Saturday night was not a good night
Don’t fall asleep on trains. Especially in foreign countries.
My first stuff-up was bound to happen. I had been out pub-crawling around London Bridge area, and since I was still recovering from the heavy night before, I pulled the pin and decided to go home. So I got on the tube to Paddington, then on the 11:30pm train to Reading. When the train left I set my alarm for 20 minutes because I knew it takes about 25 minutes to get to Reading. Next thing I know, I woke up and the train had stopped at a town named Swindon. Too far. So I got out, and was then informed by the helpful train station people that there were no trains going back to Reading that night, and the next one was 8am in the morning. Its times like these when you really realise that you are a LONG way from home (perth, australia) …
I went for a walk around town looking for a hostel to camp at, and found none. I found some hotels but none had free rooms. Then I found the clubbing area which was spewing drunk lads and ladies into the streets. Eventually I found a bus station that had a service to Heathrow (via reading), leaving at 3:30 am. So 3 hours to wait, I wandered the streets a bit, and feared for my life because of all the drunks around. I saw 2 fights, and several women crying on the street. Sounds like a quality place huh.
So eventually I went back to the bus station and proceeded to freeze my ass off for 2 hours until the bus came. Yes I’m a dumb aussie and didn’t have enough clothing on. I’m just glad I decided to bring my jumper with me when I went to London that day, but it still wasnt enough! The bus dropped me on the outskirts of Reading around 4 or 4:30 AM. At that point I realised I didn’t know the number to call taxis here, so I started walking. About 1 hour later I crawled into bed, about 5 1/2 hours later than it should have been, and passed out 