The Adventures of London

Shannon Wood
Jan 31, 2015
7 min read

London was an adventure to say the least. It was fabulous. There was not enough time to do everything. It will be one of the places I return to someday! I loved it! Let’s get started through the journey.

Our journey began on a rainy Thursday afternoon. Three of us had class until 2pm and our train was to leave at 2:30pm. Somehow we got lucky, and our class got out early. We brought all of our stuff, grabbed a sandwich, and headed to the train station. Now, the train station it was well chaotic to say the least. We attempted getting tickets from the machine first, but for some reason the dang thing wouldn’t take any of our cards. So then we attempted to get tickets from the counter, but had to wait in a line. Mind you, time is ticking away and we needed to make the 2:30pm train to make our 5:30pm flight because Pisa was an hour by train. Finally, we found the place that sold tickets. Everyone was nice enough (surprisingly) to let us jump in front of them. So after we finally got our tickets (the train leaves in about 3 minutes) we had to get them stamped by this little machine. The machine took about a minute to figure out. We got it! Then we were full on sprinting across the train station to find our platform… Well guess what… We……… Made it! Our group was literally the last people on the train.

Phew, it was a crazy start to the weekend. We had no problems getting to the airport, in Pisa, and then getting on our flight. Once on our flight I was sitting there and realized I left my umbrella on the train. Oh well, good thing mom is sending me a new one J. Anyways, once in London we were meeting up with some friends of one of our roommates. We had to figure out how to get to the Victoria station, which was pretty easy. Unfortunately, it was mighty expensive; the national train was about 15 pounds each (one way). We met her friends (Mike, Emilia, and Brendan). They immediately took us to a place to get fish and chips! We were all starving. It was the best meal ever. I made a happy plate, as mom would say, (aka there was not a single piece of food left). After the meal we bought our Oyster Cards, which is the card to use the Lube and the bus system. The lube is the underground metro. Then we headed to the hostel.

While checking in at the hostel, we met the receptionist, Mr. Ed. He would be a great help in the coming day while traveling around London. We checked in a headed to our rooms for the night. Our room was a four-person room. It was tiny. There were two sets of bunk beds, a sink, and a small place to put our things. Then we checked out the showers and bathrooms. The bathrooms and the showers were unisex. Uh this was a little odd. I wasn’t exactly feeling the whole going to the bathroom, and you walk out of the stall and there’s a guy there. Anyways, it was a long day.

Friday morning we were up and ready to go by about 10AM. We all enjoyed coffee, toast, cereal, and croissants before heading out for the day. Mr. Ed was nice enough to show us around. Our first stop of the day was the Big Ben. It was beautiful. We hopped right off the subway and boom there it was. We walked a little further down to see the eye. After, we continued walk by the place where the important politicians live, saw an area where there was a horse guard, and then walked to the huge fountain. This plaza had a huge fountain, a big blue cock, a statue of the lion, and we even got to listen to a bagpipes player. We then saw these I don’t know what to call them, people who looked like they were floating. They were interesting to say the least. We then headed towards Buckingham Palace. Once at Buckingham Palace, we saw St. Johns gate. This was a beautiful gate. I must say I did enjoy seeing the Palace, but I was expecting much more. I am not quite sure why. Anyways, after admiring the Palace we walked through Green Park.

Green Park was awesome. The ducks came so close to you. We saw a man in the park feeding the birds. He let us feed the birds. It was the highlight of my day along with petting the horse too! I just love animals, and it was amazing how people friendly they were. We continued through the park now headed to Piccadilly. We walked up the streets of Piccadilly admiring the large TV screen; it kind of looked like NYC. We were at this time hungry. We found a Mexican place to eat. It was very good. On our way to lunch we stumbled across a place to watch a Cabaret. It was called Café de Paris. It would be the highlight of our night. After eating, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our night at Café de Paris.

Café de Pairs was amazing. I highly suggest if you are traveling to London to go here. It was an amazing show. It costs 52 pounds for a dinner and a show. The food was amazing. I had a salmon appetizer with steak as my main course. It came with french fries, and I don’t think I have ever eaten french fries so properly (without ketchup and cutting them). Now, somehow we got lucky we sat next two these two different parties. One party was a husband and wife who owned a company in Greece. The other party was a guy who helped find the technology of Dry Fit (yes Nike), a magazine editor, and a headhunter. All three of them were very nice and pleasant. They treated us with at least a 100 pound bottle of champagne. This was just the beginning (don’t worry we watched it being poured from the bottle). After the show, they invited us to their VIP table upstairs. I guess I should mention the café turns into a club after the show. We followed them to the VIP table. There they ordered a three-liter bottle of Ciroc, a 600 pound bottle of vodka, some beer, and another bottle of champagne. We had to exchange the 3-liter for 1.75 liter because we all knew the six of us would not drink all that. We then enjoyed a night of dancing. After a while some how we all split up. Two left and went to another club; two left and went to the hostel, two stayed at this club. Good thing we all had a buddy! Some how I managed to fall asleep in the VIP section of the club for a little ( don’t worry it was just from all the walking around, but only I would be able to sleep in a noisy place).

I woke up the next morning, rolled over and did a head count… Perfect everyone was home. We all got up and had breakfast again. It was time for another day of exploring. Our first stop on the list was Abbey Road. Yes we walked a crossed it many of time, we looked like tourists. After getting our take of pictures, we were headed to Platform 9 ¾. This was a great moment! Finally, after seeing all the Harry Potter movies we got to take a picture at this platform. It was great! From there we headed to the London Bridge. It was raining, and of course the umbrella I bought was use less. It flipped within minutes of opening it (umbrellas never like me). We found a coffee shop to relax and get some lunch. After resting for our rather long lunch break we headed to Oxford Circus. Oxford Circus is the fashion place of London. We visited the M&M store (it was three stories), the Nike Store (Four stories), a place called Topshop where we spent hours shopping. Shopping took up the rest of the afternoon; we then grabbed some fish and chips at a local pub for dinner. I could eat fish and chips anytime. Once back at the hostel I rested for a little before heading back out to see the Big Ben and the Eye at night. I must say it was an amazing scene. A little chilly, but man what a view! We than were in for the night.

Sunday morning we were up bright and earlier for our flight! The London airport was a pain. My liquids were all in a bag, but they wanted every little thing: lotion, lipstick, and foundation. These things normally are fine not in the baggy. So of course my bag got searched. Then we get to the gate and the checkers make us combine all of our purses in our bags. Let me tell you it hardly fit, and as soon as I was out of sight I took it back out. We were then on our way back. Phew it was a weekend of lots of adventures. I even got to ride a double decker bus! Go in a telephone booth! We accomplished a lot while there, but there is just so much more to see! I will go back!