Paddington Train Station in London
Tuesday Sept 22
Well as some of you may or may not know this trip to Bristol, UK is my first trip out of the US… in fact it is my first trip on a plane! I left Rapid City Airport @ around 3:30 Monday, and arrived around 5:30 (CST) in Minneapolis for my transfer to London. My plane out of Minneapolis was originally scheduled to leave @ 9:30 but was postponed a little and we left closer to 10:15. It was a night flight, so I was not able to lookout, plus I had the aisle seat, next to a lady who was a real seat hog! But the flight was nice, each seat had its own video screen w/headphones, so I watched an episode of family guy and Dr. Who (to get my Brit on) as well as the Movie Watchmen.
arrived @ the London-Heathrow airport around 12 GMT… that is 5 am MST. I got through the passport phase and at this point, being a newbie international traveler I had a bit of an adventure. It was my goal (and I really should have planed more) to “hope a train to Bristol”, well to do this I had to ride the subway around the airport to get to the right terminal (#5) where I could purchase a ticket to the famous Paddington station in Central London. This was a ticket for the trip to Paddington, and then to return to Heathrow from Paddington on Sunday. At Paddington station I was able to purchase, for an additional £46 another set of go and return tickets from Paddington to Bristol. And that is where I sit now typing this section, on the train to Bristol, it is almost 2:30 GMT, the train has a FULL snack care, “adult beverages” and all, I however am only partaking at the moment in a Coke.
Wednesday Sept 23
Well yesterday I made it to Bristol. I took a wild cab ride from the train station to the hotel. After clearing up that YES I do have a room, I got in to find I had not internet (not even an unsecured connection to steal) and NO PHONE. Advice to travelers Travel Lodge is Cheap, but you get what you pay for, pay a little more and get internet, phone and more than 5 TV channels! Had not eaten since “breakfast” on the plane so I went to the “bar” in the hotel to get some food, and had the worse pizza in my life (pepperoni with a side of ketchup packets!). Slept very well, in fact I slept through my wake-up knock (did I mention no clock in the room either) or they failed to wake me up, either way I woke up an hour and a half late.
Ok well I walked up and found the university of Bristol Campus and got registered in, went to a few talks on marine reptiles and then hooked up with Ryan Tucker for lunch at the “White Lion” pub, if was a bit of a walk but the food and Guinness was good. I am now back on the campus in the vender’s hall, getting ready to head off to more talks.
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