In conjunction with Episode 3 of The World Wanderers podcast, I’m throwing it back to Ryan and I’s adventure in London this week. This was the 2nd stop on our backpacking trip in Europe, and my second time to London. For those of you who don’t know me, I am obsessed with London. I absolutely love the city, and most of all, I love Big Ben (don’t judge me!), so naturally I was super excited to share my love for the city with Ryan.
We arrived from Iceland in the late afternoon, hopped on the tube, and made our way to our hostel. Prior to leaving Canada, we had arranged to get our Oyster cards for the tube, and boy did this make things easier for us. Let’s be real – even if you are well traveled, arriving in a city of over 8 million is overwhelming, especially when you are tired, hungry, and carrying all of your possessions on your back. We made it to our hostel, Astor Hyde Park, quite easily, and immediately set out to find some dinner. As it turned out, we were in London during Wimbledon, so we were up at 5am the following day to start our London adventure off right. We arrived at Wimbledon at about 6:30am, and joined a massive cue that weaved through a giant field. Although it was 10:30am by the time we got in, neither of us was particularly annoyed by the wait (this is unusual – we are impatient), as it was quite organized. We spent the rest of the day watching Milos Raonic and Venus Williams whacking a tennis ball around! Although I don’t love tennis, it was a pretty cool experience. By 3pm, my head was bobbing I was so tired, and we made our way back to our hostel to relax a little bit.
What else did we do while in London? Well we spent our next 2 days exploring the city. Of course, I took Ryan to see Big Ben and the Parliament Buildings, and from there we made our way to the beautiful Westminster Abbey, and over to Buckingham Palace, all the while making regular stops to try various English beers and ciders and to, of course, enjoy some fish and chips! We also walked through Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, St. Paul’s Cathedral and down past Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to the London Tower and London Bridge. The great thing about London is that once you take the tube into the core of the city, you can walk around to see the rest of the major sights. Until I pulled out my travel journal from 2011, I had forgotten how expensive the sights are in London. We paid 13 pounds with a student discount to get into Westminster Abbey, and we passed on going inside of St. Paul’s cathedral because it was too expensive. We also passed on the London Eye because that was also outside of our budget. The tough thing about visiting a city like London on a tight budget is that there really is so much to see and do, and if you need to be conservative with your money, you definitely have to pick and choose your activities.
One of the nights that we were in London, we participated in an all-you-can-drink for 10 pounds event at our hostel. We ended up partying with a couple from Bath, just outside of London, and a couple from Australia. The group was definitely different from what I was used to back home, but that is all part of the fun of traveling! After drinking all we could, we made an attempt to go out near Hyde Park, only to find out that there were no good bars in the area that were open late on a Wednesday. Oh well! It was still a fun night, and we somehow managed to stay out until 3am. We also spent a night in Camden, which is a trendier area of London, where we did a bit of bar hopping, once again trying a few different beers and ciders. Reading back on my travel journal makes me feel exhausted and old, as Ryan and I would spend our days packing in sightseeing and activities, and then always find something to do in the evening as well. I simply don’t know how we did it!
On our final morning in London, we visited a popular breakfast spot to get a traditional English breakfast, which is one of my favourite dishes to eat. It consists of eggs, bacon, sausage, fried tomato, toast and backed beans. It’s simply the best, and in my opinion, a must eat in England! Following breakfast, we hopped on the train to head north up to Scotland!
Want to know more about our trip to London? Listen to our podcast on iTunes or on The World Wanderers blog!