L.O.N.D.O.N. LONDON!

L.O.N.D.O.N. LONDON!!! A game I used to play with my sister, cousins and grandparents during my childhood, a game which brings many happy memories :)

Ironically London is actually a place I also hold many memories of. The great capital of my country, a place over 3 hours from my hometown, but somewhere I will happily travel to without a second thought. I remember that from a very young age I always had a massive interest of London. Even now I have cushions, ornaments, posters, signs, socks, shower curtain, etc. that are of London design, I love it!

I recall the first time my parents took me and my sister to London many years ago. I had always expressed an interest in Big Ben, and I was eager to visit it. An ideal family day out :) Ever since that trip my parents took us on more family days out to London, leaving in the early hours, driving to Richmond and then getting the tube into central. On one occasion we actually stayed overnight in the Canary Wharf area, this allowed for a family treat to see Fame the musical. Something my parents had always wanted me and my sister to experience. I also chose to spend my 18^th in London Billy Elliott the musical.

Every trip I take to London I turn into a complete tourist in my own country, I always seem to visits the same landmarks; Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, etc. I could never get bored of visiting these.

This leads me on to my recent visit. One early morning in January my sister and I caught the Megabus down to London, arriving at Victoria station at 9.30am ready for 2 days exploring yet again this city. However, this time we wished to visit new places we hadn’t been before. Ok so we did visit the generic landmarks as well, I mean it would have been rude not to!

5:30am waiting for the Megabus to London!

To maximise our limited time on this trip we produced a rough itinerary for the two days:

•  Day 1:
• Covent Gardens
• Leicester Square
• Westminster Abby/Big Ben
• Trafalgar Square
• Camden Town
• Southbank
• Day 2:
• Hyde Park
• Buckingham Palace
• Tower of London
• Cutty Sark area

Day 1

Cameras in hand, warm clothes on and overnight backpacks we headed to our first location – Costa!! Now anyone who knows my family know that we enjoy a good Costa and are known for it being our first port of call on a trip out!! A hot chocolate and a latte later we felt awake enough to explore!

Our costas to fuel our energy for two busy days

Walking feet on, we arrived at Buckingham Palace just in time for a procession. Next it was a walk up to Trafalgar Square; somewhere I have many childhood memories of feeding the pigeons at. Unfortunately the pigeons are long gone but this is still a place I enjoy chilling at and people watching. Our walk continued onto Covent Gardens. I was a little disappointed with this area; I expected it to be more thriving with a greater selection of entertainment. The highlight here was seeing a man making music through a traffic cone. Following here we walked to Leicester Square and visited M&M world. A massive shop full of m&m memorabilia, I really enjoyed the feel of this place.

Buckingham Palace procession; Trafalgar Square; Me and Jen in Covent Gardens; Covent Gardens Sign, M&m World

Time to experience the London Underground! Even at 21 the tube still excites me! I like the buzz of train hopping with all different people commuting for all different reasons together. We jumped on the northbound northern line train to Camden Town. Despite being only a few tube stations on from central London, as soon as you exit the station here the atmosphere is completely different. It is as if you are in a completely different city altogether. Street performers, street music, street art and street markets just fill the area. We spent a good couple of hours here enjoying the vibe, photographing/filming memories and of course visiting a local coffee café.

Camden Town

Upon leaving Camden we popped back on the train during rush hour and headed to our hostel in Earls Court. This was also a new experience for us both. Normally we stay in Travelodge’s but this time we decided to play the ultimate tourists at a hostel. We actually decided to trial this method of accommodation as in a matter of weeks (from writing this) me and my sister are off travelling around Europe, where we will be staying in hostels. This particular experience was pleasant. We stayed at St James Backpackers. The location couldn’t have been more ideal, the price (we paid for a 3 bed private room despite their only being two of us) was impressive for being located in central London, and the staff made our welcome feel very safe.

An hour of rest of recuperation allowed us enough energy to head out into the London night. Southbank Wagamamas was the location for dinner where we met my sister’s university friend Georgia. We then spontaneously decided to head for the Shard for cocktails. Georgia stated that it would be a 15 minute walk; 30 minutes and my favourite photo of this trip later we were on the 31^st floor with a cocktail in hand, live music and a sight to die for while having a lovely catch up.

A long exposure shot I took with my camera; Jen, me and Georgia having cocktails; The Shard

Day 2

Jumping out of our bunk beds we were all checked out of the hostel by half 9. A quick stop at Sainsbury’s for breakfast donuts (we needed the sugar energy) to eat for our long walk to Hyde Park. A good 45 minutes of chatter, photographing the national history museum and seeing a cyclist fall off; we arrived deciding to hire Boris Bikes for the first time! Hassle was our first impression; one of our release codes ironically wasn’t released to us. Stereotyping contact call centres we prepared for 20+ minutes on hold to the Boris Bike contacts, however within minutes of dialling our solution had been rectified and we were on our hour cycle around Hyde Park in the lovely but cold sun.

Our hostel room; the National history museum; Boris bike time

Morning workout done, we tubed it to Greenwich. Lunch time was looming so we visited Frankie and Bennys on the waterfront. I really wanted to visit the Greenwich meridian line to get my inner geography geek out but a lack of time and finding out wed have to pay we gave that a miss. We did however visit a church. I’m not religious so normally this wouldn’t be an interest for me to visit. However, this isn’t any old church! It is St Alfege Church, the church my grandparents got married at! A piece of family history, I enjoyed stepping inside and seeing where they tied to knot!

The Cutty Sark

We then headed back to central London, wandered around Westminster for a while before heading back to Victoria to hop on the coach back home!

Parliament Square; Big Ben, me in a telephone box; London Eye lit up at night

It was a very enjoyable trip, which didn’t cost an arm and a leg and I can’t wait for my next adventures in Europe :) 

I have also made a video to accompany this blog post of my trip to London. Watching people like Ben Brown and Fun for Louis on YouTube inspired me to film my adventures. This is something I have wanted to do for a while and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to start. It is my first attempt at video making so please take a watch and let me know what you think :) 

Amester x