London, Day 1
Sushicat is why we haven’t traveled much in the past – this girl is a diva to the Nth degree…our baby. Finally we asked Aunty Di to come to Honolulu to take care of Sushicat while we travel. This is no small ordeal since Di lives in L.A. Anyway, for the second year in a row we are taking off. Last year it was to San Francisco for my birthday (Shout-outs and kisses to our SF friends Carole, Sue & Bob, Michelle, and Gay David).
Ok then… We leave for Honolulu International at 4am, after 8+ months of planning. The anticipation and planning is crazy-fun, and way less expensive than actual travel. But here we are. The day has arrived. We get to the airport with just one carry-on each for the two of us. This would be fine, I said, “Because who really wants to schlep baggage through foreign cities? Not me.” They said it couldn’t be done. The “they” I speak of are all the seasoned travelers in our life. Some friends of ours believe that cruise travel is the bomb because “you only have to unpack once” and that “you can eat 24 hours a day!” Hhmmm… we could never be cooped up in one room on a ship, so the unpacking once doesn’t really hit our travel sweet spot. And the eating 24 hours a day thing, although tempting, doesn’t fly either, as I’ve always been able to eat 24 hours a day; I don’t need no stinkin’ boat for that! Hey, look at me, I weigh 190 pounds; eating has never been a challenge.
Where was I? Oh yeah, the luggage thing. Keira wasn’t too keen on the 1 carry-on idea because she’s an Olympian Shopper and wouldn’t have luggage to carry her purchases. Keep that in mind; it would come back to bite us in the butt later on.
Security waved us right through without one second hesitation. Had we known it was going to be this easy we would have brought (fill-in this blank with your own naughty/illegal thoughts and/or contraband). This was beginning as the smoothest and easiest travel since 9/11…
Being professional foodies we had to grab a bite prior to our flight. French toast’ll work just fine. Along with a bit of Portuguese sausage? Sure. Only in Hawaii, eh?
Landed in L.A. about 5 or 6 hours later. By the way, American Airlines operates the British Air flights between Honolulu and L.A. and are easily the least comfortable planes in the sky. But here we were, on the Left Coast without enough time to find the Trader Joe’s near the airport, or L.A.’s best chicken at Zankou. Oh well….connecting flight to London would be departing shortly.
British Air would be our air-chariot for this leg, about 13 hours, to London. How civilized, and lovely, and comfy. We made sure to grab our pharmaceutical bag, the $300+ Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones, and our iPads (all loaded up with movies and music and phrase books, menus, and more). Just wondering… are you thinking, “Who on Earth has noise cancelling headphones that cost in excess of $300?!?” Well, we do. Remember previously when I mentioned that Keira loves to shop? When she bought herself the headphones I was furious… a week later, right before our trip, she got me a pair. In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve spent that much on headphones in my entire life, and I’m talking all-my-freaking-headphone purchases, all-together! But, not wanting to blow a fuse right before the vacation, I accepted.
Landed in London at 7am local time (18 hours in the air from Honolulu, not including layover time) feeling happy and enthusiastic. Wow, London! Let’s do it. We hopped aboard the Heathrow Express bus to Paddington Station, then took the underground from there to Liverpool Street station, a moment away from our hotel, the Andaz.
Sometime shortly after arriving at our hotel we discovered that Keira lost her iPad… the fairly new one I gave her as a gift, engraved with lovey-dovey poetic ramblings by Yours Truly. Where could it be?!? Well, it wasn’t in our carry-on, so she obviously left it on the plane. FUCK! This was a bummer way to begin.
A short time later, down in the train station, Keira lost one of her two cameras, the $1200 one. Now, I was SO pissed! I was this close to divorcing her (and we’re not even married yet). Two-thousand bucks worth of lost electronics in just a few hours. Keira proved that she could do something even faster than spending our money, and that was to lose and/or “misplace” things. Oy! Fortunately, though, we were able to recover that camera after some very (very) stressful exchanges. Keep in mind this is our first day in London, not Amsterdam, where you might understand why this was happening. Poor Keira. Bless her heart. Deep breaths. It was at this moment I took away her wallet, credit card and passport for the rest of our month-long adventure.
I needed a drink. Or four.
Back at the hotel now for a quick-quick shower and to get dressed for dinner. It was very cold in London so we dressed in layers, complete with gloves and scarves. We’d brave the cold and walk around East London until we found a place to eat. Finally, we stumbled upon a great little Indian place called Dil Chad that fulfilled our dream of our first great Indian meal in London. I had a lot of beer, so did Keira. We momentarily forgot about the lost iPad because the prawn dhansak, chicken tikka masala, cauliflower, spinach and dal were so delicious! Afterwards we walked around and got lost. It stays light until close to 10PM in London, a lot different than back home in Honolulu where it’s dark by 7:30 or so.
Once back at the hotel, I had at the free minibar in our room (you too can have a “free” minibar for $400 bucks a night). One thing, though, that money couldn’t buy this evening, was silence from the room adjacent to ours. The very loud lady in the room next door would have to be dealt with. 5-star hotels just ain’t what they used to be. We’d switch rooms the next day. Time to sleep; we’d been up something like 45 hours straight at this point…