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| Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland |
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| Harrod’s |
My family was supposed to arrive the next day but due to the “extreme weather conditions” in Northern Europe, their flight was delayed another day. I went ahead as scheduled to spend that day hanging out with my high school friend, Janaria. There was not much I can do but meet them the next day. Anyway, more snow fell that day. It was freezing as usual. We walked around Hyde Park’s Annual Winter Wonderland. Rows of Christmas shops lined the park along with kiddie rides and food stalls. From Hyde Park, we made our way to Brompton Road and stopped by a Japanese restaurant for some soup and bento-lunch and had dessert at Laduree. Visiting Laduree has become a tradition for me whenever I am in London and this trip was no exception. We ordered caramel and pistachio macarons, hot cocoa and Millefeuille Praline (it is more commonly known as Napoleon. Layers of puff pastry with custard, fruits, nuts and/or praline). After our decadent Laduree trip, we made a pit stop at Harrod’s, Primark, and M&S.
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| Hyde Park |
After saying goodbye to Janaria, I hopped on the Picadilly Line back to my hotel. The tube was bursting at the seams with people waiting to transfer and heading to the airport. I should note that Picadilly Line and Heathrow Express from the Paddington station are the two cheapest ways to get to the airport from Central London. The Picadilly Line from Sloane Square may be a long commute back to my hotel but I like to imagine it as a respite from all the walking we did, plus it was warm inside. When we reached Hounslow East station (about 3 stops from Hatton Cross, my stop), the conductor and a few other underground workers announced that a fire broke out at the Hatton Cross station and this would be the last stop for Picadilly Line until the problem in Hatton Cross was contained.
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| Snow in Green Park |
I only take public transportation whenever I am on a holiday so I was still optimistic that this would be a short detour before I could call it a night and meet my family the next day. However, this detour was nothing like I expected. Throngs of passengers, most of them with luggage, rushed out in droves in search for an alternative way to get to the airport. There was a woman with four pieces of luggage the size of refrigerators who was struggling and obviously, slowed most of the people down so I decided to offer some help. I guess my gesture touched some nerve with another passenger and he offered his aid, as well. As we stepped out of the station, I only had one word to describe the scene outside, MAYHEM. Passengers started running in different directions while the cops tried their best to contain (and calm down) the situation. Quelle horreur! The entire town was blanketed in snow. It was freezing! There were not enough taxis. Some people were crying, yelling, and fighting for cabs. I had to really calm myself and tried to stay focus because I had no idea where I was and I already gave up on getting a cab. I felt that those going to the airport had more need of them than I did. In fairness to the transportation department and the police, they prepared enough with the buses and taxi queues for the stranded misfits but not the emotions running high among us. After more than two hours of ordeal with the snow and the bus ride, I finally made it back to my hotel.
