This is an extract from my journal from the time I studied abroad in 2010.
Day 1: Meeting London
My first impression of London was in our hostel, Generator London. My friend Emma and I were bunking together with these 2 European bodybuilders. This may have been an exaggeration, but the intensity of the lingering cologne smell in the room was not. And every morning we were woken by the soothing sounds of the Baha Men classic Who Let the Dogs Out.
I had arrived from the French Alpes, and just to prove how significant the role airfares played when planning my month-long spring break: I left my home in Leeds for the French Alpes; flew back to London for this leg; flew back to France (from Leeds, not London), this time seeing Paris; flew to Vienna, Austria via Bratislava, Slovakia (because it was cheaper than flying directly to Vienna and only an hour’s drive apart) and finally flying to Munich, Berlin, and Amsterdam.
These last few places are still relatively close but flying was still cheaper than the train, so we opted to ignore any countryside and just see as many regional airports that Ryanair service. Seriously, I would have taken Dubai to London flights if that would have saved me a few quid. The student bank account can be very demanding!
We got in through the afternoon and caught the underground to the Strand to a pub called Chandos to meet another friend, Chris, and his mate Tom. Tom didn’t get there til 11 pm and Chris, Emma and I had all bought a pint. When Tom went to get his pint he bought us all one since he needed a £5 minimum to use his card. 10 minutes later we are told they are closing up and to please finish our drinks. So for those keeping count, this meant we now have 1 and a half pints to down in about 15 mins. Fantastic.
When we left, Emma and I decided it would be easy enough to walk back to the hostel – however, after 2 pints of British ale downed in quick succession, this was not the case. We started walking, bought some fries at McDonald’s and had a hilarious time finding our way back. The underground ended up coming to our rescue.
After 8 hours in London, the only thing that I could notice was the places from Monopoly. It’s kind of annoying, but really cool at the same time. I mean, I love that I can recognise places from a massive game from my childhood and can actually see what they look like in real life, but at the same time, it would be also nice to be blissfully ignorant of the affiliation. Nonetheless, Monopoly and London are both proving to be quite awesome.
Day 2: Classic London Highlights
My first full day in London began at the Tower of London. Emma and I shelled our the £14.50(!) for entry and began our tour. The first thing I noticed about the tower was that the name is quite misleading, there is much less tower than I was expecting, in fact, it’s really more of a fort.
Second thing was that from the outside it didn’t even look that impressive. Once inside though, it was very pretty and I quite enjoyed reading about the history of it.
The highlight of the self-guided could not be planned. It was a spontaneous, hilarious moment. We were there looking from a distance at the guard standing outside the crown jewels and there were sooo many school children around and some were quite close to him. The guard decided that this was a good time to do his little march, which began with a loud and abrupt stomp of the foot. This startled about 3 of the kids and they all jumped and started screaming. This, in turn, put a massive grin on the guard’s face.
We moved through to the crown jewels, which is an incredible hat. Tell you what though, if I was the queen (or king) I would totally just wear it around the house…or palace. It’s hers right, why’s it gotta sit in a cabinet? I’d totally be ‘oh I’m the king, I feel like wearing my crown today because I’m awesome and I can’.
There are also 6 ravens that are looked after by the ravenmaster. The legend goes that when the ravens leave, the monarchy will lose its power… Hate to break it to you but I think that ship has sailed. But if anyone asks I didn’t say that because speaking against the monarchy is high treason.
That afternoon I did the New Europe walking tour, which started at the Wellington Arch, walked down Constitution Lane to Buckingham Palace, up Pall Mall to Trafalgar Square and back down to Westminster to see Westminster Abbey and the clock tower that houses a 14 tonne clock commonly known as Big Ben. Phew, that was quite a mouthful.
I met back up with Emma and Chris, and we walked over to Southbank near Waterloo to find this little chocolate festival where we bought some fudge and hot chocolate which I swear was half actual chocolate. It was incredible! We walked back to Chris’ hotel, which was bad because he was staying with his parents and I had forgotten how nice hotels actually are. Dinner was Japanese at Wagamama and we fell asleep to the calming (off) tones of karaoke downstairs.
Day 3: Uh, where did the transport go?
Today was certainly an interesting day. Emma and I Decided we wanted to see the changing of the guard at 11:30 so we left the hostel a bit before 10 to give plenty of time to get there. We were wrong. This weekend the city of London was doing major track works and a lot of the lines were down. “No problem”, we said, “we’ll just take the Piccadilly line”. Man, you should have seen the people going down to the platform. Let’s just say we were not the only ones with that idea.
We decided it was too much and tried a new line: similar. So we caught a bus to Waterloo station, a very nice bus trip and walk, but by 11:25 we realised we were even close to making it and instead made alternative arrangements. I went to the Houses of Parliament again, and went via the National Portrait Gallery nearby. It was ok, but I’m not that much into art, and certainly not into paintings of people I don’t know.
I wanted to have a peek inside Parliament houses but couldn’t find a way in, I’m hoping it was just closed on weekends and I can go later. Also, the number of people who were in that area was horrendous. It was like circular quay on a quiet day. It was overwhelming.
I actually couldn’t believe how many joggers were around the Palace of Westminster. Given that the buildings are an epic tourist attraction, I would have thought the crowds would be a deterrent. That was not the case. I had to get away from the crowd and pretty soon it was time to meet back up with Emma who was having a coffee. We caught the tube over to Borough Markets to meet some more friends for lunch.
There, we tried many a nice cheese but didn’t buy any, then headed back to Westminster. For me, it was my fourth time in 3 days in the area. At 3pm we went into Westminster Abbey for the Evensong, the daily choral service, partly because it saved us a £13 entry fee, party because I genuinely thought it would be fascinating… and I was correct. As you can see, I made it a personal challenge to save money in London in any way possible.
I don’t use the word breathtaking very often but I will use it to describe the inside of the cathedral. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow photography so I hope my mental picture lasts (it hasn’t). If not, I guess there’s always Google image search. After this, we went to Harrod’s, and got caught in torrential rain between the tube and the shop. I didn’t really understand what all the fuss about Harrods is. I guess the 21 year old student isn’t the target market of Harrod’s.
Day 4: Parting ways
I feel like I achieved a lot today. Daylight savings began so we got an hour less sleep. Emma had an early coach to Bath so I got up and saw her off before heading off to meet Mitch at Lord’s for a tour of the home of cricket. It was really interesting. We saw the change rooms, the Long Room, The Ashes (which unfortunately were not in Australia at the time), the media centre and of course the field.
I had lunch in Hyde Park with Mitch and Amber then Chris joined us and we walked to the Natural History Museum. However, the line was too long so we just had a coffee. Chris and I went back to Leicester Square to inquire about cheap theatre tickets but nothing was on tonight.
Everyone went their separate ways and I went and checked out St Paul’s Cathedral. The cathedral that was built there in the 7th century burnt down in the great fire of 1666 and this one was designed by Christopher Wren, as was a lot of the city. I went inside and was not surprised to see how impressive it was. Not long after I entered something was starting. I wasn’t sure what, but the organist was going crazy. It sounded fantastic with the acoustics of the church.
Since my travelling partner Emmal had left that morning, I had the evening to myself. I had no idea what to do with myself as she kind of led the nights due to my lack of knowledge about anything and her ability to navigate around. I eventually decided to just head in to Leicester Square and grab some dinner and maybe a pint. I found Chinatown and had all you can eat dinner for £4.95. It was only ok but was still good considering the price.
I meandered around for a bit, half looking for a pub, half just lapping up my surroundings. In the square, I saw them setting up a stage for the premiere of Clash of the Titans tomorrow.
After more walking, I ducked into a casino and people-watched for a little while. People were betting big bucks, I don’t know how you could bring yourself to bet so big. One guy bet £600 in one go and I have no doubt there were bigger ones than that. I started to watch this game called Punto Banco (a variant of Baccarat). I noticed that a lot of the signs were in Chinese and it was at this stage I realized I was surrounded by Asians. I was very much the minority. I’m sure I heard the dealer not speaking English at some points too. I also saw a game called pai gow. I still don’t understand what was going on but it involved lots of tiles. It was a very fascinating experience, and one I did not expect to come from London.
Day 5: Ever more crowds
I woke to a message from Mitch saying he was doing something with Amber in the morning so I made my way to the Natural History Museum. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the room of death my friend used to paint in at the University of Newcastle back home. After a little bit, I decided to give the changing of the guards another crack and had much more success. There were sooo many people there, and I didn’t really understand what was going on. It would have been really good to actually be able to hear their commands. Instead, all I could hear was a muffled, distant grunt.
It was cool to see so many of guards in one place though, and I was surprised (and to be honest, a little disappointed) . Though I later learnt that this was their winter uniform. For some reason, the band played Abba, a medley of Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia and Fernando, and I just had to message mum, a lifelong Abba fan. She reckons nothing but the best for the queen, but I reckon they were just scraping the bottom of barrel.
I went back to the Natural History Museum for a bit, then the Science Museum and watched a 20 min 3D short on the moon landing. It was quite interesting as it told us what they did up there for 3 days and it played as if we were there with them.
My last taste of London was the British Museum. I was supposed to meet Mitch but he got screwed around by the underground (a common theme this weekend) and didn’t get there for ages. The museum was kind of cool, lots of ancient stuff, but I was too tired from so much walking to actually appreciate anything. We then went to Leicester for dinner at the Queens Head pub, then watched a few people walk in on the red carpet, for the film premiere. It was actually surprisingly dull because I couldn’t really recognise any of them and it was drizzly.
