London Calling

Gingerbread Castle at the shop!

With classes over, my friend Judith and I decided to take a trip down to jolly old London! We were both busy (me getting things done before the winter break adventure and Judith getting ready to go home for the holidays) and budgeting, so we decided to go for only one night. This trip felt like my most “youth backpacker-y” trip so far, since we literally carried our backpacks around with us for most of the trip. We took an early, early morning coach, a trip that took about 4 hours total, and we arrived to fog and mist (typical, *sigh*). After we left Victoria Coach Station, we found a sweet little shop to get a snack. We got coffee and I got cake (it was truly amazing). After we had warmed up a bit and filled our stomachs, we decided to go sightseeing! 

We decided to take the Underground, or the Tube if we want to get colloquial, with Judith as our fearless navigator! Honestly, the London Underground is great. I’ve ridden on public transport systems all over the place, and the Tube system is one of the easiest to navigate, most efficient, and cleanest I’ve every used. Props to you London for making your mass transit so easy that tourists don’t have to stop and ask locals for directions.  We got off at Westminster and emerged from the Earth to the looming image of Big Ben! I was so tired from the bus ride and a little disappointed by the area around the coach station, that when we bumped into the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, I do believe I exclaimed “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” to Judith, and much to the amusement of many Londoners and tourists around us. 

We took innumerable photos (or at least I did) of Big Ben and Parliament, and Judith took polaroid photos even (so cool!). We got up close and personal with the London Eye, but we didn’t ride it since the tickets were insanely expensive (like 50-60£ or some nonsense like that). We wandered around until we found Westminster Abbey and then further until we got to Buckingham Palace. I’m not gonna lie, Buckingham Palace was a little anti-climactic. I’d seen it so many times on TV and in photos, and in real life, it wasn’t nearly as big and grand as I had imagined it would be. It was there, and reminded me of some of the other stately English homes I had seen, though a little bigger, and most disappointing of all? There were none of those guards in red coats with funny hats! Unforgivable, truly. 

Wondering where the Red Coats are

By this time, it was getting darker, and the mist was turning into a drizzly rain. We took the Tube around a little more, going to St. Paul’s Cathedral before heading over to our hostel. We landed at King’s Cross Station and, of course, had to make a stop at the Platform 9 3/4 photo-op and store. We got several geeky souvenirs, but we had to make up for the fact that tickets to the Harry Potter studios were all booked up! 

Piccadilly Circus

It was full on pouring when we left King’s Cross, and we had quite a bit of trouble navigating in the dark, in the rain, with our little paper map melting in our hands, but eventually we found our hostel. The guy at the check-in counter was very chatty, giving us lots of recommendations when all we wanted to do was get to our room and dry off. After we dropped our stuff in our room, we headed back out to find some dinner. We decided on a Vietnamese place, and I’m not gonna lie, it was really nice to have some quality Asian food again! The food was great, and Judith got some hands-on practice using chopsticks! She also tried deep-fried ice cream for the first time! It was a tasty time. We hopped on the Tube again and got out at Piccadilly Circus, or “our Time Square” as the hostel guy called it. It had a few big screens up, and a couple of theaters, but it definitely didn’t hold a candle to actual Time Square, but I could see where the comparison comes from, I guess. 

Me with the phone booths at Piccadilly Circus

We wandered around there, and went to China Town since Judith had never been to any sort of China Town before. It was cute, but it was small compared to some of the China Towns I’ve been to in other cities. We popped into an Asian market and I made Judith get a Ramunen (Japanese Soda). 

Judith excited about China Town

Then we headed to Oxford Street to check out Selfridge’s. The window displays were cool, but the interior reminded me of the State Street Marshall Field’s store (well, Macy’s now, I guess…) in terms of the interior design. We wandered around in there a bit, but by then we were both so totally exhausted from being on our feet all day long, that we were a little zombified, and headed back to the hostel for an early night. 

The hostel was clean, and we sprung for a private room and bathroom since the prices were so cheap. It was my first time sleeping in a bunk bed, and I slept on the top bunk, which was novel. I don’t think either of us woke very rested, though. The hostel provided a meagre (read: ‘pathetic’) breakfast of your choice of white or wheat toast, jam, and instant cocoa or orange juice. We checked out early and headed out to site see and get some coffee (I desperately needed the energy after the sad little breakfast). We went to the Tower of London, one of my top “must-see” items, and Judith was sweet enough to entertain herself while I paid to go in and take a tour. 

Tower Bridge

I took a tour led by one of the Yeoman, and it was quite informative and entertaining. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I guess not what the Tower turned out to be. The layout reminded me of those Medieval towns you see on TV shows. I saw the place where all those beheaded queens were buried and I saw the Crown Jewels (which, let me tell you, were impressive up close). I hit up the gift shop (who doesn’t love a good gift shop, honestly?) and went out to find Judith. By then it was warmer out and we headed to Trafalgar Square, which was full of people and performers, and generally a cool place. We ate lunch across the street from the square and then headed to the Natural History Museum. 

The museum building itself was really pretty, and we headed inside and Judith took pictures with all the dinosaurs. We went to most of the exhibits, and got to see the dinosaur exhibit, and the taxidermy animals, one of my favorites (I know, that sounds strange, but I both interesting and find it super creepy, which makes me love it). After we had gone to most of the exhibits (we skipped the minerals exhibit, and I skipped the creepy-crawlies), we went and got tea at the museum cafe. We stayed there until the museum closed, and then took the Tube back to the coach station, since there wasn’t much else for us to do at that point. We were exhausted, but we had two hours to go until our coach left, so we ended up just sitting around at the station. 

Judith meets the Dinosaurs

Our coach ride back to Leeds was one of the longest 4 hour stretches of my life. There were several small children on the bus, which spelled disaster from the moment we saw them board, but to top it off, there was a woman sitting in the row in front of us, who spent 3 of the 4 hours talking loudly on the phone. Our trip was from 8-12 pm, and all I wanted to do was doze off, but this lady was yammering away, not making any attempt to converse quietly. If she had been in the middle of a crisis, or was talking to someone out of necessity, that would have been one thing, but I think she was doing it to pass the time. She would hang up with someone, and then scroll through her contact list and call someone else. At one point she was laughing so loud it sounded like cackling. It was so rough, but we made it. 

After spending an exhausting and jam-packed 30 hours in London, I feel like I saw everything I really, really wanted to see, and I got to spend some quality time with Judith, which was nice! It took me a full day to recover, and then I had to hop back in and work on at least one of my two essays before leaving for my adventure (who knows what’s going to happen with the second essay, but at this point, I honestly don’t really care anymore). 

Still had a lovely time with Judith in London!