the positive london experience: 18-20 July 2008

London seemed like a close enough place to go. There are plenty of flights out of Dublin to London as well which meant less travel expenses and less time traveling compared to Germany. The group was also much smaller, 6 compared to 9. We planned this trip much better, as our hostel (my first hostel experience) was an easy 15 minute walk from the Parliament building, the clock tower that houses Big Ben and the London Eye. I was impressed with our good fortune. The hostel was pretty inexpensive as well because it opened exactly one week prior to us staying there, which was a good thing and a bad thing.

Sam, Laura and I flew from Dublin to London-Stansted Friday afternoon, found our hostel via the Tube, and went to dinner at a cheap Chinese place. We walked into London to get our bearings. Sam got his bearings faster than I did. Laura and Sam saw a play that interested them in Piccidilly Circus so they went and saw that. I refrained and proceeded to march confidently off into the city with no qualms whatsoever. Ten minutes later I was lost. An hour later I bought a map. On my ramblings I saw a ton of bars, cool buildings and people. London is similar to NYC in its congestion. Dublin has a bunch of people as well but they are generally in two areas. People are everywhere in London and NYC. I suppose that's the difference between the largest cities in the world and other large cities.

I finally got back to the hostel and enjoyed a few drinks and a few games of pool with some of the guys from Australia that worked there. Sam and Laura arrived some time later, the rest of the crew arrived around 1.30 after a painfully frustrating trip that once again made me thank my good fortune.

The next morning we everything that good tourists do. We saw Parliament, Buckingham Palace, as much as we could of the guards but the changing was canceled due to rain, walked down all of the posh shopping streets, saw tons of crazy statues of dead people, went to the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta stone, Egyptian stuff and mummies, ate some meatpies (a very British thing to do) and went back to the hostel for a free BBQ and naps. Being a tourist is exhausting.

Most of the crew woke and wanted to go do the London Eye. Stuart and I woke and wanted to eat. They did the Eye, we ate Chinese. We later randomly met up with them around the Eye while watching a street performer. If they did not find us there was no chance of meeting up. We later learned that the Eye is the most visited place in London. It was packed with foreign people. Unlike us, everyone else did not speak English as a first language, in my mind I would like to think we fit in more because of this but I know it is not true.

We wandered around Piccidilly Circus and Trafalgar Square for awhile and went to some random bars. The hostel seemed much more appealing so we walked back and began drinking again. I met two very cool people that night. A writer from Australia living in Germany and a pretty girl from Canada. Both had very interesting perspectives on traveling that reaffirmed my idea that you really have to stay at least a week in a city to get to know it. That is how I plan to travel in the future. Doing merely a weekend is rushed and often painful. So I was up until 5 am hanging out with Amy, the girl, and the nightshift guy, Craig, who is also the bartender for the 24-hour bar.

The next morning Stuart and I decided we were too tired to walk anywhere. While most of the group ran around the city via the Tube, we hopped on a double-decker tour bus and rode several buses for about six hours. It was fantastic. We heard all about the history of London and its most famous landmarks without moving. A lunch of fried chicken gave us more energy to continue sitting on the bus. We also took a boat tour by accident. We saw a line and kind of just hopped in front of everyone and walked onto the boat, no questions asked. The thoughts of being badass were quickly dispelled when the people next to us informed us that this was part of the bus tour.

Finally it was time to leave London. Traveling is tiring. We caught our bus and got to the airport to enjoy our 3-hour delay. I lay my head on my pillow in my room in Trinity around 3 am. It was glorious to have a solid 5-hour sleep for class on Monday at 9am.

London is a great city. I would definitely return and stay at the same hostel. "Bestplace in Waterloo." It is over the Steam engine bar.