Hot, hot, hot!

28 degrees today and blue skies. The sky is still blue, now, at 9:20 pm and a half moon is peeking down on me from over the other side of the building.

Got up early as usual--4 a.m.--and made a list of what I'd do. Decided to go to Hampstead Heath, since the Camden Community Markets didn't open until 10. I lugged out the big camera so I could shoot wildlife, and planned the bus journey. 

I found a great app called, spookily enough, "London". Tells you which transport to catch, how to get to the bus stop or station from where you are, and tracks the bus stops while you're riding so that you know where to get off. Amazing! What a world we live in. Now, if they could invent smartphones that live a little longer than a couple of hours if you're using GPS. . . That would be a thing! 

When I got to Hampstead Heath, I realised it was quite a big deal, my morning excursion. The heath is big and there was a lot of trekking uphill in bright sunshine. People everywhere running, swimming in the ponds, throwing balls for their dogs to fetch. Trees, birds, squirrels, and me with my big camera panting in the heat. 

I mentioned in the last entry that I have a very poor sense of direction, and you who know me well will understand the depth of my ineptitude. Google maps has made it worse. I'm even less likely to take note of my surroundings now that I can rely on the app. My smartphone has made me stupider! I used google maps to find my way around the heath, otherwise I might have been lost there forever.

It wasn't long until I felt the old malady. Strange: the dull pain under the left shoulder blade makes me feel like I want to vomit. I can't do much about it except sit down, rest, and stop turning the lens ring. I guess it's like tennis elbow to a tennis enthusiast. So, I stopped walking, sat under a tree and waited for the birds to come to me. Easier than walking, but the nausea was still there. And when I thought of the long trek I'd have to make to get back to the bus stop, I felt a little sicker. 

I walked slowly down Parliament Hill, resting on the way on a bench which seemed to have been placed there for my comfort. I eventually found my way to the bus stop and back to the suite, where I rested for a little while, then, having found my mojo again, I took the same bus route--46--to go to Camden Community Markets. 

What a crush of people! Food, everywhere but nowhere to sit and eat it, except on the footpath. I wandered around a bit, took what photos I could, and then followed the tow path from Camden Lock to, what I then realised, was Regents Canal, which I had intended to walk while in London, but had forgotten to schedule it. Regents Canal goes for about 17 km, but I didn't have the energy to do the whole length. I walked along a little and then walked up a set of stairs to the street, hoping to see a bus stop or a tube station. I was disappointed. The London app told me I'd have to walk for 20 or 30 minutes just to get to the bus stop, but I couldn't find the one it wanted me to go to. I decided I'd have to walk back to William Goodenough House, which the google maps said would take me 40 minutes. And then the phone ran out of juice and died. 

Now, I still had my very poor sense of direction, but I had no way of telling where I was or how I would get back to the accommodation. I have very little understanding of the layout of London after two days relying on google maps and the London transport app. I thought maybe if I took a bus to anywhere, I'd
reach a tube stop or another bus stop which would get me closer to where I desperately wanted to be. I was hot, thirsty and tired. 

As I was ambling down the Euston Road, following the shade, I saw "The British Library"--a behemoth of a red brick building. Very impressive! I remembered having seen it on a map, and it wasn't so far from William Goodenough House, where I'm staying, though I thought it was strange at the time that I hadn't chanced upon it while I was walking about.

 I was panting as I trudged through the sunshine and heat to reach the entrance. I thought, well, it's a library. They might have a free paper map which I could use to work out where I was and how far away that was to where I wanted to be. 

I must have looked a sight because as I walked through the door, a bloke who worked there said: "Can I help you?" I told him I was a little bit lost and my phone was dead. He asked me where I wanted to go and I told him. He told me that a hundred metres down the road was St Pancras tube stop and just a little further on was Kings Cross station. He said I could get a train there to Russell Square. 

Actually though, I had passed Kings Cross Station earlier that morning on my first bus ride and remembered it because it was very close to where I'm staying. I thought at the time that I could have walked it in 20 minutes or so. It's where I will have to arrive bright and early tomorrow morning for my train to York. 

So, I walked, thinking that I could walk back to the digs. It's always good to remain positive, even in the light of a crushing inability to understand spatial relationships, don't you think? 

I got close. I got 500 metres away, but I wasn't able to find where I had slept the previous two nights. I asked some shopkeepers but they hardly knew where they were themselves, let alone where Mecklenburg Square was. 

Finally I stopped an Italian woman with a phone and asked her if she'd look it up on Google maps for me. She did, pointed out the route, and she and her husband wished me luck, rather doubtfully I thought, as I set off.

Her directions were great and along with some partial memories of street names that I had seen this morning on the way to the bus, I finally found my way back. 

I closed my eyes for a bit and woke up a couple of hours later.