Leeds!

So, I was quite wrong about not having a computer or internet in England. I think all of London is a free wifi zone!  The airport's arrivals waiting area had it, the janky place where I am staying has it (I’ll give details in a bit), and the McDonald's next to the janky place where I am staying has it!  McDonalds is my current location.  I look real cool…an obviously American girl (based on my lack of tall boots, skinnies, leather jacket and scarf), sitting with her mac at a table in the corner of a McDonalds, with an empty coke cup next to her (because she bought a small, then later realized this was a mistake since Europe does not believe in free refills), and eating a sandwhich that was wrapped in tin foil which she brought with her because she is too cheap to buy a 2 euro hambuger.

Before I get started on today, I need to update Mom on what we had for dinner last night. (The food is her favorite part.. and I need to keep giving Casey something to make her hungry while she’s at work).  It started off with a great sort-of dumpling soup, with bread of course.  Elisabetta taught me that in Italy, we always keep our hands on the table during the meal… this is surprisingly awkward for me.  Try it!  The next course was an assortment of entrees. There was eggplant stuffed with a bunch of stuff I couldn’t tell you, but it was soo great (the complete opposite of the eggplant parmesan I made for you, Mom).  There was also a crepe-looking thing, which I didn’t get to try…they had to save some food for the other girls.  The third entre was an interesting looking, reddish lump of what was obviously meat, but I couldn’t tell which.  When I tasted it, I thought- wow, this is fancy. I was thinking it was veal, or lamb, or something equally as impressive.   When I asked what it was, I got the response: am-boo-gier. Seriously, they say hamburger just like in the Pink Panther!  I’m not above being the American that comes to another country and eats the hamburgers..  For dessert, I bravely took a mandarin orange, which was surprisingly the easiest fruit to peel with a knife so far, except that its chalked full of seeds and it’s hard to get those out of your mouth in a lady-like manner.

Okay, now I can explain today (which is actually yesterday, now because as I was writing this at my prime spot in McDonald’s, my parents skyped and told me it was my bedtime…now I’m on a train on my way to Leeds!  I’m trying very hard to pretend that it ends in Hogsmeade).  So, I woke up, after sleeping nearly 8 hours!, with a  superfluous amount of  mucus.  I packed, ate breakfast, showered, sat with my very sick roommate (not my fault! She has the flu or something and it started before I got there), and checked my email to find out I would not be able to use the train tickets from London to Leeds that I stayed up late stressing over and buying the night before, because I do not have the card that I paid for the tickets with, which I would need to pick them up at the station. So I hurriedly canceled the tickets and emailed Jenn to tell her I wasn’t coming to visit her, before I was rushed out the door to go to the airport.  So then, I was on my way to a flight which would take me to a giant, strange city, where I would part ways with the one person I know to fend for myself for 2 days, and somehow plan to meet up with her again without my having a phone, or any guaranteed access to the internet.  I was slightly nervous..

Again, the car ride through Naples was noteworthy.  We took a different route this time, and I got to see a lot of the town, which I certainly won’t be returning to on the other side of car door locks.  I was really disappointed I’d put my camera in the trunk of the car- there were some great pictures that I missed.  I told Elisabetta that if she’s every driving to the airport again, to take me along so I can get pictures.  I missed a really great picture op. of Mt. Vesuthius (sp? ..the volcano in Naples), and the town of brave people coating the side of it.  I got an okay picture from the plane, but it doesn’t do it justice.  You can also see it from the pictures from the terrace if I ever get them posted.

When we got to the airport, we only had half an hour before our plan boarded, and before we got out of the car Elisabetta took the time to paint her nails, while I was in the back seat, starting to get anxious.  When we got in, we tried to go through, but we had checked-in online with out flight from Frankfurt to London instead of Naples to Frankfurt, and we had to go back to the ticket counter.  We got the tickets printed out and were heading back in and Elisabetta asked me if I would like to eat the lunch that was packed for us now.  I looked at the clock and told her that our plane leaves in 15 minutes. She said yes…  So I said that I would prefer eating our lunch on the plane. She said that was okay, so we went through.  We got to security and realized that we could not take the juice boxes in our lunch through, and Elisabetta told me that we need to eat our lunches before we get on the plane; so I followed her and trusted that she knew how Italian airports work better than I do, and figured that it would be okay if we didn’t make our flight because then I wouldn’t have to figure out a place to stay later!  So we had to go all the way back out into the entrance of the airport to eat our lunches.  I chugged my juice box, dumped my water bottle, and told Elisabetta that I would still prefer eating on the plane (at this point it was ~5 til the flight was supposed to leave).  She finished her sandwich and we walked quickly to security, waited for the confusion about a bottle of eyedrops which the guy in front of us had to be sorted out, made our way through, and found our gate.  I was nervous because it was 10 after and there was no line boarding.  We went to the ticket counter and they said the plane was running a bit late.  Allora, we had made it before the flight with plenty of time to spare!  Elisabetta told me that people in Italy don’t like work, so everything runs very slowly, things break often, and it takes a long time to have them fixed, as we waited in line for 15 mintues at our gate for a bus which drove us about 30 yards to the steps of our plane…..

A plane full of Italians is quite different than a plane full of the Brits.  It was a very exciting flight.  Naples from the air is is not a disappointment- sooo great- with the ocean and the mountains and the volcano and the crazy, compacted buildings with no pattern at all.  We were surprised with a free calzone on the flight!  Elisabetta wasn’t impressed with it, but from my American standards, it was pretty good!  The rest of the trip went well. I bought tiramisu Hag-n-daz in Germany to split with Elisabetta, to see if my card worked-and it did!  Elisabetta wanted to work on her English, so she read Louise May Alcott- Good Wives to me, which I enjoyed very much!  It was pretty tough because of the old style of writing, but she did very well.  She said she didn’t understand most of it, but she laughed at the right parts.

We arrived at about 7:30pm London time, and after checking our email, getting maps, and making a back-up plan in case we weren’t able to get in contact with each other before Saturday, I helped her purchase a ticket for the “tube” (finally I’m the one getting to help instead of needing it!) and we parted ways.  I went back into the airport and called Jenn from the info desk to tell her I, yet again, changed my mind and wanted to come to Leeds, and she was quite happy to have me.  I used the internet in the airport until they kicked me out (the airport closed about an hour after I went back in) and took the tube to King’s Cross. Yes, THE King’s Cross.  Where Harry Potter has been.  And even more importantly, where Fred and George have been!  Anyway, I found a place to stay directly across from the station because my train to Leeds would be leaving from there at 9:30am.  I got a very simple room for 40 pounds- a double bed and two towels were the only things in it.  There were several bathrooms down the hall.  The hotel I was staying in was called Northumberton Hotel.  It had red carpet everywhere- floors, stairs, walls...  It wasn’t the nicest of places, and it was a complete maze getting to my room, but it was just perfect! I was so happy to have a place to sleep and to have gotten there safely! Also, the hotel desk had a sweet sign that said “Jesus loves you, just the way you are,” which made me feel safer about the man running the hotel knowing that I wanted a room for just 1 person.

After getting my room, I went to the McDonald’s right next to the hotel for a coke, started this post, and emailed Elisabetta to tell her that I found a place to stay and to tell her to meet me at Platform 9 on Satruday at 8:30.  I highly doubt my train will be coming in to platform 9, but I am going to get a picture at Platform 9 ¾ if it’s the only thing I do in England!!  Even in the McDonald’s in London, I had groups of Italians sitting on either side of me!

So, this morning I woke up when I needed to, got to the train station in more than enough time, and stood with the rest of London, waiting for my platform to be posted.  When I got on the train, even the train had free wifi! It was only free for 15 minutes though, and it was so slow that most of that 15 minutes is spent waiting for your page to load.  I’m sitting in a seat at a table with man who is taking up most of the table, but that’s okay because no one else has sat down with us, so there’s only two of us at the table rather than four.  I’m sitting in the seat facing backwards, and I started feeling sick from looking out the windows.  I asked the man at my table if he minds riding backwards or not, and he said that he prefers riding forwards..  But that’s okay, I found that the trick is to look further out and block out things that are closer, which fly by really fast.

I’m so glad that I’ve decided to go to Leeds, if only to see England by train.  The countryside is gorgeous, and I’ve passed through some really sweet towns.  England is very interesting, pretty, green, classic, cute, etc.  I saw my name graffiti-ed onto a fence! -did I mention it’s nice being in a place where I speak the language?  Passing through a town, I saw a cute little set of uniformed-children chasing each other in a schoolyard.  Riding over the moors, I’ve gotten a strange urge to watch American Werewolf in London (don’t worry Mom,  I would never watch it without you).  And I saw a field full of sheep! And lambs!- they’re so white before the dirt of the world gets to them!  I know sheep are dumb and mean, but they sure look a lot prettier scattered across a field than cows do.

Now I’m sitting in a pub in the train station in Leeds called The White Rose.  I got a latte and a hot chicken, bacon, and Dijon sandwich (and when they say Dijon, they mean full-on horseradish, and my nose is burning right now. We’re getting those sinuses cleared out finally..).  The bacon in England comes in huge slabs instead of strips.- Dan, you would appreciate the floppiness of it.

I was surprised by how gianormous Leeds is.  It’s pretty intimidating.  It’s on hills, so I could see quite a bit of it as I was coming in on the train.  I hope I can find Jenn’s place with the directions she gave me!  She’s going to meet me there when she’s done with class, then we’re going to come back into town and she’s going to show me around.  Tonight, Leeds celebrates St. Pats! So, that should be interesting.  I’ll post later about how Leeds has got nothing on Rolla for St. Pats, I’m sure.

Okay, I’m going to make my way to the buses and try to figure out how to get on bus #95!

(As soon as I posted my last post, I thought of about 10 ways an Englishman could say goodbye… Laterz!, Bugger off!, S’later!, etc.  Although, I got all of these from the Georgia Nicholson books, and I actually haven’t heard anyone use a one; so I’ll go with the most common one I’ve heard…)

Cheers!