Day 132-135 : UK Trip Part I - London, England

Thursday, May 27, 2010: Breda, Netherlands

What d'ya know, a red telephone booth!

Wow, here it is the end of May already....never thought I would see this day, nearly the end of my study abroad experience! Its crazy how fast time really does fly when you are having the time of your life!

Today was the long-awaited day. From the moment I arrived in the Netherlands, I had started planning this epic trip to the UK. I had decided to wait and do it at the end of the semester, as I wanted to spend a large chunk of time over the English Channel in the various countries that make up the United Kingdom. I knew that there were people I wanted to visit while over there, and the trip kept evolving over the course of the semester into a truly amazing trip!

Earlier on in the semester, I had mentioned my plans of going to the U.K. to Mateja and Bali. While Bali did not have the proper visas to visit the U.K., Mateja displayed some interest in going along with me. We had to wait for some exam results, but in April, we confirmed that we would both be going. We contacted my friend, Katie McKinney who had studied abroad at Agnes Scott last year, and arranged to meet up and stay with her in Ireland. Our mutual friend Daniel from Tilburg invited us to visit him and stay with his family in Scotland, as he would be home for the summer at that point. And Bali had a friend, Karu, in London who we also arranged to meet. What a great way to see a place with so many guides!

Hard goodbye to Shaun :(

So on Thursday evening, Mateja and I headed down to the Tilburg West train station to board the Dutch train to Breda, Netherlands, just a twenty minute train ride. We were accompanied to the station by our friends Shaun (S. Africa) and Bali. We would be seeing Bali again upon our return to Tilburg in June, but Shaun was leaving the next day to head back to South Africa for the summer. He was so great and helped us carry our luggage to the train station. We arrived a few minutes before the train and chatted and said our goodbyes. It was really hard saying goodbye to Shaun. He had been such a good friend at Tilburg. If you will remember, he baked me the birthday cake and was always up for going out! He had also lived on Mateja's floor in Verbs 88. It was super hard  for her to say goodbye. Tears rolled down her cheeks as we boarded the train and set off on our adventure.

One (of many) elephant statues

We reached Breda around 9:00PM, as our Eurolines bus was set to leave at 9:40. Bali had told us about the difficulty she had finding  the bus stop in Breda and gave us some instruction, but we still had to walk around for a good half hour and ask for directions twice before we finally found the spot. It was supposed to be an "International Bus Stop". Okay, this thing was not even labeled! There was no signage, nothing! The only reason we found it was because we saw some other people standing on the corner with big backpacks. We joined them and the bus arrived shortly thereafter. The driver (who spoke English this time!) assisted us with our bags and gave us our tickets. We boarded the bus and could tell it had already made several stops, as it was pretty full already! Mateja and I found a seat together and made ourselves comfortable. I was not excited about the prospect of another 10 hours on one of these buses, but it was made better by the fact that our driver was funny and friendly, and he was super helpful!

Shortly after boarding the bus, we stopped at a McDonald's for break. Not really needing a break, as we had literally only been on the bus for about 45 minutes, Mateja and I decided to get of the bus and go inside and chat since we knew we would be on the bus for quite awhile. We got back on the bus after the break ended and attempted to sleep for a bit.

Buckingham Palace

At 1:45AM, we were awakened by the driver as we had reached French and British Customs. We were told to gather our documents, including a Customs declaration form we had to fill out about where we were going in the U.K. and our passports and visas. I had a momentary panic attack, as I thought the driver was saying that I, as an American, would need a visa in order to get into the U.K., but it turned out that my Dutch Residence Permit would suffice. Whew!

We went through customs, and, despite all the hype, it was actually a pretty chill process. The guy asked me where I was headed, when I would return to the Netherlands and when I would return to the United States. He was nice and let me through, no worries!

Double Decker spotting!

After everyone had made it through, we got back on the bus and drove to where the ferry would depart. We were given the chance to use the bathroom before the bus boarded the ferry to be transported across the sea to the U.K. Once the bus was parked (along with tons of other vehicles) on the ferry, we were allowed to get off and find a place on the ship to relax for the 2-hour ride. Although initially perturbed by all of this disturbance in my attempt to sleep, it turned out to be good that we got on the ferry, as Mateja and I were able to get nearly two hours of uninterrupted sleep! We explored the ferry and found two cozy couches next to each other that we camped out on and slept for the whole time.

Our alarms woke us up at 3AM (time-change calculated in) and we got ready to get off the ferry and board the bus again. We were now in the Port of Dover on the coast of England. We got back on the bus and were off the ferry shortly thereafter. The driver was great, pointing out to us some of the features of the city of Dover. It was beginning to get light outside, so we could see the cliffs of Dover and some of the architecture of the buildings. This made the bus trip worthwhile to be able to see all of this.

Westminster

At 5:15AM, we arrived at Victoria Station in London. As we entered the city of London, our driver began too give us some interesting tidbits of information and point out some things. I wish I had captured it on film, because we saw the most amazing view of London, as we crossed one of the many bridges and entered the main part of the city. Our majestic view was composed of the rising sun, Westminster and Big Ben. It was golden and absolutely magnificent. I will never forget this as my first impression of London.

Our tour guide reminded us that we were "Not in Amsterdam anymore" and that "coffee shops here actually sell coffee", before we got off the bus and began our exploration of London. He gave us some instruction on how to get where we needed to be, but we were slightly confused and ended up just sleepily following these other girls from South Africa that had been on the bus with us, hoping that we would find where we needed to be.

London Bridge is....

Victoria Station is a  major hub in London for public transportation. There are a gazillion buses that run through this area (and ten times that many bus stops) plus a giant tube and train station. We managed to get over to the tube station and purchase day passes that allowed us unlimited rides on the buses and tube. We got all our transport for three days for under 20 British Pounds! Although the guy tried to scam us by selling us oyster cards that would end up costing way more. Ha, we beat the system!

Reminder: they drive on the left!

Equipped with our day passes, we boarded bus 52 to take us to our hostel. It was a long ride (or maybe it just seemed that way since we were so tired!), but we made it to the stop and disembarked the bus. Now we just had to follow our walking directions  (that said the hostel was close-by) and we would be there! After guessing which was the correct direction and walking nearly a kilometer (since our directions had lied about the distance!) past a graveyard, we came to the hostel and went inside to check-in. To our amazement, our room was ready for us to go into. Wow, it was not even 8AM! We headed up the three flights of stairs to our 6-bed female room and passed out in our beds for 3 hours! Mateja took the bed by the window, only to find out the view was that of the cemetery the hostel backed up to. We were exhausted from the turbulent bus ride and so thankful for the chance to rest before heading out to enjoy our first full day in London.

Friday, May 28, 2010: London, England

Our primary Tube stop

After our 3-hour nap, Mateja and I awoke, refreshed and ready to explore this massive, historical city. We crossed the road and boarded the tube at the Kensal Green Station (first time tubers!) to Hyde Park, where we arrived in plenty of time to walk around on our own a bit and grab a kopje koffie before beginning the free tour (same as Berlin) at noon.

The tour met near Hyde Park and broke into groups. Patrick, also from Ireland, was our tour guide. We began the walking tour by strolling through Green Park. Patrick shared some very interesting stories with us about everything we saw, including Buckingham Palace. He recalled how some German tourists had unintentionally camped out in the Queen's gardens behind the palace, only to be caught when they asked the guards where they could purchase ice cream! We enjoyed his stories and tidbits as we ambled through the streets of London. At one point near the Palace, I jokingly asked Patrick if there were any garbage cans around, since I was still holding my empty coffee cup. He unexpectedly answered, "no" since they don't want to risk bombs being put in garbage bins so close to the Palace. I was taken aback, and thought it kind of humorous (and had to hold on to my trash for awhile longer!).

Patrick our Irish guide!

Mateja and I enjoyed the tour: seeing the British guards, taking pictures of Big Ben, resting in Trafalgar Square and finally ending up at Westminster. We were still getting used to the fact that everything was written in English and we could understand the people speaking around us. It had been nearly five months since I had been in an English-speaking place, and Mateja had only been in one environment before where English was the prominent language- Monaco.

When the tour ended, we arranged to meet Bali's friend, Karu, in front of Westminster. Mateja and I took a bathroom and photo-taking break before plopping ourselves down on the lawn of Westminster to wait for Karu, as we were exhausted from all our walking! About 4:30pm, Karu met us and we all introduced ourselves. He is studying at London School of Economics for four years and is pretty familiar with the London domain. We were excited to meet him and he was anxious to show us around.

Meeting Karu in London

Perhaps since he knew we were Bali's friends, the first thing Karu did was take us to some of London's premeir shopping: Bond Street. We were a bit overwhelmed by the hectic nature of this busy street and wandered in and out of several shops looking for postcards and souvenirs. Karu pointed us in the direction of Primarck, one of Great Britain's cheapest and largest department stores. Our first encounter here in London with Primarck was so-so. It was unbelievably crowded and rather hot inside. And since we were so tired, we were not really in the mood to push through people or try things on. Not the best first impression of the store, but we would later come to love it!

Loved the architecture!

Karu showed us down another major street where he said there are typically street performers and the like. We warily followed him and took pictures with the red telephone booth we found. At this point, Karu could tell we were pooped! We thanked him for showing us around and arranged to meet up with him the following day (and promised to have more energy!). We waved goodbye and went our separate ways as we boarded the tube and headed back to the hostel.

Its in English!

Although we were super tired, we decided to make the trek back down towards the bus stop (nearly a kilometer!) and down another street to the closest grocery store, Sainsbury's. Mateja and I (the wise travelers that we are) had packed some food from Albert Heijn to take with us to London, since we were told how expensive everything is there. We had brought pasta, sauce, cookies, apples and some other snack items. However, we decided to go to Sainsbury's and pick up a few more things to complement our dinner. We pooled our money (the infamous 'communal pot') and purchased some french bread, a whole roasted chicken, pasta cheese, peppers and some sandwich deli items. We intended to cook dinner for ourselves each night and pack sandwiches for lunch in order to save money. We purchased our items and exited through the back of the store.

Amsterdam-like Canal

Behind the Sainsbury's was a small canal (reminiscent of Amsterdam). We sat on a bench facing the canal and broke into the french bread and chicken we had just purchased. We were famished from not having eaten since the morning, and could not stop talking about how much we were enjoying our current meal!

Our horrible hostel...uggh!

After we had finished our dinner, we packed up and headed back to the hostel. I don't think I mentioned before how crummy this hostel was. At this point, I had stayed in numerous hostels throughout Europe, but this was by far the worst! There were so many things wrong with it, its hard to remember them all! One thing that irked us when we got back for the evening was the lack of internet. We planned to buy a short amount of time just to check our e-mail and let everyone know we were okay. However, the internet decided not to work and we asked for a refund for our money. The woman, who was rather rude, reluctantly gave us our coins back. We put our things away in the communal fridge and headed upstairs for the evening. On the way, we stopped by this guys room on the first floor who rented outlet converters for European/American plugs. Mateja and I both needed this, as we had our phones and Ipods to charge (and I wanted to straighten my hair in the morning!).  We had to pay a 4 GBP deposit, but got the converter, for which we were very thankful.

Back in the room, we were greeted by the obnoxious German woman we had met earlier. Don't get me wrong, she was super nice, but she would not stop talking! Every time we went in the room, she was there and would begin drilling us on how our day was and what we did. At first we found her very annoying, but we later came to see that she just lightened the mood of the whole place. 

We took our showers (in the shower located in the corner of the dorm room itself!) and hit the bed....neither of us had any trouble falling asleep after our long day!

Saturday, May 29, 2010: London, England

We woke up for an early start with breakfast at the hostel. We always tried to choose hostels where breakfast was included, to save the added time and expense. However, we were disappointed with the lack of both nutrition and selection that this breakfast offered. All they had was bland cereal or toast with butter/jam. Not even Nutella! However, we were thankful they had coffee (even if it was instant) and ate our breakfast before heading to the tube station.

Busy Portobello Market

Our first stop for the day was the Notting Hill Portobello Market. Prior to this trip, I had not seen the movie Notting Hill, but I did see it shortly after returning to the States. I must say, it does look like the film! We strolled through the market, wandering in and out of shops and looking at all kinds of things. It was a bit rainy, so we had to keep pulling out and putting away our umbrellas to stay dry. Although I hate rain, I was glad that we got to experience this key feature of London!

Cupcakes!

A ways down the market, we came across a small bakery that Karu had told us about the day before, Hummingbird Cafe. He said it was famous for its yummy cupcakes and always very busy. He was right in both dimensions! We waited in line to try a yummy cupcake, which was okay....very buttery and a bit too sweet for Mateja's liking. But we got to try an English cupcake and were happy to have had the experience.

Outside the KK :)

After we had finished perusing the market, we headed back to the tube station and took the tube to Holborn, where it was still raining. To avoid the crowds and getting drenched, we slipped into the McDonald's across the street and ordered a coffee and ate our packed lunch while waiting for Karu. He met us and we headed out, stopping first at the Krispy Kreme right across the street (which I had amazingly not even seen yet) so that I  could have my long-awaited fill of the sugary goodness. I ordered a maple donut and packed it away in my bag for later.

St. Paul's Cathedral, London

Karu offered to show us around several of the places on our map that we had marked to see while in the city. We walked a short while down to St. Paul's Cathedral and passed by the small campus of LSE. We stopped at the Tate Gallery so that Mateja and I could check it out. Karu had already been before, so he ran back to his student housing quickly to grab a bite of lunch and told us to call him when we were through so that he could meet us again. We walked through the museum and studied the various forms of artwork glistening the walls. It had some very interesting exhibits, indeed!

Harry Potter Bridge, London

All finished, we called Karu and waited outside for him to meet us. His dorm was literally a five minute walk away, just behind the Tate Gallery. He graciously showed us the way to his dorm building so that we could use the internet quickly, as we had told him our tragic story of the night before!

Globe Theatre

After taking care of our online needs, we continued the walking tour with Karu, stopping first at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, right next to the train station. We also took pictures of the Millennium Bridge that crossed the Thames just in front of the Tate Gallery, noting that it was the bridge in the 4th Harry Potter film (when the dementors sweep through London and rattle the bridge...). We proceeded to go all the way down to London Bridge (which was quite decrepit and disappointing) and finally crossed the massive Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge was truly amazing and quite an impressive structure!

Tower Bridge

Across the river, we checked out the Tower of London, although we did not have the chance to go inside (a. it was closed; b. its expensive!). Not quite sure of what to do next, we thanked Karu for his time in showing us around and said goodbye, tentatively arranging to meet up again the following day. Mateja and I hopped on the tube at the nearest tube station and headed for Trafalgar Square to check out bus times for our early morning trek back to Victoria station on Monday morning.

Trafalgar Sq.

We reached Trafalgar and noted the bus timings according to the signs on the actual bus stops. We were going to have to take the night bus in order to catch our Coach from Victoria on time, since the regular buses don't run that early in the morning. We would have to transfer twice, making the fare kind of expensive and the whole thing kind of nerve-racking.

Another Cupcake Shoppe

It was starting to drizzle again, so we took shelter under the terrace roof of a nearby museum to decide what to do next. We decided to ignore the rain and explore the area, as there was supposed to be some decent shopping in the area. Winding through the streets, we found ourselves in the Convent Garden area and found some great entertainment along the way. There was a guy performing magic tricks in front of a rather large crowd, as well as a quartet of violinists playing some pretty music and getting their audience involved. We also enjoyed the shops in the area, including cupcake bakeries and stationary stores. On our way back to the tube station, we encountered a man on a unicycle performing on a raised stage in front of a cheering crowd....craziness!

We headed back to the hostel, again tired from another long day out. Once back, we retrieved our food and rented some pans and dishes to cook supper. We headed up to the third floor and down to the community kitchen. Although the stove burners were not fully functioning and we had to make do with our limited dishware, we managed to cook ourselves a nice warm dinner. We made pasta with a tomato pepper sauce and roasted chicken. And I can't forget Mateja's favorite part- the pasta cheese we sprinkled on top!

Our bellies full from our yummy supper, we took turns showering before heading to bed. Tomorrow would be our last full day in London, so we wanted to be rested to make the most of it!

Sunday, May 30, 2010: London, England

Cemetery View

Nearly a third of the way through our trip, we woke on Sunday morning to see the sun in the sky, shining over the cemetery! We attended breakfast again at the hostel, just appreciating the fact that there was breakfast. We packed our sandwiches for lunch (and received the comment, "what a good idea!" from the German lady) before heading out for another day of roaming around London.

King's Cross St...look familiar?

As it was Sunday and we realized most things would not open until later, we decided to do something that did not require admission or opening hours first. We boarded the tube and headed north to King's Cross Station, yes the same King's Cross as in Harry Potter. We were in pursuit of finding the Platform nine-and-three-quarters, so that we could get our pictures made with said platform. We found it odd that we had to use our tube cards to get into the station, but did so and headed to the area between platforms nine and ten. I had remembered reading somewhere that there was a sign or something denoting the spot where Harry and Ron run into the wall with their loaded trolleys, but when we arrived on the platform, we saw no such thing!

The real deal :)

The first (failed) attempt!

Taking matters into our own hands, we wheeled an unattended trolley over to a blank spot on the wall that resembled the platform from the movie. It was a mediocre location, but we figured it would have to do! We laughed as we looked like such tourists (idiots, really) taking pictures of each other pretending to run into the brick wall. Laughing at ourselves, we exited the station and some troubles getting out with our cards. The gaurd came over to let us out and out of nowhere asked us, "Are you looking for platform nine-and-three-quarters?" (in a British accent of course!), to which we answered 'yes'. He pointed us in another direction, and low and behold, there it was! In fact, there was a sign that stated the name of the platform, and even half of a fake trolley sticking out of the brick wall. In true British fashion, we queued up to take our very own pictures with the famous wizard landmark. Finally, success!

Enjoying Camden

Camden Market

Feeling like idiots from our picture-taking mistake, we again boarded the tube and headed down to the Camden Town Market. This was another market that is renowned in London for its diverse selection of items. We enjoyed walking through and seeing so many interesting things! We bought some small souvenirs and looped our way around through the entire market. As we finished our shopping, we took a short snack break at Starbucks, where we each purchased a coffee and split a muffin. I had a minor issue when paying for the items, as I was confused between the two pence and the two pound coins...let's just say I way underpaid and was asked for four more pounds! We were disappointed to find out that they did not have a restroom for customers, so that became our next agenda item, as we both had to go!

Regent's Park

Without Bali to guide us and read the map, we had to use our own map reading skills to find our next place of interest, Regent's Park. We were told to visit the magnificent parks in London, and thought this one would be lovely on such a beautiful, sunny day! After finding a toilet that we could use for free (and not the kiddie one we initially tried to go into), we sat for a bit on a bench and enjoyed the loveliness of the park.

At Harrods

We navigated our way back out of the park and found ourselves a tube station and headed to Knightsbridge. This is another shopping and museum district (a.k.a. tourist haven!). Our first stop was Harrods, the famous London department store that is like ten times bigger than anything you have ever seen. I felt like we were shopping in a mansion, as each spacious room had its own theme and sold incredibly expensive perfume, jewelry, purses and the like. Mateja and I were not planning on actually buying anything, but just enjoyed the museum-esque vibe we got from this store. We proceeded up its multiple stories and saw toys, shoes and clothes galore! There seemed to be no end!

Nap time in the courtyard

Back outside the store, we chose a shady bench and enjoyed our packed lunch with pigeons begging for our crumbs at our feet. That is one thing I do not miss about Europe, the pesky pigeons! They were always everywhere! After finishing our sandwiches (and shooing away multiple birds), we headed down the street to an area containing some of the major museums in London. We found our way into the Victoria and Albert Museum which we explored for a bit before taking a break in the sunny courtyard surrounded by the museum's facade. Many other people had the same idea, and I people watched as Mateja closed her eyes for a short nap.

Goofing off in the gift shop

After our rest, we went through a bit more of the museum before heading over to the Natural History museum next door. Here, we found a more interactive place that we enjoyed roaming and exploring. We learned quite a bit and enjoyed perusing the gift shop before hitting the streets again. We walked down a set of stairs into the tube station outside and hopped on the tube to Victoria Station. Our mission was to figure out where our bus would be picking us up the following morning to take us to Stansted airport. After some dispute and lots of walking, we found the Coach office and asked them for more specifics about our departure location. They were helpful and told us precisely where to go. Feeling better about our early morning trek the following day, we began walking back to the tube station, stopping at Governor's Park for a short break. We were told the park was closing shortly after we sat down, so we picked up and headed back to the tube station.

Not even close!

In an attempt to photograph that magnificent view I mentioned earlier of our arrival in London, Mateja and I took the tube to Westminster, where we walked to a nearby bridge to take pictures. While I could not capture the exact view I remember from the previous day, we did get some nice pictures of the London backdrop (despite the sun plopping itself in an annoying spot).

We boarded the tube one last time, heading back to the hostel for the evening. We rented our pots and pans again and cooked another meal for ourselves in the third floor kitchen. We had another yummy meal before heading back to the room where we got our things in order for the next day. We would be leaving shortly before 4AM to catch a bus to Victoria Station. Thankfully, we had figured out a way that we could only take one bus (located close to the hostel) that would take us straight to Victoria so we would not have to switch. This not only would save us time, but money as well, as each ride was two pounds!

One final funny memory from London was that of this other girl who was also studying in the Netherlands (in Leiden) who was staying in our hostel dorm room. She kept the oddest hours, going out at all hours of the morning and sleeping during the day. We couldn't quite figure her out! Anyways, when we had come back in this evening to the room to get our things to make supper, she was sleeping on the top bunk of her bed and snapped at Mateja and I for "making too much noise". We were just trying to get our things and were hardly making any noise, and it was 7 o'clock at night! Give me a break! She complained that she could not sleep and asked us to be more quiet. We promptly left, fuming about this girl who thought she had the right to have 24/7 quiet in a hostel, puh-lease!

Long story short, we got back to the room later and were getting ready for bed when we noticed the girl's cell phone alarm was going off. We weren't sure what to do (whether or not to wake her) and the thing kept going off every five minutes. Mateja attempted to turn it off several times, with no luck. She finally tried waking the girl up, but she would not wake. So we left it and managed to get the thing to stop beeping after awhile. We went to bed and thought no more of it.

Well, I was having some trouble sleeping, so decided to write some things down in my journal. All of a sudden, I hear the girl startle in her bed just across the room. She sat up and clicked on her phone to see the time. Suddenly, she starting scrambling out of bed and digging through her suitcase. Upon finding her clothes, she went down to the communal bathroom to change. During this time, the German woman had woken up. I was pretending to be asleep so that she would not talk to me, but I watched her stand up and get out of bed. She walked over to the room door, which opened as the other girl was coming back in. The German woman lifted both of her arms above her head and said "Boo!", in an attempt to scare the girl. The girl just ignored her and pushed her way into the room, gathered her things and left. Okay, this does not sound so funny, but at the time, I was cracking up in my mind! I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud! I looked over to see if Mateja was awake so we could laugh about this together after both had left the room, but unfortunately, she was fast asleep. Just one of those random funny memories!

A memorable view of London

Reflecting on our time in London, I realized we saw and did a lot! I was surprised at how dirty London was, although you really could not tell until you blew your nose and what came out was black. While this massive metropolis was not my favorite place that we visited in all our travels, I did enjoy seeing and experiencing London, after hearing so much about this place. I would love to go back another time and do some of the things that we either did not have time for or did not want to pay for. I also think it would be great to travel to some other places in England, as there is far more to see in the country besides London City. I would love to see some of the countryside and more of the seaside, and also go up north a bit. One day!