Oz to Japan via Eastern Europe - Part 7 - Day 5 - Leavin' Japan on a Jet Plane... (bound to Heathrow)

We both woke up early (surprise) and feeling somewhat seedy after drinking more than we should have the previous night.

Feeling like a bit of grease - I sort of made Ant go on a forced march to the "nearest" Golden Arches for breakfast. Now I have to admit - that was the best McDonald's breakfast I've had in ages. Everything tasted fresh and hot (unlike anything you get back in Australia or elsewhere) although the McDonalds did have the whole "depressing single Japanese business man" thing happening in a sort of Yoshinoya way. Going back to the hotel - we discovered that there was another McDonalds within earshot of our hotel... D'oh! At least the extra walk might have burnt off a couple of extra calories.

We do a bit of a mad pack at the hotel. By this stage - the Sun Hotel had well and truely changed its name to the Izisu Hotel (spl?) wthin one day. They had even disposed of the old soap and shampoo bottles - more crap for the Japanese "recycling" system (code for incineration). If I haven't said it before on this blog - but Japan has a long way to go before achieving the three R's of recycling (reduce, reuse, recycle)... They could do with a bit more emphasis on all three areas.

Because Ant and I are "extreme" travellers - we decided to tempt fate twice by taking the Keisei line again to the airport. (As you might recall - our last trip from the airport took 3 hours)... Things started to get off to a shaky start as the train stopped in the middle of a bridge for a couple of minutes - but thankfully - that was the only unscheduled stop the whole trip - and it picked up a bit of speed after then.

On arrival to Narita - we quickly make our way to the BA check in area. As we were met in the check in area - staff were telling us that our flight was going to be 3 hours late (which meant we had about 5 hours of waiting around at Narita instead of 2)... However - the check in woman was able to get us onto the next flight to Heathrow (which left in 20 mins). So from the time we had arrived at Narita to the time we left the tarmac was a little over 30 mins... New world record baby!

The flight itself was "mecha-empty". Ant was keenly casing out a couple of empty rows in front of us - and when everyone had finished boarding - he quickly jumped into his own 3 seats. I had the middle section all to myself (4 seats)... Ths both gave us a chance to sleep during the flight. BA had just introduced a movie-on-demand system (even Ant the total plane nut was unaware of this) - so I attempted to watch a few movies (including Happy Feet) - but they all totally suxed (including Happy Feet which suxed the most). I did watch the whole of "The War of the Worlds" which was pretty good (up until the last 20 minutes or so). My favourite scene was when Tom Cruise was sifting through a 747 wreckage - great airplane viewing material! Ant watched Happy Feet (which he liked) and we both watched "Little Britain Abroad" which was ace. I loved the texan version of the Fat Fighters woman - gold.

Because we got the earlier flight - it had meant that we arrived much earlier into London (duh!). Heathrow was a total dive of an airport and our bags had taken forever to get off the plane (typical British service!).

We caught the four pound tube ride to Kings Cross (bit of a bargin) and Ant got the heebee-jeebies whilst passing through the tunnel where one of the London Bomber's bomb went off (Ant's London Bombing reference count - 1).

We had booked one night into the Crestfield Hotel - a 60 pound a night hotel right next door to Kings Cross Station (about $150 AUD). We had stayed there previously during our stay in London a couple of years ago and it is a bit of a bargain - if a little shabby. I even convinced my mum to stay there - she was very dismissive of the Kings Cross area at first - but said that she enjoyed the stay there and would stay there again (or something). Ant has a friend from the UK who also says that Kings Cross is a bit of a dive - but it is a lot better than the Oz version of Kings Cross (ahh... Porkies - what class)...

Having a bit of time to kill (and not wanting to go to bed straight away) - we venture outside to the Kings Cross station to book us some train tickets to Edinburgh (in a couple of weeks time as we will be travelling back to Australia via the UK). The train ticket office was a bit like waiting in line at a Centrelink Office - full of "Computer Says No" staff and strange strange people. After waiting for 30 mins (there were heaps of people umming and ahhing about what train they could book and if they could get it at a cheaper flight) - Ant and I were decisive in what we wanted (2 tix to Edinburgh on this date) - and not choosy about the cheapish price (32 pounds). Sweet...

We wandered down to Russell Square and past another London Bombing site which Ant was getting all excited about (Ant's London Bombing References Count = 2). The Russell Square area is cool in that it is close to many big tourist sites (including the London Museum - the disneyland of history museums). We decide to chill and have a cup of coffee and a biscuit - which costed us about 2 pounds ($5AUD) which was reasonable. Thankfully our dollar has gone up a bit against the pound since the last time we were here in London - so instead of being dirt poor aussies - we are just poor aussies.

We wander another 10 mins until we get to Convent Gardens and the West End (everything is surprisingly walkable in London). Ant comments about the number of bike riders now in London has risen dramatically since people don't take public transport after the bombing (Ant's London Bombing Reference Count = 3).

All of the plays seemed to have changed since our last visit to London. What was big in 2004 was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which has been replaced by Mary Poppins now) and the Jerry Springer Opera (which has been replaced by a new version of Chicago with "our" Tina Arena - France can have her!). Back in our last visit - we spent 10 pounds on a matinee of Chicago - but our version had David Hassellholf (how awesome is that!) - although we had caught him in one of his last performances in the show. Another big show at the moment was the Daniel Ratcliffe (aka Harry Potter) half naked show (whose name I've forgotten). There was a freakish, 40 meter poster of Harry Potter half naked with a stump where his groin should be... as you do.

Ant and I wander around the Soho area (the gays in the village area) and check out a bookshop. There was the "non-pron" section - which Ant bought a couple of books and the "pron section" full of Eastern Europe cinema classics... or something.

We walk about to Kings Cross (which takes us about 30 minutes) and go to a little cafe where we got some cheap pizza and coke (for about $7.50 AUD). I act like a total alcomolic and get a beer from a local bottle shop (Fosters' Export no less) and it had to be one of the worst beers I've had in my life.

We head back to the hotel and catch up with a bit of gutter TV. Our selection was "Crime Watch" - which was sort of like "England's Most Wanted" with the usual bad dramatisations. You might not believe this - but it was a BBC show... Shame...