviewed. So we have breakfast at Starbucks. Not forgetting to drink some coffee to keep myself awake.

After that, I got my self prepared for the interview. Get well dressed with good make up. Here's the day... Off I went for the interview.



The interview took about 3 hours. Very long interview right? My brain was very tired also. I head back to Startbucks where my friend is waiting for me. He is very nice willing to wait for me in that coffee shop with our luggage.

We are very tired. Need some rest. So we head directly to our hotel. Again, with the underground subway train.

It took about 15 minutes train ride. Not bad. We are happy to finally reached "Colliers Wood" station where our hotel is located nearby. We are very happy to see that our hotel were fully surrounded by groceries stores, fast food restaurants, and supermarkets. More over, we are very happy to receive such a great room. It was more than how we expect it to be.

The beds were awesome. There was one double sized bed and one single sized bed. I got to sleep at the double sized bed. My friend sleeps in the single sized bed. He is such a gentleman..:p



The bathroom was also wonderful. Having fulfilled with a bath tub. Hot water were running fast. Gosh I love the room...



We put our bags in our room. I take the opportunity to change my business attire clothing to a more casual clothing. After that we go to Sainsburry located right in front of our hotel to buy snacks and fruits to keep our self occupied during our stay in the hotel. We also have dinner at KFC located just right beside the hotel for dinner. we spend GBP 4 for a very full dinner. Great bargain.

There it was. After a long tiring day, finally we have our self the chance to have a good quality rest. We take a couple of time planning our trip for the next day before we decided to sleep. My body and brain was so tired that I sleep really well at that night.