I also feel like it's time that some lovely family members of mine receive a care package. I have some stuff I'm lugging around that is really just weighing me down, and I was going to send it home, but I figured if I do that I might as well add a few English treats in there.
I know I complain about the coffee here, since there doesn't seem to even be such a thing as fresh ground coffee, but the breakfast tea is amazing. It's nothin like what you can get in that states, so be expecting some real English tea, and maybe some biscuits to accompany them. Also I may or may not include some Vegemite in honor of all the Australians I've been meeting, I met another 4 last night. We played pool and talked and of course I was asked about Obama and my opinions of him, I've realized everyone thinks that he is amazing over here, and when i say otherwise they are shocked and don't understand and I have yet to quite understand it completely.
I've learned a lot about the Aussies, and it's really interesting to hear about their nonsense. Apparently they call catsup either Dead Horse or tomato sauce. They also have a kids treat called ferry bread, which is white bread with butter and hundreds of thousands (also known as sprinkles). They never pronounce R's at the end of a word, so my name becomes Coka, and tartare sauce is pronounced tar tare.
The most confusing thing that has happened to me while being over here happened last night though. I walked into my room to go to bed and I thought my bed had disappeared. It turns out that my bed and all of my belongings had just been moved into a little cubby in the room, taking me about 30 minutes to find my bed and my pajamas. Of course the hardest part about staying in hostels is it feels like form life, everyone's on different schedules so you have those that go to bed early and you have to work in the dark and try not to disturb them. You also have those that sleep in, and you have to stay quite in the morning as well. It also works out that the ones that come in later than you always wake you, they just manage to do so no matter what, and the ones that wake up earlier than you also disturb you. It's just a constant trying to tiptoe, and wishing everyone else did they same when they don't.
My train was delayed this morning so after waiting around the train station for well over an hour, all my connecting trains I had missed as well. I had to talk to multiple people and after a lot of switching trains and running around before I ended up in Brighton. I had to take a train to central London to connect with a train that took me to Brighton, it was huge with three seats on one side and two on the other, and it was the emptiest train I've ever been on. Going into London seemed scary but wasn't that bad, so I'm reconsidering the skip I did with London, but maybe I'll take a day trip from Brighton. I really do think i would enjoy London more if i was with someone and not by myself, but i also may be surprised. Once I was in Brighton, I realized my hostel is located in Hove, a good 45 minute walk (with a backpack) I decided to jump on one more train since it was only £2 for about a 3 minute train ride and find the hostel. The hostel is only a block off of the beach (pebble beaches, but not bad, I've never seen pebble beaches before). The food here still weirds me out. I had lasagna last night that wasn't anything very similar to what we consider lasagna, it felt like it was made with more of a gravy than tomato sauce. I figure Brighton might be better, being a coastal town, it might have some delicious sea food but I don't plan on getting my hopes up. Sticking with ham sandwiches, at least I know what I'm eating, and it's healthier than a lot of the pub food you'll find around here. I still haven't tried bangers and mash, but that is because I really don't care for sausage so much and I don't want a meal that consists of sausage and mashed potatoes with some gravy. I plan on getting some before I leave, but I might save it for a meal when I'm not starving.
Even going into London by train, there is literally nothing between stops until you get to the main part of the city. You get a few houses and cows but mostly fields and trees. It's such a small country that I would think there wouldn't be so much country side, but even these big cities seem to be somewhat small, all walkable. Since it was a clear sunny day, it got up into the 70's and I couldn't help but laugh that all the signs kept reminding people to drink water and stay hydrated in the heat. The funny thing is, it was a gorgeous day, until i got to Brighton, then it suddenly turned cloudy and cold. I also feel like Sundays mean that they do not check the tickets. I hadn't had anyone check my tickets all day long, which made it easier to explain why I was on the wrong train. Just because of that delayed train, it made my day a lot more stressful with a lot of running, a lot of waiting and a lot of confusion. In in station I got off on platform 1 and had 1 minute before my train left on platform 13 I was running through the station, and I literally jumped on the train as the doors were closing, I sat down ten realized I had no idea if I was even on the right train. It didn't help that it was scrolling Wimbledon across the screen, but it was in fact for Brighton.
I know this blog is unorganized and all over the place, that's how my brain feels right now at the moment at least, but I plan on just getting some rest and checking Brighton out tomorrow.
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