Another rainy day, which meant, after a lunchtime discussion with the other girls, that I would not be going into London. It's not worth it to spend the 5 pounds for the travel card to walk around London when it's gross outside. We decided to go back to Kingston instead.
We caught the bus from Teddington in, which was packed, because people do the thing here where one person takes up two seats. It was especially irritating this time because the bus was completely full, yet four girls in the back were sitting in two seats each, when it was apparent that they knew each other and were traveling together. If they would've just sat together, they could've freed up four seats, which would've let the four of us sit together, which we were unable to do. People do the same thing on trains here. One person sits in the cluster of four seats, two and two facing each other. Then a group of four people gets on and can't sit together because one person is selfishly taking up an entire group of seats. It's very frustrating.
Once in Kingston, I split off from the other three to do a little exploring, and hopefully, not any purchasing. I walked the entire mall, checking out some of the stores I missed Wednesday, then ventured outside. There's one area that appears to have an open market in nicer weather. There are a lot of little cafes and coffee shops as well. Once you get away from the Bentall's Center, the mall, it's actually a quaint little place. I was able to find a shoe store and get some goalashes, or "wellies" as they call them here. Since it was a Friday, it was extremely busy, but something that always amazes me is the amount of babies around here. It seems like almost every other woman is pushing a stroller, or "pram" as they're called here. It's really funny when it rains, because they sell these plastic covers that people put over the strollers, and Danielle worries about how the babies breathe. England is also generally not conducive to pushing children around, especially the double-wide strollers some people have. The sidewalks are oftentimes narrow and bumpy, so I'm kind of surprised more people don't carry their babies. Add to that the cost of baby supplies around here, & I'm kind of surprised people reproduce as much as they seem to.
We rode the bus from Kingston into Twickenham to eat at the restaurant I really like but can't ever remember the name of. It starts with a W. Anyways, I had lasagna, it was delicious, but Kaitlin & I were upset that the menu had changed and prices had gone up. Regardless, it's still reasonable, but it's irritating to find someplace we really like, and can afford to eat at, until prices go up. The value for the money isn't bad though, so chances are we'll be back.
We called it an early night, and I decided that I would go into London tomorrow. I talked to some people from home, finished up some chores, and got into my lovely comfortable bed with my cozy duvet. I really lucked out with my bed here. When my mom & I were here in 2002 I quickly adopted the English bedding situation - namely a duvet - at home, so it's nice to have that here as well.
And so ends Day 11.
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