Back on the streets of London and more than a little footsore and hungry. Actually Sara was hungry all the time but by this point the rest of us were desperate to eat, too. Once we were back on the main street (after leaving the palace compound) (I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever have occasion to write those words!!) we passed several eating establishments (none of which were particularly tempting) but when we saw this darling little Italian cafe, we didn't deliberate very long before we decided to stop and eat there. It was super cute, very small, clean and had so much atmosphere! Bright and Italian. The walls were either painted or had wall paper that looked very Italian. There were also niches in the walls that held little statues. Lots of greenery and flowers. If you wanted to wash your hands, you had to go downstairs to the teeeeny tiny, brightly colored little restroom. It was all just sooo cute. There was only one other patron in the entire cafe (well, it wasn't very large, so that isn't saying much) when we were seated but he soon departed, leaving us the sole diners there. Even so, it seemed to take them quite a while to serve our food. Maybe it only seemed that way because we were so famished. Maybe it was because they made it all from scratch. Not sure. I didn't take any pictures of the woodwork or pictures on the wall or the Tuscany inspired decor. I only took pictures of my mostaccioli. (and an accidental selfie. which will never see the light of day.) My only excuse is that I was starving and food was all I cared about. And apparently that was the way Rachel felt too because she only took pictures of her spaghetti. And she was the one who had been laughing at me for taking pictures of my food!!!
Nobody took pictures of what Sara and Heather ordered which means the world will never know what they dined on that evening. Which was, in fact, my birthday but I kept forgetting that!
(But I will never forget how, only two months earlier, Rachel invited me to accompany her on this amazing adventure and spend my birthday with her in London. I had so many excuses/reasons why it wouldn't work. And the main reason I couldn't go hadn't even occurred to me: I didn't have a passport or even the birth certificate that was necessary to apply for one!) (all the events and answers to prayer before we even left the country would make a great blog post...someday)
Our next order of business was to find the National Express Bus Lines office so we could get tickets for the next installment of our adventure. We knew National was somewhere in the Central London city bus station, which was also the Underground station and a railway station as well as a veritable smorgasbord of every kind of food stand, souvenir shop and convenience store imaginable. Plus half of the entire population of London was there, trying to make their way home. I am not good in crowds, never have been. I always seem to bump into people or step in front of them or get in their way...totally awkward. We decided to separate into two groups, thinking that by spreading out we might have a better chance of finding the bus station we were looking for. Or maybe the other two just had to go to the restroom or to get some food...I can't really remember.
But, alas, by the time we found it, it had closed for the day...so we found each other and the tube that would take us back to the Elephant and Castle station and from there we planned to walk the last five or six blocks to the hostel. So we clambered aboard, hoping to find seats together, actually, by this time, we were just hoping to find seats. We had made the discovery that rush hour lasts way more than an hour in London. Plus I think they were still dealing with some delays due to the storm of a few nights night before. (was it only a couple nights before?)
This room was so tiny...it was literally big enough for only two sets of bunk beds and that is ALL!
If you look really carefully, you can see the London eye (the enormous Ferris wheel that is 27 stories high) in the distance behind the tall buildings, center left.
