Arriving in London

My flight landed in Heathrow at around 7:30am. I had bought a one journey travel pass ahead of time, so I used that to take the tube to the hotel. The train was pretty full and I felt like I was in the way with my big suitcase. I think it took around an hour to get from Heathrow terminal 3 to Russell Square (the closest tube station to the hotel). It was on the Piccadilly line the whole way, so that made things pretty easy.

I made it to the Contiki Basement pretty easily, but I couldn't check in to the hotel until 2pm. I was too tired to really do anything, so I just killed time in the basement until check in time. I read and slept and texted my mom to make sure my phone was working (It actually was this time). Finally, 2:00 came around and I was able to get into my hotel room. I took a shower and then watched some English gameshows (Pointless and Eggheads) until I fell asleep for a nice little unexpected nap.

The Contiki kickstart meeting was at 7pm. We filled out paperwork, turned in vouchers, got our sleeping bags, and got to meet some of our fellow Contikiers. There were a bunch of people there who were doing a different tour, though, so it was confusing to know which people you would actually be travelling with. Our tour manager was Kellie (from Australia) and our driver was Ricardo (from Portugal). Our day song was "Run Alone" by 360, and our wake up song was "Eyes Wide Open" by Gotye.

After the meeting, I finally ventured out of the hotel... just to buy a water bottle and some snacks (some kind of Funyun-type things and some Pringles). I sat on a bench in Russell Square and read until it started to get dark. Then I made my way back to the hotel. I was supposed to be sharing a room, but no roommate ever showed up, so I stole the pillow off the other bed. I ate some of my new snacks and watched some more TV until I fell asleep. It was nice to have one last night in a hotel by myself before starting the tour where I would have to be sharing every night. And I wasn't super upset about not really seeing London this night because I knew I'd be coming back at the end and I'd have my own personal tour guide to show me around everywhere.