So this morning I got up at around 9h. I was still sleepy but wanted to get up to spend some time with the boys before my departure. So I played with the youngest and is VDamon (or whatever they are called) toys and chatted with/watched the oldest boy while he played around on the computer. Then I had breakfast with the boys and their mom. After that I showered and packed my bag. I was ready to leave but there was still the whole afternoon to spend in Amsterdam. So I hung out around the house. I watched a part of a movie, I took a nap, I read the newspaper. Not much really. I think I've lost my watch. It's really bugging me. I remember the last time I took it off was at the house near the computer. And I don't remember having it after that. So I asked if they had seen it but nope. It really sucks if I lost it! It was not a cheap nor a really expensive watch but I liked it a lot!!! Now I can't tell what time it is… Then at 16h30 I said my goodbyes and the father brought me to the airport.

I checked in with Easyjet for my flight… It was the longest cue until now during my trip… I had to wait 15 minutes! Then security and passport control were both quick. I looked around the stores for watches but none were to my liking both in style and price. So I thought I'd wait and buy one in London! So I waited around to get the gate number… I got some chocolate with my left-over Euro coins… And then proceeded to go there. The flight left on time at 18h50. The Easyjet planes are really new. But the seats still are not the most comfortable in the world! So thankfully it's a short flight, 50 minutes.

I landed at Gatwick airport. The lady at immigration/passport contril when I arrived in London. She was the most suspicious of me ever! Usually they ask “why are you travelling?” or something simple and stamp the passport. But not this lady! She asked “how long will you be staying in the UK?”, “are you visiting friends or family?”, “why are you doing this trip”, “I see you spent 3 days in Amsterdam, correct?”, “are you still a student in Canada” and finally “can I see your return ticket to Canada?”. Man! A lot of questions. Maybe it was because I went from Canada to Amsterdam to London that made her suspicious? Who knows. Thanks to my orientation work on May 17th I knew right away where to go to buy my ticket. It cost me 40.20£ for the return train card airport-city and a 7 day travel card. I then went on the slow (and cheaper) stop-train at 19h23. The journey was going fine until half-way through where they announced that there was a delay because of some incident. So the journey which was supposed to be 40 minutes max turned into an hour. Not so bad, I wasn't in any rush. On the way I thought the UK looked pretty sad… I saw garbage and crap laying around everywhere!!! Compared to Holland which is much cleaner this was ugly! I arrived at Victoria station and walked across to the Underground. I then got on the District line and came to the hostel. On the hostel's website there were directions and I had printed them out. I read these and followed them right to the hostel! Yay!

I checked in at the hostel at 21h… I got room 301. And it's a small room with 4 bunk beds on the third floor. It's cosy let's say. And I was assigned a top bunk! Oh great (not)! I just hope I will be able to sleep well. In my room I opened my bag. And oh no! A leak! On my way to Amsterdam my shampoo bottle had leaked. So for today's flight I had sealed it with tape. Obviously that wasn't enough. And this time it wasn't in a plastic bag so I got some shampoo on my coat which was next to it in my bag! Great! So I cleaned all of that off, took me about 30 minutes.

After that I came down near the lobby area to use the Internet. I am excited to be in London but right now I'm mostly tired. I didn't eat a proper dinner yet. And I won't. I'll just eat one of the raisin rolls I bought from the Albert Heijn, shower, and go sleep! I just looked at the weather forecast in London for this week and it's rain, rain and more rain. I really hope it changes and I get at least cloudy skies if not sun. Keep my fingers crossed!

I went to sleep at around 00h. I had showered and prepared most of the stuff I would need in the morning in order to be as quiet and respectful of my roommates as possible! About 20 minutes after I was in bed ready to sleep two of my roommates arrived. They were very silent, whispering, being careful with the door or the zippers of their bags, and so on. They eventually went to bed too. At 01h40 the last roommate, sleeping in my bunk under me arrived. Man was he noisy!!! He wasn't careful at all. But eventually he went to bed and I fell asleep again.