A little more about London

Well, as you can all tell by my last post, I absolutely loved London and I want to go back! The only problem is that a three hour journey in England is way way way more expensive than a three hour journey in the US. Plus, London is super pricey no matter what you're doing.

Me, Alex and her friend Peter (who is also from Canada) all left together at about 1 PM on Friday afternoon. Once we got on the train it was a little over two hours until we arrived in London. I can't remember if I've already written this, but the English countryside looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest! It's very green, lots of trees and fields... But most of the trees aren't evergreen and most of the animals in the fields are sheep. I was pretty anxious to get off the train but the trip wasn't too long and once we arrived at Euston station we went down to the underground (the Tube) and bought a ticket to get to Victoria.

These are what the taxis looked like. Just like in a movie.

The Tube is an adventure in itself and I honestly don't know how I rode it by myself when I first arrived in London from home. There are SO many people and it's hot and shaky. It's good for getting places relatively cheap, though, because taxis are expensive. Eventually we found our way to our hostel which was called "Surprise Backpackers" and realized quickly that it was pretty sketchy. Alex and I walked into the pub that was below our hostel and a couple of the guys made comments right away which was... unnerving. When they let us in to the actual hostel part of the building we signed in (they lost one of our reservations) and gave us our sheets.

When we went upstairs to find the bedrooms we were staying in we relaxed a little bit. The upstairs was cleaner, bigger and a little less menacing. The room we were in had 12 beds in it... four sets of three beds stacked on top of each other. We noticed right away that there were three guys sleeping in there when we arrived (it was about 6 PM). We found out later that they were Polish and there were also some British girls in there and some other people of unknown origin.

After we settled all in we set off to find a club that Peter wanted to go to because of the live music. It was a difficult feat finding it so we kept asking random people on the street. Eventually I saw a girl with her hair all done up and a sequined skirt on so I asked her and, turns out, her and her friends were going to the same place. It also turns out that they were 17-years-old. Eventually we got there and then had to queue up for a good twenty minutes and then pay £5 to get in. It was worth it though. While we were there, Alex went and found her boyfriend, Colin, and his friend, Carl, who had just flown in to London from Switzerland. They're both also Canadian but they're doing internships in Europe.

The next day we got up and did all the touristy things. We went on a walking tour around west London, rich London, and took pictures yadda yadda. There was also another tour that we could have gone on that went to all the places where Jack the Ripper left his victims. Crazy! We would have done that but all of our feet were hurting so bad we decided against it. After the tour, the whole tour group (about 15 people) went out to eat at a local pub. I got macaroni and cheese and was SO happy about it.

That night we went to another club, called Fabric, but it turned out to be a waste of money. Apparently it was 2nd in DJ Magazine's "Top 100 Clubs" in 2009 and 2010 so Peter wanted to go there. I think the overexposure must have ruined it though because it was expensive and flashy and everyone there was way too posh for my taste. The club the night before had been underground and way more fun. We didn't stay out late on Saturday night and after we left Fabric we got pizza and went back to the hostel.


We checked out at 11 AM the next morning and had to carry our backpacks around everywhere. We ate at McDonald's for breakfast (the closest home-y thing we could find!) and then we went down to Picadilly's Circus, which is a huge shopping center. Picadilly's Circus isn't like a mall... it's more like a street with shops all around. You don't stay inside the whole time you're shopping. We went into one reeeeally posh store and I could believe the prices of things. There was Gucci, Dior, Jimmy Choo, etc etc, but even the names I hadn't heard were super expensive. Me and Alex saw a purse that was leather and, honestly, quite average looking for £1,400! That's like $2,200! I felt like I shouldn't even touch it. Plus we were all in dirty clothes with dirty hair and backpacks haha. I knew people were eying us, annoyed, thinking "Freaking tourists!" 

We left there pretty quickly and after shopping around a bit more we walked over a bridge, past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and went in to a dirty little pub and got lunch/dinner. I got fish and chips, which I didn't really want, but I felt like I should get them. They were really good though and I was happy with my choice. Everyone else got burgers or Sunday roast. There was a football (soccer) game on in the pub, Arsenal FC vs. Manchester City, so there were about twenty men sitting in there drinking and yelling at the TV. It was so English. 


After we ate, we left and found our way back to Euston and back on to the train. It was an amazing trip, though very tiring, and I hope I get to go back soon. I kind of want to experience REAL London instead of tourist London because I know it's got to be a lot different. Also, I found out later that the hostel we stayed in has a really bad reputation for being dirty and overpriced (even though it was only 20 quid a night). That gives me hope though because that hostel was perfectly fine with me and next time we'll probably stay in a much better one! My next stop is probably Manchester but we'll see...