Our first 24 hours in London!

We made our journey to London on a red eye flight leaving 10:30 PM EST Wed Novmeber 30th, arriving at Heathrow Airport in London at 11:30AM GMT on Thurs. Dec 1st. We hauled our 4 large suitcases, 2 smaller roller bags and 2 carry-ons to the waiting area where our driver picked us up. We made it to our flat in the Borough Market Area of London, which is right next to the London Bridge. Here is a link to our flat:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-31667092.html

We got all settled in and are now 24 hours into our London adventure! We decided we had to go to a local pub for our first night in town and enjoyed fish and chips and a couple of pints...I'm working on using the British lingo, such as lu, cue, take away and of course cheers!

Fun facts of the day:
1. I heard some construction men listening to Sir Mix-a-Lot
2. I got lost on my way to the bank
3. I got lost on my way back to the bank (I was coming from a different direction)
4. We learned we don't have a dryer...let the air drying begin!
5. A random city transpiration guy stopped me and talked my ear off for 30 mins on my way home from the bank


Why did I walk 1 mile each way to the bank twice today, you might ask? Well, it was my job to go to the bank today to get cash. We set up a Citi bank account before we left so we'd have access to our money with minimum fees. After walking Jon to work I made my very round about way to the bank which happens to be right next to St. Paul's Cathedral. I insert my card and it asks me how many GBP's I want and I have no idea what to enter because I don't know what a GBP is. I venture inside the bank and wait in the cue for a teller and ask her what does GBP mean, dollars? or pounds? the banker tells me since I have an American account it is in dollars and there will be a fee. Ok, I head back out to the ATM and start the process over again. I enter 250.00 and it tells me it's going to withdraw 392.00 GBP's...I thought this was either in pounds or a very hefty fee and didn't want to take a chance so a figured I'd come back with Jon. It's now about 11:15 and I'm cold and hungry, so I search for a place to eat. This is also a seemingly easy task, but the first three places I try don't take credit cards and I end up at a Starbucks. I head back to the flat to shower, get ready and regroup. As I tell this story of shall we say exploration, please don't think I'm complaining because as I'm wandering this amazing city looking for whatever it is i'm looking for I'm in complete awe of the experience I'm having and loving every minute of it....even the cold and hungry ones! At home I search what a GBP is and it's the code for pounds and I check the current conversion rate of £250.00 and it's $392.00. Anyway, I set back out to find lunch and the bank again (it's now 2pm) I decide to go the exact way that I came home from the bank since I passed several restaurants I thought I'd go to one of those, except as hard as I tried, this didn't happen. I ended up in a completely different area then I was looking for and made another VERY round about way to the bank. This time the bank went much smoother. On my way home, determined not to get lost again, I get stopped by a city worker who ends up talking to me for 30 minutes about all the things I should do while I'm here, the funny part of this is he's trying to tell me directions to them all...I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd already gotten lost twice going to the same place with directions written down! I finally made it back to the flat about 4:30PM and am sitting here writing this post while over looking the River Thames. Jon should be home soon and we'll go out exploring some more.

Cheers!