We Arrive!

After about 10 hours of traveling, Jon and I finally got to settle into our cozy flat in Balham! It's small, with a bedroom area slightly bigger than the bed, a tiny kitchen area, and a narrow hallway, but we have a lovely private patio. There are two grocery stores and a Tube station right next to us, as well as a park that we'll be exploring today.

Tiny bedroom!

Our patio (there's no table in the kitchen so we'll eat here a lot)

Of course, our first day in London, and it was the hottest day the UK's seen in a decade. It was over 90 degrees and sunny, and Londoners are simply not prepared for that type of heat. The Tube isn't air conditioned (and we rode it for over an hour to get here from the airport), our flat isn't air conditioned, restaurants aren't air conditioned...it was a rough day. After the sun went down though it was actually pretty lovely.

The Tube is adorably small. It's super narrow--I accidentally kicked the woman across from me on our way from the airport. The seats are fabric, and if half the things happen to Tube seats that happen to NYC subway seats, that is super gross.

Our Air BnB host is a really nice guy. He's sent us a list of his favorite restaurants, left us a bottle of wine in the fridge, and gave us tips for a cheap and easy way to get into Wimbledon, which we'll probably do this week.

We were really close to staying up to watch the England-Japan game, but opted for trying to get our sleeping back on schedule. We were really hoping for an England victory so that we could watch a USA-England game (probably in an American bar somewhere...), and we were heartbroken to wake up to the news that England lost in such a tragic way. Now I'm hoping that everyone here will be rooting for the US, but I don't really know how sports work.

Today's agenda is simple: explore the neighborhood, see the park, get new SIM cards for our phones, and eat at restaurants--all while trying really hard not to accidentally start speaking in a terrible English accent.

xo
Hannah