One thing I always hear about London is that it’s rainy and cold. Well, it wasn’t for the five days I was here. When I arrived, it was incredibly hot and sunny. It was a good idea to wear jeans on the airplane because it was freezing cold, but I immediately regretted not changing into something more breathable after arriving in London. I took an hour-long bus from Victoria to Jasmine’s house and I almost died from the heat. The buses here don’t have air conditioning because it barely gets this hot.
Sightseeing
Yuna, my friend from Vancouver, came to London the exact same day as me, so we decided to do a walking tour the next day. We started at Covent Garden and with the tour guide, and we made our way around some important places. We went to Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, St. James’ Park, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey.
On that same day, Yuna and I hit up Oxford Street, Leicester Square, Chinatown, and walked along the Thames River. On my Huawei watch/fitness tracker, it said we walked 40,000 steps. My goodness. In Vancouver, I rarely walk more than 8,000 steps per day. Haha.
The next day, Yuna and I did some more touristy stuff, like take pictures at the 9 and ¾ platform at Kings Cross and go to Camden Market. What fun!
I also went to the Sunday service at St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Evensong service at Westminster Abey. The inside of both of them are beautiful! Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside so just use your imagination or Google what the inside looks like!
My First Time Having High Tea
Yuna loves high tea, so we agreed to get high tea together at Bluebird Chelsea. I never had high tea before, so this experience was very cool. Plus, we were having high tea where it originated from so it was the real deal for me. The maximum time we could stay at Bluebird Chelsea was two hours, so we maxed it out. We spent two hours feeling like princesses, eating cute little sandwiches and desserts, and drinking tea with our pinkies up and proper. I had earl grey tea and it was delicious and refreshing. (Actually, I’ve asked a couple of UK friends if they know if the drink London fog, but no one does. I guess we North Americans made it up haha.)
Museums
In went to three museums (Tate Modern, British Museum, Museum of London) during my five day stay in London. The Tate Modern, a museum of modern art, had so many interesting things to look at. For example, Sheela Gowda’s large-scale installation Behold was made from steel car bumpers and knotted human hair. All of the hair was hand twisted by her.
The Local Life
When I travel, I always try to experience a bit of local life. In London, I had a few friends who took me to do some cool local things. One day, Jasmine, a couple of her friends and I played tennis and basketball for three hours at park near her house—it was incredibly hot but it was incredibly fun. Another time, we had a picnic with a few others when it was very sunny outside. She told me that when the sun comes out, all Londoners flock to the parks to chill.
Another friend of mine, Cherelle, brought me to see a bit of east London. We went to Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane. After that, we had some drinks and chatted about many interesting things, such as the difference between the Canadian/American and British accent. We both tried to imitate each other’s’ accents, haha. I think I can do a pretty good British accent. Would you like some tea? Or some fish and chips? Or some bangers and mash? (I had all of these in London too, by the way.)
It was good that my first stop in Europe was London because everyone speaks English—I’m a bit anxious about going alone to countries where I can’t speak the language. Next stop, Berlin! See you later London! You were great!
Miss Lu – Seems like you were in good company with Ms. W in London… tell you more about it next week. – K
No, tell me everything NOW! Haha. See you tomorrow.