Unfortunately, I was feeling like serious shit the entire morning; worse than my incident at the Eiffel Tower. It didn't take us long to get to the train station; only one train and about four stops away on the 4. We had a bit of a wait before the EuroStar left, so Raf went to get some fresh chocolate croissants, which I was unable to enjoy. =( When we finally got on the EuroStar, we were stuck sitting next to two annoyingly loud French women who DID NOT STOP TALKING FOR THREE HOURS STRAIGHT . (We were both sleeping; I tend to keep my voice down if people are sleeping around me). How can you talk for three hours straight? I mean, I think I might run out of things to say. I think my current state of health heightened the volume of their voices to make me feel worse.
Anyway, when we finally got to London, we hopped on the tube (Jubilee line), which was insanely easy to use. Our hostel, St. Christopher's Village, was a couple blocks away from the tube on Borough High Street. I really couldn't believe I made it to the hostel without puking and/or passing out!
Around Borough High Street
Lobby of the hostel
Don't be fooled by these pictures. Once you walk past the lobby, you are already in the pub area, which wreaks of cigarettes, beer, and after clubbing stickiness (you know what I mean!).
This is located on the right side. Here you can see the pub menu. Stairs lead to a downstairs area which is also part of the Pub.
On the left, sticky Pub.
Then you go through these doors to the dorm-like hallways/bedrooms. This place is sticky and sleazy. I think 99% of the people here were Americans, the other 1% were British. Barcelona 4 Fun was mostly a mix of Europeans and a couple Americans (besides us). So if you want to travel to London to meet other Americans to hook up, this is your place! They even have a dispenser for Tylenol, condoms, and breath mints on the wall. HAHAHA!
When you sleep on these mattresses, you can feel the springs jabbing into your back. I think the top bunk only holds 115 lbs or less.
Lovely shared bathroom
They wouldn't let us check-in until 2pm (we got in around 10am), so we had to put our stuff in lockers, and wander around for the rest of the afternoon. We decided to go sightseeing despite my hellish state since this was our only day in London.
I had to take a picture in the tele booth. Lucky for me, I choose this freshly urine-infested booth where I almost puked from the smell. I'm trying to hide my disgust in this shot.
Walking to London's Tower Bridge. Lovely brown water.
London Tower Bridge, here we come.
Pretty cool, huh? It looks like it's made out of legos.
Ah, Europe must love placing phallic symbols around their cities
My humps! My humps, my humps, my humps!
Going down to the tube, eating more crackers.
Here we are at Parliament and Big Ben
Big Ferris wheel.
Some cute cafe type restaurants around this area.
Waiting for the tube, eating more crackers. The tube is really clean and safe here. Most of them have the protective plastic so people can't fall and get hit. (Might have been handy in Paris with the World Cup festivities going on.) Also, the ventilation is really great, and they have these long escalators that make it a bit more convenient than the millions of stairs found in other metro stations.
After sightseeing, we went to look for some food. Most of the eateries we walked by looked like crap ass sammiches or fast food. We finally found this Italian restaurant that looked decent but they were hosting a huge lunch for an older crowd.
Ah, we continued our trek in search for food only to discover the Borough Street Market.
Then we found a real English pub filled with real English people... in hopes of trying some real English food. I asked the waitress what kind of soda they had. I don't think she knew what soda was. Do they call it "pop" here?
Ah, how much more English can you get than fish and chips, and those ubiquitous overcooked peas found throughout the city (I read that in a travel book).
The fish was freshly fried, but it had no flavor. We then asked for tartar sauce which tasted more like pure mayo. Wasn't so great, but at least it was fresh. According to Raf, the peas were indeed overcooked and disgusting; considering that Raf loves peas, that must tell you something. That travel book was right on, hahah! (By the way, if you want some really good fish and chips, try Gordon Biersch; they have the best dipping sauce!)
Caesar salad for my not-so-happy tummy. Surprisingly, it didn't taste as bad as it looks. (Or maybe it was because I was so hungry from eating crackers for the past few days?) I didn't eat the eggs though, Raf did. The bread they serve is not good either. It had a stale texture to it. It reminded me of the bread they serve in that German Restaurant in Sunnyvale, Hardy's Bavaria.
After this, we walked back to the hostel to finally check-in and take a much-needed break. Our intended short nap turned into a 2.5-hour nap. Oops! Good thing it gets dark here really late! When we woke up, we decided to take a trip to Harrod's, the biggest department store. They had a LOT of awesome name brand stuff like Christian Dior, Hugo Boss, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, you name it, they had it. They were also having a big sale, so things were 30%+! I saw this one Christian Dior bag that I've always wanted for something like £300; that is like $600 USD! If it were $300, that would be a different story. =(
Damn the weak USD!
This place is huge!
Harrod's is also located in the main shopping district. There was a Zara, of course (there are a million of them in Spain and France, too). I also found this cool brand called Jane Morgan that had really nice designs that fit my body type. Alas, damn the weak USD! After some window-shopping, we took the tube to the Buckingham Palace.
Then we watched the guards march around every few minutes. I think that's what they do in order not to fall asleep?
Once again, we were famished, and wanted to find next food on our list of things to eat in London --> INDIAN FOOD! We walked down the street and passed by a quaint Indian restaurant. Even the average Indian restaurants in London have some of the best chefs. We ordered Baltic butter chicken, naan, and rice. Since my tummy was still not happy, I could only barely taste some of this. But let me tell you, it was so fucking good! Everything was delectably prepared; the naan was perfect! They also added chunks of onion and green peppers to the butter chicken dish. (The Indian restaurants I've been to in the states usually don't add this).
Baltic Butter Chicken.
I love naan! We ordered one to go so I had something "plain" to munch on the next morning.
After Raf scarfed down a wonderfully delicious Indian meal, we walked back to the tube to go back to our sticky hostel.
Since we didn't have an alarm clock, Raf was planning on staying up all night so we wouldn't miss our flight back home. Umm, he's crazy! We were walking by this liquor store and I was like, "let's go see if they have an alarm clock." Of course Raf is like, "nah, they won't have it." I went in anyway, and to our luck, they had a little alarm clock waiting for us. It didn't come with batteries so we asked the cashier if we could by a single battery instead of the entire pack.
English cashier: "Yah, grab the DOE-CHELL"
Us: "HUH?"
English cashier: "The DOE-CHELL"
Us: "What?"
English cashier: "The Do-ra-cell."
Us: "Ohhhhh, Duracell!"
That was my only real difficulty in understanding their accents. I think 90% of the time, Raf had trouble understanding them. Hah! We then called it a night, and went to sleep in our springy bright bunk beds. I was later awoken in the middle of the night with some Englishmen screaming "FAUCK YUU! FAUCK OFF!
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2 comments:
You must be kidding! You have missed out on so much in London! I have spent months there and there is still so much to do. Next time, make sure you get local knowledge! (love the pics by the way)
Yes, I am sure that there is lots more to do in London. We were running out of time so we figured we'd just spend a day there. (Plus had to go off on advice from people that have lived there and/or visited). I'm a big foodie, so I need to be around lots of good food without paying an arm and a leg. ;)
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