We arrived in London just in the nick of time. The
underground took us far outside of the city center, but we located our hostel
with ease and arrived just after reception should have closed. Thankfully, the
receptionist was running late, so we were checked in and shown to our room in
no time. The hostel was several stories tall, cramped, and constantly smelled
of stale beer. On the bright side, it was clean, safe, and the bathrooms always
had upbeat music pumping from the speakers. We were staying in a little room
with 4 triple bunk beds crammed into a tiny space. When everyone was up and
about, it was impossible to get anywhere. Simply climbing out of bed in the
morning (I had a top bunk on the 3rd level) was a display of
acrobatic skill I never knew I possessed.
The next morning (Monday), we got up early and set out to
explore. It was “Bank Holiday” in London. We never really found out what the
significance was, but there were crowds gathering by the London Eye and loads
of street performers, live music, and good food. We got some burgers (for the
first time in Europe, I found a veggie burger!) and found a sunny spot on the
lawn to relax and eat. We ended up taking turns people watching and falling
asleep. It was almost strange to be back in an English-speaking country. Everything
about London felt reminiscent of Home.
London Eye |
Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park--throwback to Winning London anyone?? Also, there's a rare sighting of The Monster, which I've been failing to incorporate. |
Princess Diana Memorial Fountain |
While we were blessed with gorgeous weather for our first
day, on Tuesday, it POURED. Constantly. We got a hop-on-hop-off bus pass for
the day and just stayed on the whole route. The upper deck was partially covered,
so we took the front row and tried to stay dry. This proved especially
difficult, as the water wasn’t draining properly so as it poured, the rain kept
on collecting and would periodically attack us on particularly harsh turns or
stops. Eventually, we moved downstairs to the better-insulated part of the bus
and waited to get off.
Along the way, we drove across the Tower Bridge, saw Hyde
Park, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace
and the Sherlock Holmes Restaurant. After the tour, we went to the London Eye
to make our 8:00 reservations. It was beautiful to see the views of London from
above, but it was too cloudy for The Perfect Picture.
After the Eye, we hopped on a river tour and floated down
the Thames while watching the sunset. Everyone else was getting off, but we
figured we’d just stay on as long as we could and watch the lights come on over
the river as the sky darkened. We started playing music and singing off-key to
Macklemore and The Kooks. Eventually, we asked if we were returning to the
London Eye and learned that we were actually about an hour out of London
already. Luckily, we were able to get off at the next stop and catch the last
ferry back. Our timing really had been perfect!
For dinner, we were determined to find good Indian food, so
we followed the advice of Cassie’s London tour book and found ourselves in a
swanky modern Indian restaurant. We tried curried lentils, olive & cheese
naan, and kebabs. Everything was amazing, and the bill was even more so. To
soften the blow, they brought us out delicious mint leaves covered in white
chocolate.
After a good meal, we were going to check out some English
pubs, but we ended up in a sketchy neighborhood around midnight and decided to
head back to the hostel before the metro shut down, rather than get stranded in
an unknown area.
After so much stress from traveling, we decided to sleep in
and have a rest day. We slept in till 3:30…a little later than we planned on.
Although it was too late to get tea by the time we were showered and ready, we
went back to the Sherlock Holmes Restaurant for an early dinner. I got a
vegetarian pot pie (which was on my list for London), and Cassie got a classic
order of fish & chips. We ended up successfully checking out some popular
pubs in the area after dinner and learned a few things:
1) Americans tend to flock together. By the end of
the night, we hadn’t met any locals, but we did have a group of 6 Americans
bar-hopping together.
2)
Pubs close at 11 pm. If you want to stay out
later, find a bar.
3)
Bars also close early. After being used to the
Italian nightlife (going out late, staying up till dawn), I was shocked by the
stark contrast in England.
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