London the beginings

I arrived in London late on March 27^th. 

I stayed one night in a really cheap hostel in West Ham called Globe Trot Inn, it was a fine hostel for one night but I wouldn’t stay there any longer than that – the staff were lovely though.

The following day I dragged my luggage from West Ham to St Christopher’s Inn, Shepherds Bush. I had to do it in two trips because I have a big backpack and a drag-a-long duffle bag, as well as, a small backpack with my electronics, a DSLR camera bag and beach bag that was used as carry-on. I was exhausted after lugging all that on the 50min tube ride three times. By the time I finished moving it was 2pm.

At 4:30pm I had to leave Shepherds Bush to go to Pinewood Studios to be an audience member for a new TV show, ‘The Guess List’. The filming was great and the comedians were very funny. It did go very late though- it was 10:30pm by the time I left the studio, then I had to get a taxi back to Uxbridge station followed by the train home to Shepherd’s Bush. By the time I arrived home it was just after midnight. I was so tired after my day of running around I just wanted to sleep and I did- for four hours. At 4 am I was woken to knocking on the door- I wasn’t going to get up and answer it, 1) there were other people closer who may have been her friends and 2) she could just go down to the front desk to be let in. The knocking quickly became loud pounding, so I got up. The unapologetic girl at the door was closely followed by a guy, my immediate thought was ‘oh god no I can’t be dealing with this, please just be getting something then leaving’. But they didn’t. They had dorm sex on and off for the next few hours. There are very few things worse in this world than having to listen to dorm sex - what is worse is when the people don’t know when to call it quits and go to sleep – instead of TALKING AND LAUGHING!!!

The next day (Saturday) I decided I wanted to walk around London. I was told to take the tube until Oxford Circus and then start walking down Oxford street towards the river. I started doing this but soon got bored of walking past shops I couldn’t afford so I took a random left then a right. I followed this much less touristy path until I ran into an area with a statue and stairs going down to The Mall. At one end I saw a massive gate and the other Buckingham Palace. I decided to walk towards the palace first.  As I got closer to the palace I noticed a guy (who was very tall in a maroon jumper & blue backpack – so easy to spot) also walking by himself, but he seemed to know where he was going so I started following him at a 15m distance. I got to the palace and took some photos but didn’t stay too long because my ‘tour guide’ was off on a new adventure, so I followed. 

Buckingham Palace Gates

We walked through the arch that is next to the palace into a park for a bit then back onto the path to pause only to observe the guards on horseback. Then back down The Mall – at this point I’m not sure if he started to walk faster because he noticed me, had a new destination in mind and didn’t want to dawdle or just had much longer legs- but he started getting further and further away. He did lead me to an ice cream cart and that is where we parted ways. I bought an ice cream then started wandering (unguided) though St James Park. St James’s Park is absolutely beautiful there are hills, trees, flowers, paths, geese, small houses everything you could want in a park. Eventually I popped out the other side and noticed Big Ben clock tower so I started waking towards that. I admired the tower and Westminster for a bit then strolled down the river until I saw the London eye on the opposite bank, noticing a bench I thought that this was as good as time as any to rest my legs.

I ended up wandering all the way down to Charring Cross station then took the tube home because I was exhausted and tired from the previous nights awakenings.

The next day I went to the British Museum, I thought I was in the mood for a museum but my feet hurt from yesterday and I wasn’t feeling the ancient history displays. So, I went over to the Victoria and Alfred museum thinking that it was about the Victorian era. It’s not. I wandered around there for an hour or so I did spend a fair amount of time watching the group of people draw the statues in the room below but the displays didn't overly capture my attention. So I went home. 

British Museum

Watching the  drawing class inside Victoria & Albert.

Those were my first full 3 days.