Day 22 VCUK-30 June 2019

I woke up real early today at 5am and got ready and checked out. Here all you have to do is give them the key card back which makes me a bit concerned that the sheets are never changed but that theory is yet to be tested.

The desk gave me different directions to the bus stop that I liked better so I went there. Yesterday they told me to go to the left up 3 or 4 blocks but today she said go over the bridge and about one block down. That’s more I. The city area so I liked it better.

The birds own Dublin in the early hours. There was trash everywhere and seagulls swopping and fighting everywhere. There were also still some straggling drunks.

I just missed the 5:15 bus which was early and was actually there at 5:08 and I didn’t make it to the stop til 5:12 so I passed it at a light. The next bus came at 5:33. A girl I recognized from the hostel came after I waited about 10 minutes there was also a business man and a pride man waiting so I felt relatively safe. The girl was from holland and was going home now. There were also two Korean girls who barely spoke English and I was just about to talk to them but then the bus came so I didn’t get a chance.

The bus had WiFi! I love the WiFi here it’s crazy. They literally have WiFi everywhere.

The bus stopped at the other stop I was told to go to and then went straight to the airport. The bus had some people on it but I think was pretty full by the time I got to the airport.

When I got to the airport I googled which terminal so I got off at the right one. They dropped me off right where I got on last time which is sorta strange. The Ryan air baggage check was a messs so I’m glad I didn’t have to do that. I waited online for tickets but they assured me j didn’t need to print it. Sorta bummed cause I would’ve liked to have the printed ticket but whatever.

Then I wandered til I found security. This airport is really weirdly laid out. All the rooms are super long and there isn’t great signage.

Security went relatively fast and I didn’t get pulled this time. I rearranged my bag to cradle the Guinness glass better.

Then I just chose a direction and walked in it cause I didn’t have a gate yet. I grabbed a muffin and tea at this little shop and then sat and ate t and charged my phone. Then the board said I was gate 107 so I started wandering down that direction. It’s literally just a mall. It was all shops everywhere with a small walkway and then eventually opens up to the Magic walkways for a 10 minute walk and then it’s finally gates and more shops.

I got to the gate but it was boarding still for the last flight cause it’s only 6:30 so I sat and charged my phone and drank my tea and tried to contact mom and dad. My WiFi at the airport hasn’t worked at all it says it’s there but then doesn’t connect or it’ll “connect without internet” which means it’ll say it’s working but you can’t do anything and it doesn’t send texts. I feel bad I hope mom doesn’t worry. Hopefully I land before she wakes up and then I can text at the London airport.

I finally got onto the Dublin airport WiFi. I wandered around for a bit in the different shops and then we boarded. I had a window seats again! I was next to a girl from California and then this lady from Kerry. Kerry lady was super talkative and actually talked the entire time. She hates trump and talked about him a lot which was annoying cause yes we hate him so I have to talk about him when I’m abroad too? I don’t think I’ve talked to a British person who hasn’t mentioned trump yet. She also talked about how Brexit is dumb and England is also going down hill because they believe they’re staying and empire. Then she talked about Irish politics for a bit and how the IRA are still radical and not good. Then we talked about Ireland for a bit and how I’ve been all over and my relations are from mayo area. I told her how much I love Killarney and single which are both in Kerry which she declared the best county in Ireland.

We finally landed and I got off and went tot he bathroom and then found the bus. The WiFi was barely connecting at southend also. Southend is actually a terrible. It’s called london southend but it’s an hour out of London and is not south in any way. It’s also quite ridiculous that the Dublin airport had a bus to it every 15 minutes and yet the southend airport had absolutely no trains all day on sundays. What the actual hell.

I took an hour and a half bus to shenfield and then took the train to London which thankfully only was 2 stops and got there in a half hour.

I officially made it back tot he flat but 1:30. What a ridiculous day.

I made went food shopping, had lunch, and did laundry quickly and changed and then went to Churchill war rooms and the Tate Britain.

I got to Piccadilly and then walked through the park to Churchill's war rooms but the wait was 2 hours to get in so I decided to buy online tickets for another day.

I walked around westminster area. Big Ben is 100% completely hidden by scaffolding which is sad. Also a lot of westminster and parliment is covered too. They're doing a lot of construction on all of their historical buildings this year it seems. i walked down to the tate britain but when i got there tickets were 22 pounds and its just not worth it. Thats like $30 and all i want to see is this Van Gogh exhibit. I'm sad.

Then I went and walked across the bridge and over in that area cause I was looking for a bookstore but I didn't find it so I crossed the bridge back over to big ben. It was cute cause I remember this was where we were dropped off our first day in London for EngFra and I remember crossing the bridge multiple times and listening to the bag pipe man on the bridge and doing the london eye. The bag pipe man is still there I wonder if it's the same guy.

I walked back over to hyde park and sat under a tree outside the horse guard's and then read. I'm almost done with Guernsey.

Then I went back to picadilly and they were handing out free lemonade coke a colas. It was bad. Soda is just so gross I don't understand why people like it. I think if you never have it as a child then you won't like it cause it's sorta like alcohol except there's no good feeling from drinking it.

I took the tube back and then went to the Wellcome Collection which is a small free museum around the corner from us that I've seen posters for everywhere and looked interesting. One exhibit was about magic and performance and had things about gypsies and magicians and different things showing tricks and how it all revolves around perception and misdirection. The other exhibit as called Misbehaving bodies and was about this one lady and her mental health and physical health and how it related to her body. It was interesting.

Then I went and looked in the bookshop at Euston station. I'm trying to find a copy of Peter Pan but so far I've either found compilations or the covers are gross.

On my back to the flat I found this little tiny hub cap in the street which I thought was hilarious. It's plastic and obviously from a toy car but I like to think that a tiny little person was driving down the street and got into a little crash loosing their hub cap in their hurry.

When I got back I facetimed mom and had dinner. My laundry didn't work at all so I had to completely rerun it which is annoying.

I took a shower and changed.

Then I worked on JWT for a while and chatted with Krista about it. We've decided to make 4 posters so the work is equal between us. The concept is that football's coming home like the british World Cup chant except were talking about how every single football game is physically streamable to your house so you never have to leave home. The chant is also included to make people excited about the games and cheer for their favorite team. There are 3 british teams in the league this year so each poster will feature a different team. One poster will be of a player and a fan watching the game at home in the living room, one will be a player and fan watching in the fan's "home" pub, one will be the player and the fan spooning in bed watching it on the fans iphone, and one will be the fan watching while on the toilet feeling at home and the player is in the stall next to him handing him toilet paper under the stall.

I worked on it for a bit and then watched the last episode of Black Mirror which had Miley Cyrus in it. This season was ok.

Then I went downstairs and watched Love Island and then RuPaul with carlee and radish and salsa. Then we were gonna watch Naked Attraction but we couldn't find it on tv. naked Attraction is this ridiculous british dating game tv show where theres boxes on stage with naked people in it and then one person who is looking for a date. The boxes have covers on them that slowly rise so first the person goes around and judges the box people's genitals, then the partition rises again and they judge their chests, then it rises fully and the person judges their face. Each round they eliminate one person. Then they get to hear everyone's voice and they eliminate again based on that and then they choose who to go on a date with. It's wild! And it's not just girls and guys. There's gay guys and bi people and sometimes its guys in the boxes and sometimes its women. It's sooo weird but actually hilarious because they're all so casual about it and on british tv you can show full nudity so there's absolutely no blurring.