📍London, England 🏴 🇬🇧
London: Round 1
We were almost out of time in continental Europe, so we popped over to London for a week of UK living.
Day 1 & 2: We arrived late so we stayed at a hotel by the airport. The next morning, we had breakfast and started the journey to our main hotel which was about an hour drive or an hour and a half train ride. A little backstory, we were deciding between three hotels while looking for places to stay (this is important for later).
When we got to the train station at the airport, there were signs saying that train service was replaced by a bus and that we needed to get in line. So, we did just that. We waited in a decently long line, paid a decently expensive ticket, and got on a decently crowded bus. From there, we took a train and then another train and two hours later we got to our hotel…
…or so we though. As I mentioned, we had decided between a few hotels. Turns out we went to one we had looked at, but didn’t end up booking. Cool. We asked the nice lady at the front desk the best way to get to the hotel and she told us it was best to just take the train. So, we went back to the second train we were on, rode TWO more trains, and when we were JUST about at the correct station, we had to switch lines because there was an issue on the track. Apparently, someone had either been pushed or jumped on the track which caused some serious delays (from what we know, no one was hurt…except my feelings for how long this journey was taking us). After an almost 5 hour trip, we finally made it to the correct hotel and I was not leaving. J picked up some Greek food for us and I planted my butt on that bed and decided I’d try again the next day. To be fair, if this is my biggest thing to complain about on this trip I’ll gladly take it!
Day 3: We woke up and made our way into the to city. Our first stop was the British Museum, which is pretty much a whole museum of artifacts from other countries that England has stolen acquired. Side note, a man on the train so nonchalantly tipped over when it switched directions and fell into a stranger’s lap. That image will live rent free in my head for the rest of my life. I digress, we saw parts of the Parthenon, some Egyptian statues, anddd noticed how close a fish ‘n’ chips place was to the museum. We walked (almost ran because we were really hungry) through the museum and obviously went to get some fish ‘n’ chips at Fish Plaice.
We walked around the city and saw the Upside Globe, made our way to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. I’m not much of a movie person (it’s the sitting still part for me), but during this trip I watched Avatar for the first time and loved it. So when Avatar two came out I agreed to see it. We made our way to Piccadilly Circus, walked around China Town, saw the Harry Potter Statue, and then made our way to the movies to see Avatar: The Way of Water (which, in my opinion, was as good as the first).
Day 4: The hotel we were staying in had a gym and I took that as I sign that I should probably use it. Right from the gym, we went to Borough Market and found some sausage rolls at the famous Ginger Pig (and that is why I had to go to the gym). We shared the sausage roll and fish & chips form Fish! Kitchen and I stand firm that these are the best fish & chips I found found in the UK. We saw and walked across the London Bridge, saw the Tower Bridge, had a drink at Grind (for the record, the hazelnut espresso martini was top notch), and then we had ourselves a night.
We met up with friends we met in Vietnam, Jade and Mitch. If you read the Cat Ba and Ha Long Bay blog, these are the ones we went out with for “one drink” and ended up out until 3 am. We got a drink at the Astronomer, grabbed some food at a food court at Lalaland, and talked for hours. J and I were informed of how to prepare crumpets, that (some?) British people make pasta by first heating up water in their kettle (cheating!), and were reminded how much we love what they call bathing suits: swimming costumes. HAHAHAHA!
Apparently, the UK is no different than Vietnam: we got a few drinks at Barrio Shoreditch and before you know it, it was almost 1 am and we were at the 24 hour bagel shop, Beigel Bake stuffing our faces with a salt beef bagel. Lemme tell ya, these bagels were everything!! Needless to say, when we eventually got home after 2 am we passed out.
Day 5: We had a late start to the day, but I did squeeze in another workout (am I fit yet?). A friend from college had moved to London and she had reached out when she saw we were there. She took us to an awesome food market called Mercato Mayfair and we had some amazing Thai food. We went to a pub, because you know, we were in London. It was a work night, so she went home and we went to see the Floating Globe and the Winter Lights.
Day 6: We used this day to do some laundry, which always takes longer than we expect. So we found a laundromat next to a café, brought a game, and hung out while we waited for our clothes to be clean. J tried to pay in cash, but the cash he had was from his last visit to England. He had apparently not visited in a while because the money had changed and his cash was no loner accepted. Don’t worry, there was an ATM nearby so our smelly clothes did in fact get clean.
Day 7: It was officially J’s birthday weekend! I am happy to report we finally arrived to an airport early. This may have been the first time this has ever happened. Since we were early, we went to an airport lounge for the first time. Life was good.
The only problem is the lounge didn’t have a board showing when the upcoming departures were boarding. We checked the time and figured we should start heading to our gate. The board outside the lounge said “gate closing” so we began sprinting (not so nice after my [free] acidic OJ from the lounge). So much for getting to the airport early. Panting, we found our gate with plenty of time and we had the best flight. The flight attendant brought J a birthday card signed by the cabin crew and asked us if we wanted to take a picture in the cockpit when we landed. (It was a tight squeeze so the hallway worked.) Shout-out to Flybe for celebrating with us!
Let the birthday festivities commence…but first, I’ll leave this gem here:
