Long day!

So today began over the Atlantic Ocean on my flight here. Flight was uneventful, made small talk with the girl sitting next to me, slept some, etc. Customs/immigration was no problem, picked up my bag/box, and headed to the first outside door and started assembling all the pieces. After a while of doing that, I went on a search for water and an internet cafe. After getting my net fix and filling up, I started asking for directions to get out of Heathrow and onto the hostel (in Kensington). Eventually I was directed to the M4 as my google map directions showed I should go. However, M stands for Motorway, the equivalent of a US interstate. Biking down 95 at home isn't so smart, and its the same here. The police pulled me over before I even got on M4, told me I was retarded, and then helped me get over to the A4, a road that has a convienent bike path and much slower traffic. At this point I decided to use the gas station across the street to top up my tyres, since I had deflated them slightly for the flight. Bad idea, the pump didn't work quite right and ended up deflating my tyres to a dangerous level. I went inside to see what I could do and all they had was a air compressor that runs off a cigarette adaptor in any car...so I was able to borrow some power from a guy at the gas station and fill up. On to A4! After an hour or so of smooth riding on the convienient bike path that is between the road and sidewalk, I felt something wierd. Stopping to check it out, I realized one of the tires on my trailer had popped. With no spare for the small tire, I had to take it off, find the hole, patch, and reinflate. My problem was in the fact that my 'pump' was an air compressor that needed a car to operate. So I did what I could to borrow power from cars taking the side street I had stopped next to, and eventually got it filled up enough to find the hole, patched it, and stopped someone else to refill the tire altogether. Back to the road again! The rest of the ride wasn't too bad, just slightly confusing directions, which was worsened by the fact that streets aren't labeled nearly as clearly here as in the US, and no one seems to know the roads too well anyway. Finally heard from frank on the radio, close to arriving at the hostel, and had a story to tell. Spent the rest of the night here at the hostel with Frank and some new friends, most of them from Canada. Today is supposed to be filled with frisbee and hackey sack, along with some touristy stuff. A little late start, so we will see what happens.