Road Trip and Walk Like a Londoner

I took the train back to London. It was cold comparing with the barmy 22 degrees in Edinburgh a few hours ago. Nevertheless, I was so excited. Here I come, road trip to south England!

Love The Car

First thing first, I needed a car! It was booked a month ago with Avis. The Avis branch can be found inside the St Pancras Station car park. St Pancras Station is cross the road from the King’s Cross Station; one is international and the other is domestic. From the main departure information hall, follow the signals to the Car Park passing Boots, Patisserie Valerie and Pret A Manger. It took me a while to locate it because the office was small, shared with other rental companies (so do not just look for the Avis sign like I did) and it was at the entrance/exit of the car park.

I booked for a base model 4 door auto and they gave me a BMW M135i! Apparently that was the only available car they had on the day. Well, I would not say no to a free upgrade with a nav system.

The car was fantastic to drive and was very comfortable. I hated its build-in navigator though. It was not a touch screen and I could barely hear it with the maxi volume! I Google d it but apparently, that was just how it was built. ! Yay :)

Driving in UK

Driving in London was a bit scary at first especially when I was facing the 6pm traffic. Back home, both George and Chris told me that it was not easy to drive on those small roads in Scotland, so I booked a tour over there. They said that I would need a car while traveling in south England. I listened to them. I was definitely cursing them while trying to drive out of central London. It took me an hour to drive from King’s Cross to M3. I came from a place where there is no traffic so that little drive was killing me. At one stage, it took me 5min to drive through one traffic light. OMG!

I was amazed that Londoners seemed to have a mutual understanding on when to give away to the traffic. It took me a bit to get use to seeing a double decker bus heading towards me on a one lane road with high speed. I had no idea if I should give away or not! I was pretty freaked out for the first few times then I slowly channeled in to their frequency. I would just go if the opposite side traffic stopped for one second.

I really enjoyed driving in the English country side though. Not only the lush fields looked fantastic in the sun or after rain, the hedges were so high that they became green caves. I love to drive through them!

Update: In a way, I could blame myself for picking up the car fro St Pancras Station. I leant from others later on that I should have booked a car outside of London. That would mean that I had to drag my luggage with me around. It was not a win win situation for sure.

Update: Later, I also realised that George and Chris must have meant that it was difficult to drive when it was raining or snowing in Scotland. After experiencing driving in south England, I actually found that it was easier to drive in Scotland! In Scotland, the roads are more open and they often have space on the side of the roads for cars to overtake.

South England

The plan is to drive from London to Folkestone -> Canterbury -> through Ashford to Rye -> Hastings -> Bodiam Castle -> Brighton -> London

I stayed in Bed & Breakfast and pubs along the way - just the thing you do there. All the accommodations were fantastic except the one in Brighton.

Folkestone was a small town but full of history. I visited a family friend and it was great to catch up. I could see the French coastline across the English Channel on the beach in Folkestone.

I spent a day in Canterbury. It was just nice to walk around to see the castles etc. I had the best Italian lunch at a small cafe in one of those side streets. Yum!

Rye is a pretty small town in East Sussex, England. It sits on 3 rivers and the Rye Harbour is not far away. The town was full of antique shops. I had to keep telling myself that anything I bought would add weight to my luggage. I stayed in a little pub called The Ship Inn. The food there was very nice and they gave me free local beer to try. :-) I called that great customer service! Make sure to visit the little 200 years old antique house. I would not fit in through the door! LOL! Here is a little cool map of Rye. Rye was a great place for a stop over.

Hastings for lunch and Bodiam Castle for afternoon tea were all worthy stops.

I did not have a great impression of Brighton. It was difficult to drive and park in Brighton. It took me a while to locate my hotel even with a nav system. I was lost in words when I saw the hotel. It was sh3t. I told myself that I would put up with it because it was for one night’s sleep only. I went out to see Brighton but nothing special struck me. I was a bit disappointed with Brighton because before I arrive, I read somewhere that Brighton is the London on the beach. MMM… The beach was full of pebbles. It was the night when England played in the 2014 World Cup. There was a big screen setup on the beach. I joined the crowd to watch the game for a while but all I could hear was the sound the pebbles made when people walked on them. It was crazily loud and I couldn’t stand the sound. I watched from a stand off the beach. England lost the game. People on the beach were either too drunk or too upset by then. The breakfast in the morning was also sht. I found a parking fine on my car. So, I did not like Brighton!

Live in Greenwich like a Londoner

I stayed in a serviced apartment (Apple Apartments) at Greenwich, London for a week during this trip. The apartment was nice and new. It was close to trains and shops. Most importantly, it was by the River Thames.

One afternoon, on my way back to the apartment, I discovered Deutschland. It was right outside of my apartment, stopped in the middle of the Thames, of course. It was scheduled to leave before I was leaving London so I went down to watch it getting towed out of the Thames. People on the ship, assuming Germans, were waving at us so we waved back. 🙂 I was feeling a bit sad because that I had to pack up and leave London too. 就这么我也挥一挥衣袖，不带走一片云彩的离开吧。再想想，原来是因为大家都把云彩留在英国了，所以那里经常下雨呵。

A Long Way Home

It was a long way home indeed! Everything went smoothly but it took me almost a day to get back home! After 6.5 hours of flying from Heathrow to Dubai International, I floated around the airport like a ghost to keep myself awake. I was NOT looking forward to another 10+ hours flight to Sydney even though I kept telling myself that at the end of this trip, there would be a hot shower and my own bed to look forward to! :-)

The shops were all open at 3am in Dubai International so I bought a few things to support their economy. I soon lost interest because I was so tired that it took more effect to just keep myself awake. I walked around like a zombie for a long while!

On the Sydney to Dubai flight, the girl who was sitting next to me cried her eyes out watching the Winter’s Tale so I watched RoboCop (2014) instead. It was okay, nothing special. :( To continue on the super hero theme, I put on Captain America: the Winter Soldier. Again, nothing special. The plane landed in Dubai when I was half way through the Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I was able to finish it on the next flight. On the flight to Sydney, I opt to Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Frasier Season 1 box set, hoping that it would put me into sleep! :-) It did not work; I ended up watching the whole box set - a great Australian drama!

The man who sat next to me on the Heathrow to Dubai flight started to sing along while watch the Classic Hindu Songs. I wondered if he knew how loud he was or cared if others were listening. It was funny at first until I saw that what he was watching was 1.3 hours long! Thank God that his mobile rang so he had a loud chat with whoever on the phone and did not go back to his singing. We couldn’t even leave our mobile phones along on a short flight these days.

I must have been one of the first 10 people to clear Customs at Sydney]. The trick was to go to the first e-passort machine outside of the duty fre instead of the ones at Customs. The annoying thing was that my luggage did not come out until 20 minutes later! A negative point for be on an A380 - it took longer to unload! Oh well, at least, the good news was that I was standing on the ground again and home, sweet home! 💕