The Great Crawl Through London, or Extraordinary Days of Walking in Crowds of Tourists

Thursday marked Jessica and mine’s first Eurail trip on the train!!

Look how excited we are for our exciting train ride! How exciting!!

From the Holyhead ferry port, we took the 11:30 am train through Wales, passing through Birmingham and finally arriving in London, our final destination, around 4:00 pm.

 Then, all havoc broke loose.

UTTER DESTRUCTION AND DESPAIR EVERYWHERE.

Well, that may be a bit overdramatic. However, we were astoundingly confused by the British public transportation system. In order to get to our hostel, we had to bus – BUT, for some silly reason, London has decided that you can’t buy bus tickets on the actual bus anymore. You have to purchase a ticket in a transit station beforehand, or get an “Oyster” card (basically a pay-as-you-go transit card), or you won’t be allowed on.

Not having the ability to buy a ticket on the bus + INSANE transit maps + zones of the city?? + hunger + grumpy people everywhere = MASS CONFUSION.

Jessica's cheeks enjoy the company of crumbs.

Needless to say, after getting off at the wrong bus stop and walking for a half hour to get to our hostel (see my review of St. Christopher’s Inn in my “Hostels” tab!), we were extremely excited to sit down at the pub next door and enjoy a hearty meal of cow and liquid wheat.

Potatoes count as vegetables, right? And wheat is a whole grain! This is totally health food!

The night ended early. Because Jessica fell asleep at 7:00.

Friday, August 8^th

This day shall be known as the Extraordinary Day of Endless Walking in Crowds of Tourists (or, for short, EDEWCT).

We began the morning with a free breakfast provided by our hostel. This one, I’ll have you know, actually had real food: yogurt!!! YAY YOGURT! And oranges. And toast for Jessica.

Then, we took our first walk around the city before – wait for it – a walking tour.

Walking, walking, everywhere!

I think I got a leg cramp after taking this one. Such poise. 

An everyday stroll in London. Look! A red bus!

One of my favorite pictures: the Shard, the tallest building in Western Europe. Look! Another red bus!

Jessica and I were very happy that we had made the executive decision to buy Oyster cards the day before, because our walking tour lead us to the tube before continuing (to walk) on our journey.

Our new Belgian friend Olivia took this shot of our first tube trip together.

From the tube we saw (while walking) many of the amazing sites that bring tourists (walking) to London from all around the world, including a floating Yoda.

My, Yoda, how you have grown!

We walked from Covent Garden (originally a Convent, which turned into the Red Street District filled with prostitutes, which turned into a tourist attraction) to the National Portrait Gallery, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Park, Big Ben, and Churchill’s war barracks (but not necessarily in that order). 

Jessica and me in Trafalgar Square bordered by the National Gallery and the Nelson Monument (not visible here) with accompanying lions. 

 Fun fact: the lions in this square were not actually created in the image of a lion. Although the sculptor who created them could make a fair representation of a lion seen from the front based on previous drawings and other illustrations – he had not seen a lion in person before, of course – he did not know what their back ends looked like. So, in order to create a “realistic” lion bum, he used his cocker spaniel as a model. If you look closely, you can see that the lion’s hind legs look just a little too small and angular. It turns out that lions and spaniels aren’t that similar after all!

In front of Buckingham Palace, where the queen is given a spending budget of 37 million pounds (62.9 million USD!) each year. 

A close-up view of Westminster Abbey. 

The House of Parliament as seen from the side. 

 The House of Parliament was nearly subject to an incredible terrorist attack in the past, kudos to Guy Faulkes (I perhaps misspelled his name). Placing 36 barrels of gunpowder in the House, Guy had the intention of destroying the entire building on the 5^th of November. Luckily, one of his terrorist partners had a brother who worked in the House. The partner wrote his brother, telling him to not go to the House on the 5^th of November. Finding this warning odd, the brother alerted the authorities, and the authorities searched the building on the night of the 4^th and found Guy sitting on top of his barrels of gunpowder, drinking. Guy was arrested, and soon the authorities… well, let’s just say that they killed him slowly. And very painfully.

The clocktower and Big Ben, with the London Eye spinning in the background.

Did you know? “Big Ben” refers to the bell inside the clocktower, not the clocktower itself. The bell was allegedly named Big Ben after a very fat man who climbed the tower long ago. He was so large that his friend compared him to the bell inside, which weighs several tons. The name has stuck ever since then.

Our walking tour ended, which obliged us to purchase some fish and chips from a nearby pub before heading to the Natural History Museum.

Much like America, London does not have an inherited cuisine as old as time, but a hodgepodge of all kinds of different foods. However, if there were to be a meal that is traditionally eaten in the city, it would be fish and chips!!
 

Olbigatory red telephone photo. We got distracted on the way to the museum. 

Creepy is the new in. Jessica would know. She works as a professional Vogue model.

 At the museum, we saw one of many things... dinosaurs!!!

Alfred barely escaped the museum with his life. Rawr!

 After spending a few hours learning about eukaryotic cells, dinosaurs, carbon dating, insects, volcanoes, and other natural disasters, we took the tube back to our hostel to begin…

 a marathon.

A very epic, grueling race for time.

A trial that very few can complete.

A trek that leaves you paralyzed from exhaustion, sick from the exertion, and completely, utterly smashed.

A marathon called…..

THE CAMDEN PUB CRAWL.

Yes, mom and dad, I did have a few drinks. And no, I did not dance on any bar tops or start taking off all my clothes while singing “I’m Too Sexy” by Yes Said Fred.

For anyone who has been to London over the age of 18, you know that the British drink. A LOT. And they are known as being the party type. So, basically, we were just partaking in a local cultural experience.

For those who don’t know, a “pub crawl” is when you travel from pub to pub in a large group, often with a prepaid ticket that gets you free shots or drink specials and entrance into cool nightclubs.

When in Rome...

In all seriousness, we had a fabulous time, and we made wonderful new friends staying at our hostel named Dylan (from Australia), Ian (from LA), Phil (from Ireland), Wen (from Connecticut), Guan, and Nickola (from Finland). They basically were our personal chivalrous escorts the entire night, and we all had a blast together although it was raining the entire time (they even gave us piggyback rides between bars – how sweet!).

The night ended at 1:30 am, when Jessica and I called it a day. We are taking the train now, at 11:00 am, to our next destination: Brussels. So begins the rest of our journey in mainland Europe.

Cheers and hugs to you all.

Dani