After weeks of stressing about what to pack and checking a thousand times to make sure I brought my passport, I finally arrived at the Pittsburgh International Airport. Going through security without any issues made me feel slightly better but I was still very anxious about the flight. Usually my flight anxiety goes away once I am comfortably in the air but unfortunately that was not the case this time. I was hoping I would get some sleep on the flight but I was so anxious that I didn’t get a wink of sleep the entire flight. However, it was a great time to watch some movies that I have been meaning to see. I watched A Star Is Born and Ocean’s 8. I should NOT have watched the first movie for the first time on an airplane surrounded by people because I was sobbing on the plane in the middle of the night. Thank goodness everyone was asleep! After crying about Lady Gaga over the Atlantic Ocean, I watched the second movie and that was much less sad. Once I finished that movie, I was going to try to get some sleep in the last hour or two of the trip. Of course that was when they turned the lights on and began serving breakfast. When we finally made a very turbulent landing in London, I was exhausted but ready for whatever the day brought to me because at least I was off of the plane.
First, we took a driving tour of some of the famous landmarks in London. I tried my absolute best to stay awake for the tour, but my eyes slowly closed and I definitely took a quick nap towards the end. But that quick nap gave me enough energy to leave the bus when we got to the Tower of London. We had lunch first at a place called Wagamama, which was DELICIOUS. I had the shiitake dunburi, which is basically an omelette of mushrooms on a bed of shredded carrots, rice, peppers, and other vegetables. It was amazing. We then spent some time looking around the Tower of London, which wasn’t the most interesting thing to me but it was fun to look around and see some of the older buildings. Then we got back on the bus and made our way to the hotel.
Our hotel room is small, but I really don’t mind because hopefully we won’t be spending much time in that room anyway. After getting settled and trying not to lie down for a quick nap, we went down to have a quick meeting about the next day and transportation on the Tube and then walked to dinner. Our dinner was supposed to be fish and chips but since I’m a vegetarian, I got a special veggie friendly dish. It was a pie of some sort that had mushrooms, peas, and other vegetables I couldn’t discern through the cream sauce. That combined with chips (fries) with salt and vinegar was a very delicious meal. I was absolutely stuffed after the dessert of chocolate cake, and ready to hit the mattress. Which I did as soon as I got back to the hotel.
Overall, the first day was great, but I was excited to get to experience a day where I wasn’t struggling to keep my eyes open the entire time.