The Art of Navigating London

I actually have a post written about my birthday but I just wanted to talk about this first. It was such a monumental day in my mind.

September 8^th, 2011, will forever live in my mind as a successful day: I navigated the city of London by myself.

Well, somewhat.

I have literally been trying to get to Argos, the British solution to Wal-Mart, since Monday, for pillows. We were given one sad little pillow and it wasn’t enough for my spoiled 3-pillow self. So, I finally ordered two pillows and two pillow cases for roughly £5. But that meant getting to Argos to pick them up.

At first I was supposed to go with Jenna and Sarah, but they had floor events so they hand-wrote directions for me. I was feeling pretty good at this point; I had just gotten offered a paying job, survived orientation, and it hadn’t rained yet that day. So I bid them farewell and went off with my hand-written directions and sense of pride.

I see your game, directions.

At first, I was walking along briskly down Gloucester Road, looking at all the beautiful architecture of Kensington-Chelsea borough. This was the first time I was trying to get somewhere by myself since I’d been here, and I was not about to screw it up. As I walked, I realized that I somehow had missed one of my turns, and was at Hyde Park. Confused, I called Sarah and asked if she could use Google Maps to somehow place me and help me find my way. I loitered at Hyde Park for a while and then she gave me a shaky set of directions, including a street name I couldn’t quite hear. Now, you have to understand that London doesn’t have street signs like in the states that stick out in your face and are bright colors. They have these plaques on the sides of some buildings with street names. Helpful, London.

So I continued on, past Hyde Park, down Kensington Road, wandering through some shopping districts. And by some I mean a lot. American Apparel, H&M, the Orange Store, PC World, etc, etc. I was looking for a particular right turn so I could take a few more arbitrary turns when I saw the telltale blue-and-white Argos sign in the distance.

I had finally found Argos.

I was wearing flats from my interview, so I couldn’t really run, but I kind of jog-skipped into Argos, and it was like Christmas came early. There it was, the big catalogue books, the people dressed in blue polos, asking what my order number was in adorable accents. Finally, after three days of planning and attempting to find this mysterious store, I was inside. I gave my order number and 5 minutes later I had my pillows. I had stopped at Ryman’s on the way there to get notebooks and pens and I had gone to Waitrose earlier for some other essentials. So here I was, with my pillows, ecstatic that I had finally found Argos.

Now, I just had to find my way back to Sorbonne House. Armed with a new sense of accomplishment, I walked off into the busy sidewalk, heading in the direction of Hyde Park. I had finally reached the main gate of Hyde Park when I realized I wasn’t 100% sure of where Cromwell Road was; Cromwell Road is the street my house was off of. But luckily I saw Nicole, another friend, jogging around the park, so we walked together until she gave me awkward directions to the Natural History Museum and disappeared inside the Crofton. I wandered a bit more, found Waitrose and Boots, got a little confidence boost, called Saiya when I forgot where I was and finally, after I had left an hour ago, walked into Sorbonne House, map in one hand, bags in the other. I had finally navigated the city myself.

I’m starting to get you, London.

Oh, and Saiya and I got locked into Hyde Park and had to scale a fence to get out. Before we got lost in London. Again. I'm starting to get London... but London is definitely winning at the moment.

Saiya, successfully hopping the fence.

"Two BU students arrested in London for being too rebellious."