London - Day 1

Hello, London!

It was just a perfect opportunity for a short but sweet reunion with fellow Uniteenz (what we call our batch of 2003) – Dr. Amani & Ir. Hazim. So we planned for one which i will talk about it later.

Because there was a story upon my arrival. As u all were informed earlier, I spent 19 hours transit in Munich, so I spent time there surfing the net using my phone and playing with those iGames. So at the moment I touched down London, I came to realize, that my phone has empty battery *owh great!* I was literally dead coz all the contacts were in that phone, and Miss-Smarty-but-always-absent-minded-Aysha couldn’t have thought earlier to write down those numbers somewhere else just in case things like this will happen. (Dad will be shaking his head left-right-left when he reads this, i know). So I wasted a good 30minutes finding a place to charge my phone, but to no avail. In the end, I had to use the ones in the toilets, yeah yeah, those the cleaners use for vacuum cleaners.

And as if as I didn’t have enough mess to indulge into than I already had, I just had to discover that my Megafon roaming wasn’t working, the first time ever since 5 years, for what the reasons are, I certainly have no idea.

Tried to look around but the sim cards sold in the airport was ridiculously expensive. I could buy a new top at the same price *geez*. Then, I recalled that when I came to London earlier in 2008 I bought a sim card in a bookstore, it was cheap but it was somewhere near Earl Court's underground stop. So, off to Earl’s court I went. Got a new sim. Saved.

Yay~!!! battery charged – CHECKED! A Vodafone sim card – CHECKED!! One other problem was….my friend didn’t pick up – she was busy wasting her GB Pounds on discounted stuffs in those bloody shops coz its Boxing Day *grrr* *jealous* *grrrr*

But as I said, there is always a happy ending to every story of mine. So, I decided to find my own way to her place. Based on her address I asked around to others which underground train to take, which station should I get down, and when I reached at the station, she was there!! She too just arrived. You see? Happy ending wasn’t it?? Even though it was already 5 hours after I landed in London. *rolling eyes*

I was way too tired to go out anywhere that night, plus the girls were too busy obsessing with their newly purchased items that I envy upon, so I just went out for dinner at a Halal Chinese food outlet across the street. Literally gobbled half of a roasted duck, made plans for the next day and went to sleep like nobody cares.

Of a Post- pone Post

Our route journey during the New Year break :
Munich - London - Paris - Luxembourg - Brussels - Amsterdam - Cologne- Frankfurt - Munich

This is a so-called postpone post (yeah rite, it took me 1year to write bout it, believe me).

This eurotrip has gazillions of stories behind it, which makes me don’t know where to start from, and in the end, the procrastination devil became my best friend!

The trip was an altered plan for multiple times from the original one, or I can say it was already plan E by time it happened. The chronicles of plans were such....

Plan A – me going to Munich during New Year to visit Afiq (my ex-classmate). Gonna tour a few major cities in Germany, and that’s it. Back to boring Russia.

Then came Adhwa ( a friend of Afiq, also in Germany) who just bought a car from UK, and has to pick it up a few days after Boxing day. So he invited Afiq and another friend of theirs, Hamal.

Then again….

Plan B – Afiq will follow his friends and they will tour Europe by road. It sounded so tempting and awesome, but heaven to lose, I cant follow them coz my holidays only starts at 31 Dec. *sad* So I will take a one-way air ticket to which ever country they will be at during New Year's Eve, meet up with them and continue the rest of the euroadtrip, with whatever that’s left.

Then another again...

My appeal letter to start my holidays earlier (i.e from Christmas) was approved. *yahoo!!-basically jumping around* So we thought of something even better.

Plan C – I’ll fly to Munich on 24th. Then together we’ll fly to the UK on 24th as well, celebrate Christmas in London, go shopping until your half dead at Oxford Street on Boxing Day and begin our road trip from there TOGETHER! Owh, what a perfect plan - I thought.

So, we booked the tickets on 24th Dec, planned everything nicely. And yet again...

A few days before leaving I just came to realize that, my holidays actually starts from 25^th Dec, which means, I can only fly on the 25^th to Munich. But hey, tickets to London from Munich are already purchased on 24th(?) *slaps forehead*

A panic call. Made the quickest back-up plan in history...

Plan D – they will fly on the 24^th, but I will have to change my ticket. Coz there is no way Jose my uni will let me go off early even for a day. *sucks*. And another good news for me, British Airways doesn’t fly on Christmas.*great!*. So that means I can to fly to London ONLY on the 26^th. I cant change my ticket to Munich to the 26th as well, coz its too costly. I'm in such a big mess! So the solution was :

25Dec 1635 - fly from Moscow to Munich (arrives at 1745)

26Dec 1330 – fly to London from Munich

19 HOURS TRANSIT in a place which I’ve never been my whole life, and no one I know was there at the moment. But it wasn’t such a big deal to survive, I slept for 12hours, window-shopped for an hour, ate for an hour, played iGames for the rest of the hours.

but that's not it yet, as i said earlier, we've gone to Plan E, remember?

*drum roll please*

Plan E - we will drop by Paris, crash at Tiq's place and together with her we'll roam Europe all the way!! i was beyond happy with this finale one indeed :-)

so off we tour de europe (Aysha, Hamal, Afiq, Adhwa - our sole driver)

me and with mon prefere

there's always a happy ending to every story in my life! *Alhamdulillah*