I had been to Italy for the Bianchi bike launch. And as usual the plane got back to Stansted airport at just past midnight. I had no-one to pick me up. And no way of getting out of the airport until the first train left the airport at 4.30am. So I tried to get some sleep. Good luck with that. Sleeping in an airport is an actual artform. And that is coming from a guy who has been thrown out of rock gigs for falling asleep on the speakers. The fluorescent lights don’t go off ever. The shops close for one hour between 2 and 3. And in that time the cleaners are going round on ride on floor buffers. Combine that with the fact there is only enough seating for half the people there at any one time, and some people are being greedy and sleeping across three seats and you’re in for a rough night. As it was I had been awake for almost 20 hours anyway. I found a seat on the floor and made the most of it.
As soon as the shops opened again, I got a smoothie and thought about my options. My train ticket wasn’t due to leave the airport until 7.30am, but there was very little that was enticing me to stay there. I wandered into the train station under the airport and looked at the time table. The first train out was at 4.30. I would wing it.
I got on the train and didn’t see another living soul until it hit Paddington station a half hour later. Then I just saw a tired looking girl selling porridge and an overly alert guy checking tickets. I avoided him.
Judging by the guy checking tickets, there were bound to be more people who wanted to check my ticket, so I bought a ticket for the underground and hopped on. I didn’t know where anything was in relation to anything else in London. And I figured that nothing would be open as it was still only about 5am, so I got off at a random stop and started to walk around. Remembering my route back to the station so I could get back to get my actual train later.
I walked across London Bridge, and took a picture of Tower Bridge. I walked through a couple of parks with no name on, and found a tiny workmans cafe by tower bridge that sold me a large hot chocolate and a round of marmite on toast at 6am, for £2.75. I don’t care who you are, that breakfast was a friggin bargain! I couldn’t get it that cheap in Exeter let alone find anywhere that cheap in London again! And at 6am! Seriously! Bargain!
I decided to text Nathaniel as I knew he would be up early that day as he was moving to uni. He responded quickly with a list of potential things I could do in London from 7am onwards. He really knows some odd stuff. I decided that going for a wander was as good as anything else. So I did. I walked across tower bridge, and then along the Thames for a bit before turning back to find the train station again. In all this time I had only seen four or five people in the streets. Which is quite an odd feeling when you have seen London in the day time. As I came back across London bridge, there were more people around, and I started to think it was nicer before. I jumped back on the tube and shot towards Paddington to make my way home. I think I still ended up catching an earlier train....
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