AWAY TO UK!
Farewell to America (I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again soon – as in next year!) and hello again to the UK!
Met with C&C and M at Heathrow Terminal 4 on a fine rainy London afternoon (Airport no 6 or 7 on my trip). After several coffees later we decided to make our way to the hostel where we’d spend 3 wet days together.
Our hostel (Torquay) wasn’t too far from the Royal Oak tube station on the Hammersmith and City line. Our room faced the highway and a popular (and famous!) skate park – Meanwhile 2 - in central London. It was a quad room with a bathroom ensuite – cozy at first but not so cozy after several showers later and the room became a swamp. (semi) beggars can’t be choosers cause we paid only GBP11 / night which is pretty much a steal in central London. Personally, I like the noise of the highway (and the view of the skatepark), it’s quite soothing at night but I guess it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
We wanted to take it low key the first evening there so we went to eat some Fish & Chips (the quintessentially British food – next to curry?!) The lady at the hostel (also named Maya) told us to go to Mr. Fish on Porchester Road so we did. It was good but it still wasn’t what I hoped it to be (served in newspaper and the works – but apparently it’s become a health hazard now to serve them that way!). We walked around a bit in that area but I think we went in the wrong direction because it was all residential-ish / business like buildings. Finally after not finding much to do (and the priority task to STAY AWAKE to cure our jet lag) we headed out to Camden town and hit a few pubs there (The Oxford Arms, Spread Eagle, Dublin Castle) and hopped on the tube back “home” before closing time – but not before a couple photo ops of course!
Of the 3 times I’ve been to London never did I go on one of those “bus tours” but the 2nd day we did just that and you know what, being a tourist is kinda awesome! I guess I got caught up trying to “blend in” so much in the past but whatever, fuck it. You cover A LOT of London on those tours and it gives you an audio guide as well. It’s London on speed…basically. We already started the day kinda late (4 girls, one bathroom, low water pressure etc..etc..) so we just stayed on the bus till it came full circle and hopped off somewhere in Bayswater where we ate pub grub and drank some ciders (and some of us swooned over the fellas sitting next to us..hoho).
We had big plans to go on the Bath – Windsor – Stonehenge tour the next morning. We booked the tickets through the Big Bus Tour lady (the same tour company we did the sight seeing tour the day before with). She was very helpful but unfortunately the actual service was crap and the tour wasn’t booked so we ended up looking like fools at 8 a.m. when they kicked us off the bus. M in all her pissed off glory went to complain at the main office (she was about to stab a bitch – no joke). I stayed with CC to look up other options online. M ran into two American dudes (Jay & Scott from Philly) who were also looking to go for the same tour (Stonehenge) so we got booked on one that was leaving at 1 p.m. – enough time for us to hang out at Victoria Station, have lunch, sleep etc…etc… Just when we thought shit couldn’t get any worse, it starts POURING all the way to Stonehenge! It was freezing cold, windy and to make matters worse the stupid tour bus driver told us to take everything with us off the bus! Basically anything we bought earlier got drenched. We didn’t even get to listen to the walking audio cause we were too busy a) holding on to our shit b) holding an umbrella c)both. It made for a funny experience though and I’m surprised (and happy) no one got seriously ill cause we were all going to SCOTLAND the next day.
TO BE CONTINUED……
Tags: london