Oh hey there! Currently en route to Berlin from London and freaking the heck out because my two goals for London were to meet Ed Sheeran and one of my favorite UK Youtubers and I basically accomplished both those things (stay tuned for the story!)
I made my way up from Brighton to London (near King's Cross) where I would meet Zoe, my friend from school and travel buddy! I took the Southern train from Brighton to Victoria Station and made the mistake of wheeling my suitcase halfway to the hostel instead of jumping on the train right there (lol don't do it just pay for the subway ride okay!) Along the way though, I got to see Buckingham Palace so that was pretty neat.
I checked into Clink78 where I got a special with Booking.com for about $25 a night per person which actually put us into our own room with two beds. When you get inside the building, signs point for "prison cells"-- well as it turns out, that is actually where you sleep! The door only has a handle on the outside as if the warden locks you in for the night, the room is narrow as heck, and there is a non-functioning toilet in the room as if prisoners indeed stayed there. Not sure if it's legit but a pretty cool ambiance to say the least. As a whole, the hostel was pretty fun and catered towards youth, but it was a little creepy that many of the people down at the bar that evening were like 60 year old white men? Maybe that is just the general UK demographic but it felt kinda strange idk. Bathrooms and showers were cleaned often, breakfast was extra (we didn't get it), and we were stoked that there was a free tour the following day.
Zoe and I were hyped to be in a new city, in a new continent, and with enough adrenaline to ignore the 8 hour time difference, so we immediately dropped our bags in the hostel and ran around the city. Make sure to get the Oyster transit card for cheap bus rides and rides on the Tube, or the Underground. Rides are £1.50 per bus and free transfers within an hour, and £2.50 ? for the Tube, with the card maxing out somewhere around £10 everyday. Transit was absolutely amazing and fast, and came so frequently I never waited more than a minute for the train. The double deckers it turns out aren't just for tourists, that is indeed how you get around on public transportation!
Because we are able-bodied, easily-bored youths we practically jammed through our two day agenda in that first afternoon. All the museums we saw were free (donations encouraged lol). We started at the British Museum, home to the Rosetta Stone! In case you need to brush up on your history as I did, there is a passage written in hieroglyphics and two other known languages, which served as a basis to translate thousands of years of untranslated Egyptian hieroglyphs. We also saw various artifacts dating as far as 6000 years ago in ancient Egypt, and saw some cool pieces from the ancient Greeks. I'm not a big museum girl so the other stuff kind of blends together. But overall, hype little 30 minute run through of the place.
Next up, we found ourselves in the beautiful Chinatown, which honestly could rival SF Chinatown though it is not nearly as big. Beautiful red lanterns and dragon gates adorned the pedestrian-only road, and as we passed through the place it was starting to light up for the night. We passed through Leiceister Square area which appeared to be the theatre and arts district, very trendy and fun. Next we found ourselves at the National Gallery, filled with portraits of the Tudors, of famous politicians and artists and my personal favorite, Ed Sheeran! We didn't spend more than 20 minutes in here but we appreciated what we saw nonetheless.
As we exited the Gallery we were in the heart of Trafalgar Square which was kind of like the gateway to the old parts of Westminster. If I can summarize a tour guide's spiel, Trafalgar Square honors General Nelson who essentially helped the British navy defeat the Germans and French in a risky decision that ended up costing him his life. Onward, we started to scout out Big Ben and were massively confused for a solid half hour that we couldn't see such a tall structure in the skyline. As it turns out, the clocktower is under construction for 1.5 more years for refurbishment and was surrounded by scaffolding, it was in front of our eyes that whole time! And that is my reason to return to London again some day…
At this point, we were surrounded by important government buildings, like the Supreme Court and the Parliament, where big moves are being made to finalize Brexit once and for all. We saw Westminster Abbey, which at first I recognized only by name, but upon walking to the face of the building I realized it's the church built 1000 years ago where the Royals get married and where famous and revered British are buried, including Stephen Hawking.
We made a quick stop over to Buckingham Palace, then we were hungry and took the Underground back to our hostel's part of town to check into a stereotypical gastropub, Water Rats, for both dinner and drinks. I thought the food was awesome and seemed more affordable than similar alternatives, and we had fun trying different ciders, lagers, ales, and brews. We finished off the night pretty early at the bar in our hostel, with a cool Italian bartender that seemed to be the only person under 30 there I swear.
The next day, I got up a little early to go on a chilly run through the Kings Cross neighborhood. We decided to go to Ethiopian Company for coffee and got some form of breakfast food and snacks at Tesco so we could go on the free tour leaving shortly from our hostel.
The tour guide, Peter, was very animated and gave us a thorough historical background on Westminster, which actually is one part of the city of London, with the other being Old London. We basically walked through the same sites as the previous day, but also got to see a quaint alley that inspired a scene in Harry Potter (sorry I'm not a fan of the series idk). We learned about various kings and queens and heard about King Henry VIII's six marriages in depth. We heard about the time Michael Fagin broke into Buckingham Palace and how the queen has an exclusive ceremonial entrance to the naval building facing her palace. The controversial prime minister Boris lives in his own private lane and this is also where Winston Churchill had a private "restroom" that was actually where he had a direct line to call FDR in WWII. Cool stuff!
At the end of the tour, we yeeted over to Old London and the River Thames to see Tower Bridge. Contrary to popular belief, the London Bridge of the children's song is not nearly as famous as this beauty! We circled around the Tower of London which is the oldest building in London, but it wasn't quite a tour so much as a fortress which holds the most expensive jewels in the world. So we stayed away from the £30 entrance fee and opted for pretty pics by the bridge, then hopped back onto the Tube.
We got to Hyde Park and had a late lunch in the center of the park, watched the many birds and seagulls and took in the pretty vegetation. Not to say they are the same, but it definitely does make for a Central Park, but in London if you get the vibe. Next, we hopped on the Tube to Piccadilly Circus, which would be like your Times Square— just shopping, tourists, and billboards. We walked over to the Soho neighborhood which I wasn’t totally clear on their vibe, but some mix of really trendy and like strip clubs? Unsure. I then successfully acquired the only two souvenirs I wanted: a tour bus keychain and a London pin. Small, but a little piece of my travels.
The next stop of the night was Camden Market which was my London highlight. Vendors riddled the sidewalks and everything had such Bohemian inspiration. I had honestly heard of this place for years and I was really not disappointed by the abundance of flowy elephant pants, cheap Thai food and crepes, and I even got a tattoo after turning down a pricier place because I heard Camden is cheap and there were artists eVErywhere. I really do love elephants and I guess now I have one on my body for life. (This is not a spur of the moment decision I have been wanting this tattoo for many moons, to clarify for all the haters...)
The rest of the night I recall I was really tired so a few low-key pubs later we just called it a night. The next morning, it was just packing up, grabbing a quick traditional English breakfast to say we really did it right, and then working our way to the London Gatwick airport. The breakfast was delicious and really well-balanced for vegetarians (beans, eggs, toast, potatoes) and there were big portion sizes. Only problem was we jumped on the wrong train because we knew our final designation, but got on the slow train, not the express, and it gave us a really narrow time frame to rush through security and catch our flights. I then learned another cultural difference is that European airports are like 10% as stressful as US ones, with less security, shorter customs, and just less stressed people in general.
At this point, the only thing I came to the UK with hopes to accomplish but didn’t yet achieve was meeting a British Youtuber. You see, for a big point of my life, I was a highkey fangirl of Caspar Lee, Joe Sugg and Zoella and Marcus Butler and the like. WELL it was just my luck that Marcus comes and sits diagonally across from me on my right and I freak out and have to contain myself for two!! hours until we touch down and I finally chase him out of the plane to get a pic. He was headed to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week because he was such a baller that he went from internet vlogs to modeling so yeah! Very kind, sweet man.
Cheers, UK!
