Chester to London

Derek drove me to Chester to be picked up by National Express at 9am. This one was direct and so was marked as London. There were only about six people on the bus and we headed north out of Chester only to get to the motorway and turn south. We took the Northwich exit and headed for Tarvin (??) but turned right at the Tarvin roundabout and went through Tarporley, near Crewe and near Stoke-on-Trent to get onto the M6. We made a comfort stop at a service station and went through toll gates.

At some stage the M6 turned into the M1 and we only made one stop at Milton Keynes. We entered London through some suburbs I forget now (Crystal Palace?) and pulled up at Victoria coach station at about 1.30 (15 minutes late). I considered going on the internet while I was waiting for Jess, but she sent me a text to say that she was at the main coach station across the road. I found her without too much trouble and we walked to Victoria train station (huge beast that it is). After sorting out what kind of tickets to get during our stay, we took the tube to Oxford Circus and walked to ‘Oxford St’ hostel, which actually happens to be in Noel Street. Thanks, Derek, for finding out where Noel Street is.

We checked in with a minimum of fuss, and found our room. It was simple but comfortable enough, though the radiator was broken and a water pipe dripped constantly into a big basin, into which I managed to drop a couple of garments. Oh yeah, and the pillows were stitched in and unbearably flat. But, it was still OK.

In the time we had left us, we decided to (1) check email, (2) buy groceries for all of our meals, and (3) look out for camera shops. We found a huge but dodgy internet café, bought £12 worth of food (pasta/sauce, mince, Thai stir fry, sausages, cereal, bread, milk, etc.) and while I looked in camera shops, I couldn’t find a 350D as cheap as in Chester, though I knew there was a Jessops around.

By then it was completely dark and we managed to miss the hostel completely. We found it again and unpacked the groceries. We had to label all the fridge stuff, and so called them ‘Bennett’ or ‘Bennetts’, which we found quite amusing. We kept all the other stuff upstairs in our room.

I think we met American guy on this night – a very extroverted interior decorator called Biddle who kept telling us stories twice. He was harmless enough, and I used one of his sugars (I replaced it with two I stole from Maccas). We cooked our mince, pasta, and sauce while the others microwaved Tesco meals or baked pizzas. Go us. I think we met hyperactive Brisbane woman then too. The food was good, and Australian Dave offered us some Italian cheese to put on top.

We washed up, went upstairs, and began to plan our days. It was complex and we were still debating after midnight. I was wrecked, so went to bed, leaving Jess to write in her diary.