London Day 1

Hello and welcome to my travel blog, dear readers! I'm trying to write a little something about each day of my trip, which lasts until July 4 2023, so here we go! I hope you're ready!

My first day was yesterday and it was a bit of a journey. I woke up around 6:15, with only five hours of sleep 😅 then I headed to the bus station to meet my friend and take a bus to Riga first.

You got that right - I was going to board my plane from Riga airport, and this was also my first trip to Latvia. As much as I saw from the bus window, Latvia wasn't anything special, but there was this mysterious tower I thought to be Latvia's own version of Eiffel. However, it turns out that it's just Riga TV tower.

The airport was about 10 kilometers out of town and we got there six hours before our flight. First, we were venturing around trying to find the restroom and passport checkpoints until we asked for the latter from the information desk. From there we got sent to security first which was a breeze and then there was even more venturing to try to find a place to eat and do our passport checks. This airport didn't have many places to eat, but at least there were vending machines and paninis in one of the little cafes.

Boarding the plane was also an interesting experience because that plane used stairs, and then it was time to go. I love flying but when we started our descent into London Stansted Airport, the plane flew through a thunderstorm. I thought it would be scary but I found it quite cool, the way there were flashes around in the cloud. The turbulence was also pretty intense there, but it must have been the adrenaline that made me think it was a cool experience. The landing itself was pretty much a meme of its own - it was rough, but people were clapping and one of them even played this Ryanair voice clip about 98% of the flights actually landing 😂😂

Then we headed inside Stansted Airport and straight to the passport check gates. It was a bit of an adventure to find the right exit that would take us to the coach station, and the first exit we took, was the wrong one. A nice lady helped us find the right one so then it was about 1 hour bus ride to the hotel. What shocked me was that the bus driver was speeding pretty hard, but otherwise he was nice and helpful, helping us figure out the Contactless ticket system. The bus took us straight to our hotel and then it was pretty much getting ready for bed as we got there around 22:30. I'll probably have more to write and more pictures to share in my next post, but until then - stay tuned!

Love,

K.