London Calling

So our first day in Europe was kind of a bust. I don’t know what kind of super-human creatures we thought we were, assuming jet-lag wouldn’t affect us and that we’d be ready to spring into sight-seeing action bright and early the day after getting there.  After we were a bit more rested, Frankie and I set out to get to know London.

Our second full day was a Saturday, so we headed for the famous, two-mile long Portobello Market.  The streets were packed with both Londoners and tourists, with vendors selling everything from clothes to pastries to antiques to prints.  It took us a good few hours to make our way through all of it. We didn’t buy anything, but we had a great time looking.

When I was looking up things to do when we were in the Shannon Airport for forever, I saw that the London Wonderground would be going for almost the whole time we were there.  This was a carnival style event set up on the Southbank with lots of food and performers and shows going on all week.  We decided to go see Limbo, a cirque du soleil-type show.  It said online that it started at 3:00, so after the market we went straight there, only to find out that it wouldn’t actually start until 7:30. This turned out to be a happy mistake, though, because it meant that we had over four hours to spend on the Southbank, an area that became one of our absolute favorite places in London. The Southbank is right on the River Thames and is below the London Eye with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament just across the river. Southbank Centre holds a lot of concerts and events all year round, so be sure to check the schedule online if you’re making a trip.

It was much warmer than the day before, so we were content to join the rest of the crowd that had flocked to the London Wonderground, eating candy floss and basking in the sun when it decided to make an appearance from behind the ever-present clouds.

That night, we saw Limbo, which was amazing – and at 17 pounds each, probably the most expensive thing we did our whole trip.  Traveling on such a tight budget, we knew that we would not be paying for our entertainment often.  Instead, we sat in the grass and watched people, dogs, pigeons, street performers, kids – anything.  We made up stories for kids and dialogue for the pigeons fighting over scraps of food.  We learned to be content without stimulating ourselves every minute, and we ended up enjoying these seemingly insignificant moments the most.

The next morning we checked out of Smart Russell Square and set off to find our next hostel.  We had a hard time getting to it because there were no tube stops near it, and that was the only way we had been getting around so far.  We ended up walking two hours across London to Lavender Hill, only to realize that there was an above ground train stop right down the road, and our Oyster Cards worked for pretty much any form of public transportation after all.  At least that was our warmest, sunniest day yet.

After dropping off our luggage in our new room, we decided that we would spend the rest of the gorgeous day in Hyde Park.  The rain and clouds that had seemed endless on our first day in London made the sunny moments even more special, and, sitting in the park, both Frankie and I said that we could see ourselves living in this amazing city.

That night we settled into our new hostel, Fresh @ the Crown.  We were nervous about changing locations since we had gotten used to our last hostel, but this one turned out to be much nicer.  There were private showers, so we didn’t have to see anyone naked, and there was a bar downstairs that served drinks and pizza to residents 24 hours a day for cheap.  We made friends with a few girls in our room and with the bartender and had a long conversation with a very drunk Irishman.

We spent our remaining three days doing everything you can do for free, or as close to free as possible.  We went to Camden Market, a younger Portobello Market that winds around and in on itself like a maze and contains hundreds of hidden treasures.  We visited Shakespeare’s Globe and saw London Bridge.  We sat on a monument in Trafalgar Square and watched drunken football fans make fools of themselves.  We saw Piccadilly Circus (London’s Times Square) and Oxford Street (London’s SoHo) and went in shops and galleries.  We went into Harrods which made us feel really, REALLY poor.  We had tea at tea time in a little cafe.  We went back to the Southbank almost every night to watch the street performers and look at the lit up skyline.  London has an endless number of things to do, and while some of them can be pretty pricey, there are tons of really amazing things to do and see for little to no cost.

On our last day, another rainy day, we decided to go to Greenwich, an area that friends of mine that had just gotten back from studying abroad in London had loved.  Greenwich is almost an hour tube ride away from the heart of London, but it’s a cute town with a market and shops and The Lost Hour, a pub where they have food and drink specials every day and we were able to get two full meals for only 8 pounds!

It was hard leaving London. We had had such an unforgettable experience, and a part of us never wanted to leave.  But our trip was just beginning, so with mixed emotions, we got on a plane to Amsterdam.

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