London Town

Last weekend I had the good fortune of taking a trip to London.  With all the misfortunes I had had up until that point, my ankle still broken and getting sick, a little vacation was in order.  My roommate, one of our classmates, and I all got up in the wee hours of the morning (3 a.m) and embarked on a journey that would soon turn out to be one of the best weekends we've had in a long time.  Though we were tired, and my roommate was a bit grumpy (she's not a morning person) the second we landed in Stanstend airport our moods instantly flip-flopped.

First thing we noticed upon landing in England, everything was English again and we could actually navigate where we were supposed to go.  Signs were in English and people talked to us English, in british accents which I absolutely adore, and we could have in depth conversations with out getting confused.  Though it did take us a day to adjust to the language change, saying "gracias" instead of "thank you" and "perdon" instead of "excuse me," the culture change was a delight.

Once we navigated through customs where the line was long as hell, and made it to our bus which we had to split up to catch it before it left, we were on our way to London.  The bus was packed to its limit with people and everyone looked tired.  I sat next to a lady who had come from Navarra with a bunch of her friends and we had a nice conversation in Spanish.  She was spending three days in London as well for the first time, leaving Monday like us.  We talked about our plans and what we planned on doing in London.  I was impressed with myself for being able to hold a sophisticated conversation with someone in Spanish.  Spain was definitely rubbing off on me.

The second we got out into the city I whipped out my camera.  The city of London looked so quaint through the glass window of the airport bus.  Everything was different, the architecture, the busses, cars, streets, lampposts, and even the people walking on the sidewalks.  I felt like I was in a storybook, lost in an English neighborhood like in Oliver Twist or as if I had jumped into the movie Love Actually and was walking door-to-door with Hugh Grant trying to find Natalie's house to tell her he loved her.  I couldn't stop taking pictures and my roommate had to tap me on the shoulder and remind me to save space for when we get off the bus and actually experience the rest of London.

Out the Window

Houses Out the Window

 

  I shut off my camera but continued to take everything in.  Everything was square, or a rounded square, the buildings and cars, and the houses were practically holding hands.  I loved everything about it and couldn't wait to start exploring.

Pounds!

  When we got off the bus we took bathroom breaks, and prepared ourselves for the trek ahead.  We took out cash from the ATM which was exciting.  The exchange rate though, not so much.  One pound is close to 1.5 dollars so 80 pounds cost $140, but I tried not to think about that too much.

It was close to 11 once we were all settled and we had 5 hours until we were allowed to check into our hostel, so we decided to check out London in the mean time.

Our first order of business was finding food.  We stopped for lunch at a cute sandwich shop one road off Victoria station.  I ordered a chicken sandwich and regretted nothing.  The waiters were cute, all had lovely accents, and were more than cheery.  That was the one thing I loved most about London.  Everyone always seemed to be in a great mood and had the best manners.  It made it incredibly easy to strike up a conversation with a stranger.

London Lunch

The Crew

Marissa, Kim, and I ate our food and discussed what our plan was for the day.  We decided to check out Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and downtown before checking into our hostel. After several Harry Potter references and forged british accents, we started on our way through London town.

Road to Buckingham

Square Center

We walked along the cobblestoned streets through the villages, past several more pubs before finally making it to Buckingham Palace.  When we got there it was packed with tourists, taking pictures next to the gate, and by the statue in the center.  The whole place was buzzing with energy and we had to squeeze our way through tour groups to get a closer look through the gated fence at the guards.  They stood outside the palace marching back and forth, with their furry hats and old school guns in the most honorable manner.  I watched perplexed at their routine.  The whole palace was a lot to take in and I couldn't help but feel like I was in a dream.  My phrase for the entire weekend was, "I'm in London."  No matter how many times I said it out loud, it never seemed real.

Gates of Buckingham

Buckingham Palace

Road to Big Ben

The weather was warm and the sun was partly out, providing the perfect lighting for the day.  It couldn't have been more perfect.  We walked through St. James Park to get to Big Ben and passed many Londoners on their daily runs and walks for the day.  The swans were even out and it couldn't have felt more like a painting of your classic park.

Moon Walkers

St. James Park

 On our way through the park we came across a plaza with a clear view of the London Eye off in the distance.  The buildings were royally designed and people were out and about.  We took a break from walking to soak in the city a bit more.

Resting

Big Ben in the distance

Plaza

One of the things I noticed during our walk was that there were a lot of memorials, monuments, and statues throughout the city of people who had died for noble causes, or of people who had left their mark upon London and they were quite interesting to read about.

Checking out the Phone Booths

We passed the classic red telephone booths and hidden alleys before making it to Big Ben where once again, there were several people.  It was just as pretty as I had imagined, if not prettier and we spent a good amount of time there before leaving.

Big Ben

We found a local shop with Wifi to figure out how to navigate to our hostel and ended up buying Oyster passes for the busses and trains.  It turned out to be a smart idea because we ended up taking the tube and the double decker street busses a lot that weekend.

Once we had our passes, we got on the bus to our Hostel that dropped us off conveniently in front of the front gates.  Now, from the outside, the hostel looked like your classic dormitory, but the inside was anything but.  There was a lounge with a dining counter for food in the front lobby and a front desk to check in and out of.  The lady gave us our room key and pointed us in the right direction.

As we walked through the halls of the hostel, I the atmosphere felt a little eerie.  The whitewashed walls and barred windows didn't exactly scream homey and Kim made a remark about the horror movie, Hostel, which didn't add to anybody's comfort level.

The vibe in our room wasn't much different from the outside vibe, as it was a 20 person dormitory and all the bottom bunks were filled.  The walls were green and the people in it were high.  We didn't hesitate to go downstairs and ask for a different room, my broken ankle proved as the perfect excuse and were quickly accommodated with a nicer 18-bedroom room by the lounge.  It wasn't heaven, but it did the trick.

I took a quick nap before dinner and then we headed out.  We took a bus to Covent Garden, and made our way to an Indian Restaurant we had looked up called, The Masala Zone.  The city at night was even more alive than during the day and I could feel the magic.  The lampposts, the red brick buildings, the white street signs plastered on the walls, and the people's voices echoing through the town all brought something surreal to that moment.  We all fell in love with London right there and in an instant it was apparent that we had picked the perfect place to travel.

Masala Zone

Tiki Masala

Masala Zone was packed with people, and the line went out the door (Indian food is extremely popular in London), but we waited patiently as one of the locals told us the food was worth the wait.

After a delicious but spicy Tiki Masala, chicken in Indian curry sauce, we took the tube to Picadilly to meet up with one of Marissa's friends who was studying abroad in London.  Picadilly is like the Times Square of New York.  It had a huge reader border, street performers and numerous clubs all lined along the streets.  There were countless stores and restaurants along the way and the streets were all lit up with neon signs.

We watched a  Rastafarian-like street performer do the limbo under a stick placed on two 2 liter coke bottles and were amazed at his flexibility.  It was definitely clear that he was going to have knee problems when he was older though.

Emil met up with us after the limbo show and we made our way to a local pub that was packed with people.  We all order a pint of beer and Emil told us about what life was like living in England.  Compared to Barcelona, it was so different there.  People go out to the clubs and bars at normal times like 7 or 8 while in Barcelona clubs and bars don't start until midnight.  I was fascinated by some of the things he was saying.

Roomies 

We took the bus home after the pub closed at 11 and made our way back to the hostel by bus.  We woke up the next morning, had breakfast at the diner in our hostel and planned our last day in London. We decided to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace, visit King Cross to see Platform 9 & 3/4, walk through Camden Market, and end our day with Trafalgar Square where the National Gallery is.

When we got to Buckingham Palace, once again it was packed.  Only this time with three times the amount of people, which didn't seem possible.  It was almost as if we were at a concert.  One could have easily road the crowd from one side to the other if they mosh-pitted.

Crowd Control

Tourists

Police were everywhere, with their batons, and on their horses trying to keep the crowd steading.  As we stood waiting, we held our cameras above the crowd to get a better lens at what was going on.  The guards decked in their suits and tall fluffy black hats marched through the square and into the gates of Buckingham palace.  Drums and trombones were blaring in the crowd and there was defitinetly a festival like feel to crowd.

After the ceremony, we pushed our way through the thousands of tourists, not an exaggeration, and walked through Green Park to Green Park station.  There we took the Tube to King's Cross station.  If you've never seen the tube then I'll explain real quick.  They call it the tube because the station is litterally a tube.  The tunnels and subway are all tube-like and you feel like you're being sucked in and out of places to get anywhere.

Once at King's Cross station, we made our way to platform 9 & 3/4.  The station was huge, with a high ceiling in the shape of an arc and it had a very modern feeling to it.  The actual platform required a train ticket to get to, so the station had designed a fake 9 & 3/4 for tourists.  We were surprised to find that there was actually a line to have your picture taken in front of a trolley half protruding from the wall, but figured since we were already here, why not?
After having our pictures taken, we stopped off a the Platform 9 &  3/4 gift shop which had a bunch of Platform 9&3/4 t-shirts and harry potter stuff.  There wasn't anything too exciting there.

Off to Hogwarts

Outside Kings Cross

Our next stop was Camden Market, which was a short bus ride away from King's cross.  Camden Market, like everywhere else in London, was packed with people and had it's own set of street performers.  There were souvenir stands upon souvenir, and blocks of different shops it all seemed overwhelming.  The buildings held true to the classic English architecture and the people were just as friendly as anywhere else.  There wasn't much to see but trinkets and gadgets but it was definitely worth the visit.

Camden Square

Tired and a bit worn out, we made our way to our final stop, Trafalgar Square.  Trafalgar Square ended up being my favorite visit during our trip.  It was it the center of everything, and the National Gallery stood tall over the city, looming proudly over all the other buildings.  Their were several fountains and statues and traffic buzzed around it all.  I felt like a small fish in the ocean while I was there, everything was so big and important.  I was sad when it was finally time to leave.

Road to Trafalgar Square

National Gallery at Trafalgar Square

We ended our trip in London with dinner at a Dutch Pancake house and drinks at a local Pub.  The food was delicious and the beer wasn't so bad either.  While we were at the pub we ended up meeting a local, Ashely who was from Ohio.  She told us she had lived in London for 5 years and had come to study art here.  We talked about all the touristy things we had done and what her life was like in London.  She had come with some friends she'd made in London and talked with them briefly for a bit. The whole night was full of laughter, story telling, and good drinks which made for the perfect ending of the perfect trip.

I loved the time we spent in London, and everything we experienced.  There was so much that it is hard to condense it all into words.  The whole atmosphere is a thing in itself, and the city has left an impression on me.  It's going to hard to beat my trip to London.