I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days, but I got dragged off for the weekend. Quite suddenly, and literally! Where did I go, you may ask? I'll give you a hint....
I really hope that gave it away... I mean, it's double iconic! King's Cross AND the iconic underground symbol? You'd better know that I went to London before I had to say it!
That's right. Random trip to London with no warning. What could go wrong?
I guess I should start at the beginning. Sarah, my roommate from first year and good friend ever since, was supposed to come visit me here at Keele University this weekend. We were going to have a nice, low-key weekend in which we'd explore Chester, maybe go to the Sneyd Arms down in Keele Village, we were even invited to a wildlife fair at Stafford castle by Annette for Sunday. But Friday, I get a message from Sarah telling me it's too expensive for her to come visit me, so I should come visit them in London. It's too expensive for me too, I protest. But she offers that since I have my 12-25 railcard, it'll be cheaper for me, and she'll even pay half my train fare, and pay for my hostel/hotel Saturday night. Well, you can't argue with a 15pound trip to London now, can you? So I agree. I'll take the train down after work, stay in her hotel room Friday night, and she'll put me in on her hostel reservation for Saturday night.
So, after a long day of work, an evening of filming a BBQ for the international students and a ton of interviews, I hurried off to catch the last train to London Euston. I got into Euston around 11:30, and at 11:45-11:50, Elle and Sarah show up.
View My English World in a larger map
They decide that rather than drop my stuff off at their hotel (as I originally understood the plan to be), we'd go to some clubs they'd been to the night before... with my knapsac, my walking staff, etc etc. I had to pay 4 pounds to go what wound up being like, one stop, on the Tube. We try Yates, their favourite of the previous night's clubs, but it'll only be open another half hour, and it's 5 pounds for the cover. So instead we go around the corner to Fudge, where there's some crazy woman, there are no seats that aren't occupied by peoples coats, and there's one couple, dancing some bastardized version of a chacha taking up pretty much the entire bar. After one drink we leave and decide to go to the hotel.
Now Sarah and Elle know that the N8 goes past their hotel, but they haven't a clue where to catch it. We wind up in Trafalgar Square, which looked quite nice by night and was my first encounter with the Elephants of London. We ask a bus driver where the 8 stops, he points us in one direction, where we find nothing, so we ask a passing cop, he points us east. We find nothing, and two women volunteer the information because we look lost. They tell us to go take the 29 bendy bus, which should be free, up to the street the 8 runs down. When we get to the number 29 bendy bus, the driver tells us, no no no, the 8 stops over there, to the West of Trafalgar square. You'd think the transit driver would know best, so we listened and went West, to no avail. So instead, we followed the women's original instructions, kind of. We walked up, through Picadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, Soho, Chinatown, and eventually found the number 8.
But when we got to the hotel, where Sarah and Elle were staying, and where they'd double checked I could come stay with them for the night, the guy on duty told them, No, there is a strict no guests in the rooms policy. But it was late, so luckily he let me up anyways.
The next morning, by the time they've gotten up, showered, and had their free breakfast which I couldn't have, Sarah finally checked her email. Turns out she hadn't actually called the hostel, or booked us in online, she'd emailed them asking them to extend her initial reservation and include me. They had responded that she should book that in online herself as it would be easier, but by this time, when she's finally checking her email, everything is full. There is nowhere to stay in the whole city of London. Or so we thought. I tried finding some decent options in my guide book, but Elle accused us of being useless; trying to use a book to find accommodation (not like it's not a book dedicated to making sure you don't wind up in some dingy squalid room for more money than it's worth, but anyways...). And so Sarah went to the computer again instead.
She finally managed to find a place that suited her ridiculous price requirements (40 pounds is apparently too expensive for two people, despite the fact that's what the room we stayed in Friday night cost) that had 2 beds left, and we got them. But, it was in the sketchy part of town. Down by New Cross Station. So we went there, with much difficulty; getting confused between Charing Cross, East Waterloo and London Bridge by know-nothing transit workers, checked in and dropped off our stuff, locking it in the provided lockers. The actual hostel itself was really nice, despite its location, and the sign on the door proclaiming NO HOODIES ALLOWED.
These buses really made me want to watch Sherlock Holmes again <3
It was fantastic! All the staff were wearing period dress, and while 221b Baker Street doesn't really actually exist, this building was a lodging house, like Holmes and Watson lived in, around that time period and has been restored, and filled with details from the novels.
Holmes and Watson's rooms were where they each should have been, as was Mrs Hudson's (the store next door was even named after her). There was Watson's medical bag, Holmes' investigative tools, all manner of old books and antique furniture.
The lighting was fantastic too, and they had dress up opportunities. Sarah was Watson, so I was Holmes.
I really love the whole experience. I bought myself a bookmark and a coaster; cheap, light and useful, the best souvenirs. Though they had some really cute teapots shaped like telephones, or bobbies, or Double Decker buses.
Here are some of my favourite photos from the museum:
As I said, quite an impressive little museum!
When we left the Sherlock Holmes museum, we started walking down towards the river, because I really wanted to see all the sights, churches etc I had it in my mind to see. But Elle was too cold, and her feet hurt (because she constantly insisted on wearing 3-inch, or more, heels o.O) so she wanted to shopping more than see sights. We split up. Elle went shopping, and Sarah and I went for a fantastic stroll through Hyde Park.
We saw the Peter Pan statue and a lot of ducks, coots, swans, geese and grebes of all sorts. I don't think I've ever seen such a variety of waterfowl anywhere else before.They were all so accustomed to humans as well, so they were very willing to pose for photographs. I think I got about 20 different shots of this one grebe, he was so well-behaved!
There was some walk to end breast cancer event going on there as well, it must have been 100 thousand women wearing ridiculous pink outfits, walking around, going to this massive tent where it seemed they were having a concert impressive.
While we were wandering around, trying to find the Princess Diana memorial fountain, we found something we hadn't been looking for; Royal Albert Hall and the Prince Albert Memorial, which has four statues around it, one for each continent. I managed to get some fantastic photos of those as well. I'm so happy with them! ^.^
Also, Hyde Park has some of the most beautiful trees I've ever seen. Some are very bizarre looking, but most of them are just curly, squiggly cool. According to Sarah, this feature is because of what used to be a common practice in forestry; you'd remove part of a branch for the wood, but leave the tree mostly in tact, this would cause the tree to heal and grow off at a different angle. Doing this repeatedly caused the kind of corkscrewing branches most of the trees in Hyde Park have.Elle still hadn't texted us to meet up yet, and it was getting so late, we decided we'd text her instead of waiting more. Finally we meet up with her at Marble Arch station. I texted her saying "We're in the marble arch (the one ABOVE the station, where are you?"; we'd been waiting in the Marble Arch itself, because it wasn't terribly crowded and it's a pretty fantastic landmark, how could we be missed? Apparently though, Elle just thought Marble Arch station was so named just for the heck of it, and was waiting in the station for us, rather than seeing that above ground, as I'd specified, there is a massive marble arch and coming to us. From there, we went back to her hostel so she could get put together, because we were going to the pub this Scottish guy she'd met, Andrew, worked so we could meet up with him after his shift.
Let me just say here, while I am a very casual, laid back person, who doesn't get all dolled up often, at all, it really bothers me when someone wearing better clothes than any of the ones I even own, with their make-up done flawlessly, and not a hair out of place claims that they look "like a bum" and want to get "put together" so they "actually look good". I mean really, way to make me feel like a hideous piece of trash, right? It's like when practically anorexic girls complain about how terribly fat they are. Just, ugh.
Over all, it was a fantastic night. Andrew was a really nice guy and we all had a great time chatting up on the terrace of his pub. Right underneath the heat lamp; Elle didn't say a peep about it being too cold ;)
Although the whole time I was wondering why my one pint of cider was making me feel so tipsy... the next morning I realized we'd completely forgotten to have dinner. Whoops!
Around midnight, Sarah and I decided to head back to our hostel in "sketchtown" (as Sarah called it). Though it wasn't so bad that we had to take a cab from the station as we'd expected. We actually managed to catch the very last train at each stop to get us all the way to New Cross, and it was so nice, and so many "normal looking people" (again, Sarah's words) had gotten off the train that we felt safe just walking to our hostel, where we were rickrolled by the karaoke downstairs as we entered our room.
Bobby, in Hyde Park
--------- SUNDAY IN LONDON -----------
We were hoping to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and then walk through the city from there to see all the things I didn't get to see Saturday because of ridiculousness. So Sarah and I made it out of our hostel in good time. However, it being Sunday, trains were a little reduced service-wise. We wound up arriving at Elle's hostel exactly when we told her we'd meet her in the lobby to go the three tube stops over to Buckingham for the Changing of the Guard. However, it wasn't until about an hour or more later that she was out and ready to go, and Sarah was checked into the hostel and her bag was stashed away in a locker. So we were not going to see the Changing of the Guard. There was also a walking tour at 1 I wanted to do, so we could make it to that, but only just. But I was overriden, and upon arriving at Hyde Park Corner station we set out to find food instead because, as Elle insisted, you can do your own walking tour.
Again, I tried to find a pub or something reasonably priced anyways with my guide book, but yet again, Elle told me I shouldn't bother, guide books are useless etc etc, as if. But now a little background, Sarah has a lot of food restrictions, which makes it difficult to find a place to eat at. As well, we were near Buckingham Palace, so most of the places were very overpriced and fancy. But as we searched and searched, Elle complained that there are plenty of good places to eat, can't we just go into one, it's cold outside etc etc. Finally we found a little pub to sit down in and eat. But we had to switch tables about 5 times before we found one that wasn't too cold.
I had a delicious Sunday roast for lunch, and since we weren't drinking, Elle bought us desserts instead of drinks. It was quite charming. By the time we were leaving, the sun had come out as well, so it was nice and warm.
We headed back towards the Palace and basked in its wonder. The Queen was at home, so the flag was flying. I also found the Canada Gate, leave it to me, eh? I didn't even know it was there, but I found it. With all the provincial coats of arms in it, it was quite pretty.
We chillaxed on the fountain for a while, and took a bunch of photos, unfortunately, with the dark sky, I don't think any of my Buckingham Palace photos look very good. Plus the building's too big to capture in a single picture as I'd wanted to. But we had a veritable photoshoot on the fountain. Very climbable. I don't know if you're actually allowed to climb on the fountain, but no one was stopping, or being stopped, so we did too.But we were rather disappointed, we couldn't find any guards... Weren't there supposed to be guards, who never move, who wear red coats and big fuzzy hats? Where were they? They had to be there! They're iconic! ICONIC!!!!!
:D
From there, we headed down along St James Park to Parliament Square. I noticed a plaque showing what buildings were on the square and identifying them. I stopped to read it and take some pictures, but Sarah and Elle didn't notice, so I called them back. As I snapped some pictures, Elle snapped at me; "You do realize we're standing outside and it's raining?" No, I didn't! I was wondering where all that water was coming from! *eyeroll* We offered that we'd go over to Westminster Abbey and see if we could go inside there. Unfortunately, as it was Sunday, it was only open for worship. So we trekked on, me snapping furtive photos as I was able.
I had found a pamphlet earlier about tours down the Thames that left from Westminster Millenium Wheel Pier (or some other mouthful), so we went down to that pier to try and find tickets (inside a boat, see the sights, stay warm? Perfect for Elle). Unfortunately, we couldn't seem to find the one we were after. So after a little hesitant looking around, we finally asked a woman selling tickets. She pointed us across the river, directly under the London Eye (aka, Millenium Wheel).There, we found the Merlin Entertainments London Eye Boat Cruise. It was by far, the best ever sightseeing boat cruise I have ever been on. The fellow doing the commentary was knowledgeable and hilarious. And when I mean hilarious I mean really really funny! It was great, we were laughing (and learning) nearly the whole trip!
Apparently, if you wave to someone on Tower Bridge, and they wave back, you get 5 years good luck. I locked eyes with a guy on the bridge and waved furiously until he waved hesitantly back. Great success!
We even got to see Tower Bridge open for a massive cruise liner! It was fantastic! I guess that's my first bit of good luck for these next five years!
I even got a video of it! ^.^
On the trip back though, it started to rain really hard. I had wanted to go see St Paul's Cathedral, The Temple, Monument, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Millenium Bridge and the Globe Theatre on foot. As well as seeing the filming locations for The Leaky Cauldron and stuff.
But then I realized. It's pouring rain. It's Sunday. I won't be able to get inside anything, and Elle will either not come, or complain the whole way. Plus, it was 6 o'clock. We'd been considering going into the movieseum, but it was probably closed by now anyways. So I made an executive decision. Let's go to King's Cross, see platform 9 3/4 and then I'll take the train home from Euston. Not ideal, not exactly what I wanted to do. But I'll come back; and with some decent tourists next time.
And so that's what we did. Even in Kings Cross Station (open to the outside because of the trains, but very well enclosed) Elle was miserably cold, but Sarah and I got some great fun pictures with platform 9 3/4. In fact, Platform 9 3/4 isn't really 9 3/4 at all! Platforms 9 and 10 don't actually share a platform, so there's no columns between them. The platforms are 10/11, 8/9, 6/7 etc etc etc. So Platform 9 3/4 is actually situated between platforms 8 and 9. But still, I think it's awesome they put it in at all!So from there, we went back to Euston, where our awesome, whirlwind London adventure all began and Sarah put me on a train back to Stoke. 2 hours later, here I am. Safe, sound and comfy back at home. Exhausted beyond belief. The World is actually spinning, and I haven't even had anything to drink today! Yikes! Oh man is it bed time.
Sorry for the wall o' text post, but what a trip!
Honesty is the best policy.
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