United Kingdom

The train down to London is looong. We don't pass anything interesting on the way except for a few nuclear power plants in the distance- that was weird. The train's WiFi we were promised isn't working, so we really have no idea where we are going when we enter King's Cross, because Gail's address is in Ruaridh's e-mail. We wander out of the station pretty blindly and pay an extortionate amount at Costa coffee for an hour of internet to get Gail's number. We meet here at Waterloo station, and she takes us to Rayne's Park, where her house is. Gail is a blast- she's really funny. and very friendly. She offers us some beer and wine from the vast leftovers from her birthday party. After talking, we try to figure out how we are getting to Dublin, and the website is useless. We realized that we would have to put off Dublin for another day, and go to a main station to sort out the matter.

We make it another lazy morning, since we anticipated finding this "Rail-Sail Dublin" discount would be a serious labor. It wasn't- it took us 5 minutes in Waterloo Station, actually- so we spent the rest of the day walking around central London, taking this bus and that since we got a full day pass. After wandering around the London Eye/Parliament area, we catch a bus that goes past Regent's St. into an area known as "Little Cairo" (if I'm not mistaken) because of the high Arabic population. We come across the busiest restaurant in the area, and decide its probably worthwhile, so we get a seat outside. It's called Sidi Maasoufi, and we get tea, hummous and a hookah. All of it was great. We end up spending a lot of time talking to our waiter, a guy from Syria, who tells us Americans are much easier to understand than the local Londoners, especially since he was still trying to learn English. We get in fairly late, and pack our bags to leave for Dublin in the morning- our train from Euston is at 9AM, so we need to be out by 7:30.

And now I write from the train to Holyhead, Wales, where we will get our ferry over. Again, I'm so glad I caught up, but doing so I realize I have no idea what we are doing when we arrive at Dublin Port. I guess call this lady I got in touch with, and get there first. But after that, no ideas either. I guess I should go through that guide book.