Category Archives: England

God Save The Queen

Getting to the main train station 2 hours early, I knew it was going to be a different experience this time around. I was taking the Eurostar train that travels under the English Channel to London and with that, it has the same security as the airport. I went through 2 security checkpoints and waited about an hour in line to get to the train. Once I was on the train, it was surprisingly the same as most other trains on my trip so far.      

  

  

  

  I managed to rest my eyes for some of the trip. When I woke up, I looked at the time and realized that we would be arriving soon, but we didn’t and I started to wonder if we are going really late. A hour past by and we finally made it to London’s main train station. Wondering why we came in late I just decided to walk to the hostel that I booked a few nights before. It was a part of a big chain of hostels that are all over Europe named, “The Generator”. I stayed in The Generator in Paris for a night and really enjoyed it, so it was a no-brainer to book it in London as well. It was there, when I realize that I was not an hour late, but the time changed when we crossed borders. Looking stupid when asking why I couldn’t check in at 3:00 when it was really 2:00, I got up to my room and immediately passed out. 

  The first night in London was a bit odd. I had no energy from the train ride that afternoon, but I really wanted to go see some of London. So without a map or GPS, I just decided to start walking. Going through some places I couldn’t name now and getting very lost, I somehow managed to get back to the hostel at a reasonable time. 

   

  

   The next day was very scattered much like the first day. It took me until late afternoon to finally get up enough energy to go see the city in the daytime. Which was actually quite nice, but after a couple hours I went back to the hostel and just vegged out. At this point in my trip I was wore out on looking at city stuff. My batteries were running empty and I just didn’t have the urge to see much of anything there.  

    
 That night I decided to plan my next day the way I wanted to see it and wrote a list of all the things in London that would be important to me and I would take a walking tour on my own for the whole last full day in London.

   

   The next morning I got up fairly early walk down the street to have one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. After that, I walked to my first destination, Baker St. and the home of Sherlock Holmes. Once there I traveled to Abbey Road which was down the street. Then I walked across town and stumbled across the US Embassy on my way to find Jimi Hendrix apartment that he passed away in. Unfortunately Jimi Hendrix flat was turned into a flower shop and there’s really not much to see. For the grand finale I walked to the James Bond car museum. After a few hours of walking around I finally managed to get back to the hostel where I grab the iPad and went down to the Internet area of the hostel, where I stumbled across a girl named Tori.  

   
   

  

  

  

  

  

  Tori was from Los Angeles, but was there on a business trip. After talking for a little bit she mentioned she wanted to go to a pub crawl and was wondering if I wanted to come with. I told her I would under one circumstance, I really wanted to see the Towerbridge at night. She agreed to the terms and we managed to go find something to eat before the pub crawl started. 

    
    
  Now I can’t really describe that night on this blog, all I have to say is that it was the most amazing night I’ve ever had! And she kept her promise! 

    
    
   
  The next day, I had to make the decision on where I was going to go next and I had to leave that day. I looked on the map and saw Edinburgh, Scotland was only 8 hours away, but the bus didn’t leave until 11:00 that night. So I spent the rest of the day with the couple people that I met the night before including Tori and we had a really good time and a bittersweet goodbye. 

  London was a spectacular place,but with the way things were going, I just didn’t have the energy to enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It was the first time I entered into a country and didn’t have to ask if they spoke English. If I could go back I probably wouldn’t because even though I didn’t have the best time during the day I could never match up to that night!!