MADE IT! The flight to London was actually an early arrival which was good, about 20 minutes Allier, but I can only imagine it's not going to make a huge difference in the overall rest of the day. As we were about to land they cut off the entertainment system, gutted, because I only had about 5 minutes left to watch of the movie Zoolander 2. Not a great movie, still as stupid sort of sense of humour as the first one, but after watching it that long and not seeing the end of it, well... That just makes it a big waste of time. Temperature here is quiet good, approximately 21 degrees today, so about the same as back home in NZ, I got through customs rather quickly (about 10 minutes) and didn't even have to go past any bag checks on the way out which was great. After getting out to the pickup area of the airport I got the first important thing for my trip, a Sim card. My mobile number while I'm here is +44 7 4477 70925, if you need me urgently, or if your planning on meeting up with me while I'm here, that's my number. Oyster card was next on my list of things to get, it's like a metro card which means you get cheaper rides on the tube in London, pretty handy seeing I'm going to be back here in about 50 days, so I'll be able to ride the tube for cheaper. My mate Callum who use to work with me at Fairfax in Christchurch is now working in London, so after getting the SIM card and Oyster card, it was on my way to quickly catch up with Callum to deliver to him some NZ goodies, something we beat the rest of the world too... Pineapple Lumps, had I known how much room I would have in my pack I would have brought way more than I did, but I think 4 bags should hopefully last him for a little while. I took my first ride on the Tube to Russell Square, about a 40 minute train ride, from there I took the lift up as apparently the stairs are about the same as 13 flights of stairs. Once outside I find Callum was waiting for me, apparently he arrived himself only a few seconds before, so great timing. Callum was nice enough to pop over the road to a Tesco and grab me a Red Bull, hopefully that will help keep me a wake for a little while, we then headed down to a small park nearby called Brunswick Square, a rather small park, but great to see some grass after being stuck in the airports/planes for the last 32 hours. Callum and I chatted for a while and caught up on a few small things, it's funny how you can not see someone for ages and then when you see them it's just like old times, we started planning a few thing to do when I return in a couple of months to London and Callum suggested the best app for me to use while I'm here "City Mapper", a brilliant app that tells me exactly how to get somewhere, which train I need to catch and where to walk etc. I let Callum get back to work and made my way to the tube so I could get to my hostel to stay for the night. Upon knowing that I would be staying at a hostel, I was thinking of a grubby place with large rooms of people and thought my stuff would be left rather unsafe, turns out I was totally wrong, the front counter is rather pleasant to walk into, and the rooms are all secured with security swipe cards along with every person having a swipe card to their own locker (big enough to fit my day pack and normal pack in). With a quick fresh up, I made my way to "The Hoop and Grapes" to catch up with Callum for a quick meal, this place was rather impressive, it was about 400 years old and had survived the Great Fire of London. Meal was rather average, but was good to have a proper catch up with Callum, after dinner it was back to my hostel so I could catch some Z's before tomorrow's 5:30am start.