It had to be a relaxing mini-break weekend in London but turned out as a total disaster! Me and my friends wanted to visit London and so decided to go there for a few days. We booked tickets for a plane and a room in one of the London hostels, bought a small but useful phrase book and got ready for the adventure. At the beginning everything seemed all right. Our plane landed at Heathrow airport on time. We got our luggage, bought a single ticket for underground and decided to go by Piccadilly Line train to get to the city centre. After leaving the subway we dragged our luggage through the stairs at Piccadilly Circus Station. I looked around to check where we are.
– Where is our hostel? – I asked my friend, who was holding our room booking confirmation.
– It is in Notting Hill – she answered, unaware what kind of problems her reply will cause.
– How far it is from Piccadilly? – I asked.
– Well, I do not know…
It turned out that no one of us took the London map… At first it did not seem to be a huge problem. We took a bus that was supposed to take us to Notting Hill. Although a bit tired and hungry, we were hoping that after a while we will relax in a comfortable place with hot shower and food. Unfortunately, while traveling by bus we noticed that instead of getting closer to Notting Hill we were moving in the opposite direction. Then it struck us that the traffic in London is left side not the right side traffic! So we got off the bus and waited for half an hour for another one to take us to the destination. One hour later we were in Notting Hill. But which street should we take now? Because we still did not buy a map, I decided to call the hostel and ask them how to get there. Although the lady at the reception desk explained the way to me three times I still could not quite figure it out. We ended up buying the map. Hungry and tired we opened the door of our hostel but we did not like what we saw. This place was dirty and the service very unfriendly. What’s more we found out that there are four more people in our room who look more like petty thieves than tourists. Now we understood why this place was so cheap! After turning the hostel down we went back on the streets, still hungry and very disappointed. We had to find another hostel quickly, but how to do it when you do not know the city. Sitting in a nice café we started talking to a friendly looking waitress who turned out to be Polish! We told her about accommodation problems. But instead of giving us some addresses she told us to go to the closest tourist information and ask them everything we need. We did so and it turned out to be the best solution. At the tourist information we were given maps, addresses of friendly hostels, places to eat at reasonable prices and useful information about buses, shops and places to visit! Our mini break trip started terribly but we ended up happily and satisfied thanks to the Polish waitress and tourist information!
turn out – okazać się
to book – zarezerwować, zamówić
drag – wlec
huge – ogromny
destination – miejsce przeznaczenia, cel podróży
tourist information – informacja turystyczna
reasonable price – sensowna cena
thanks to – dzięki