The Story of the Time Hannah + Abigail Got Lost in London in the Middle of the Night

Preface: We are maybe dumb.

Hannah and I boarded the flight on Thursday and popped over to London with no problem at all (thx RyanAir). After a super fun customs line, we found the bus to take us into the city to another bus to take us to our Airbnb. This was great until we realized on the first bus that we didn't actually have an address for the Airbnb, just a description. Thankfully the bus had free wifi that actually worked and Airbnb Sarah was awake and waiting for us to not know what to do.

We made it to the Golders Green underground station and bought oyster cards to start off our time in London. Five pounds for the card and an extra five for starting transportation. Little did we know we would use all five that night.

We asked the bus driver if he went to North Circular Road. His nod and "yeah yeah" of confirmation welcomed us aboard and for some reason gave us the impression that our stop would also be called North Circular Road. Well, that was stupid because it wasn't. So we rode the bus way too far until we finally realized maybe 25 stops was too many. We asked the driver and of course he said, "oh wow yeah you should've only gone like 3 stops." Cool.

So we took it back some and got off where we maybe thought we should have the first time and tried to walk. And we walked the wrong way. Then we stood and looked around a lot and walked the wrong way again. Then I don't even know what we did. Then I had to fish some socks out of my bag and wear them with my birkenstocks because it was freezing. Then we overconfidently strutted straight into a construction zone that said, "no pedestrians," and were greeted by four men telling us it was too dangerous to pass.

Unfortunately the one we talked to was super hot and just painfully british. And unfortunately I was already way too annoyed to be nice or flirty or ask for a ride (because that's safe). So instead I just huffed and threw my hands up and exasperatedly said, "well where are we supposed to go?" We had to walk half a mile back, switch sides of the street, and walk all of that again and more to get to the end of the street.

We were finally near our destination. Or so we thought. We walked, desperately looking for Sarah's apartment. We walked up and down Brent Street, but couldn't find no. 11 anywhere. We even rang the doorbell of some little loft things and asked, "Is this Sarah?" but the reply was only of a woman who had clearly just woken up saying, "no...?" Well we were the ones who woke her up. And she was not freaking Sarah.

So we wandered around the corner to the courtyard and sat with our packs on a ledge. At this point it was almost 1am and we had no idea what to do. I told Hannah later that at this point I thought we might not find somewhere until the morning. This moment, right before the very pinnacle of our panic, I actually thought we would be sleeping outside or walking all night until morning.

We had tried to contact Jane and Emily, who, by the way, were staying in a hotel on Hyde Park. I tried to use my Italian phone to call information, tried to use it to call Jane and Emily's Italian numbers, but nothing worked. At this point we were both secretly wishin we could call our dads. They probably couldn't have done anything, but they're dads and dads actually can do everything, right?

We had given up and our last option was to turn on our expensive data and use maps or call a cab that way. Both of us dug out our phones and switched out of airplane mode to find nothing new at all. We didn't have service. So at this point, yes, I think everything had gone wrong.

We were in a huge Jewish neighborhood so we walked around the synagogue for awhile looking for an office or maybe a pew for some hobo sleeping? We even thought we might check into the hotel down the street next to it, but it was closed and some sketchy guy in a van asked us if we were trying to get in and we practically ran away.

Finally, we saw a bus running back to Golders Green and spent the last of our money, lucky that it was just the right amount. We found the taxi guy who definitely took pity on us and called us a cab that took us to the nearest (also Jewish) hotel. Complete with 80 pounds per night rooms and not free wifi. NOT FREE. It was one pound per hour. WHAT IS THAT?

At least the breakfast was free so we milked that for all it was worth. Hannah and I both had two breakfasts each before using the last 15 minutes of wifi to get an uber taxi.

We finally made it to Sarah's after accidentally knocking on the wrong person's door AGAIN (a different wrong person, we're not that stupid). She asked us if we were okay because honestly we probably had panic faces.

But as I said, we made it to Sarah and her nosy cat Zeke and it turns out we were on the right street about 50 yeards away the whole time.

So cheers to being idiots with backpacks.

EPILOGUE: London in the light of day was fantastic and beautiful and wonderful and it was just a rought first go of it. Becuase what's easy at first? Not love, that's for sure. And London was greatly loved by me and many others.