The perfect beginning - part two
I STILL SEE YA LONDON
Our second day in the wonderful city of London got off to a later start. Our first stop was at Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. Or attempt to watch it at least.
We arrived a little past 10 and the changing was supposed to happen at 10:45. Apparently, this was late because the palace was already packed. I struggled to squeeze my way to the front of the crowd, which I wasn’t even sure where that was? I kept asking Madison what was going on because it seemed like there was a lot but I couldn’t really see. It didn’t help that Obie and I had checked out of our hostel that morning and had our bags with us. With every turn I made in this crowd I was knocking someone and making waves.
I squeezed the best I could to get a glimpse of the guards marching, constantly moving around in the crowd to get a better look. It went on for a while and needless to say I was kind of lost the whole time. Towards the end I gave up on trying to get a better view and just listened to the music the band was playing.
Looking back at the videos I attempted to take of the event, they were all crap. All you can really see is other hands and phones in the air trying to capture what they couldn’t see above the heads in front of them. The most amusing part about the videos was the sound of the police screaming, as politely as one can scream, “MOVE PLEASE KEEP MOVING NOW,” at the tourists. Their sole purpose was to keep the flow of crowds moving in the walkway and to prevent people from stopping to take a picture. Madison and I never determined why this was so important, but they seemed very dedicated to KEEP IT MOVING.
The palace itself was stunning, and thinking about how the queen was inside, well that was pretty cool.
Although it wasn’t raining on day two, it felt colder, and mind you I wanted to wear a skirt because that’s what the locals do. They seem to be immune to the cold or something? I’m not there yet. But I’m working on it for the fashion statement.
So we warmed up with a quick cup of coffee after leaving the palace and we were back on the tube to head to the famous Abbey Road. Turns out there’s not much else to see in this part of London except the road. Which, believe it or not is a pretty busy road. I’m not sure why, but I was kind of half expecting it to be deserted because how else did The Beatles pull off that picture?
Madison and I ran across the road at least 15 times stopping traffic to try to get a picture walking across. But it was okay because we were with about 30 other tourists attempting to do the same exact thing.
We got one. I think we nailed it.
Our next stop was the most boring one for me. The 9 ¾ platform. I guess this is a big deal for Harry Potter fanatics like Obie because there was a long line of people trying to take a picture in this spot at Kings Cross station. I 100% just went here because Obie is a huge Harry Potter nerd and I didn’t want to deny her every Harry Potter location, so I let her pick one.
Unfortunately for me, this line moved dreadfully slow. A worker trying to convince me to buy a picture asked if I was “team Gryffindor” to which I said, “No I actually hate Harry Potter.” She was clearly taken off guard by my response. Apparently they don’t come across many Harry Potter haters at this location...who would’ve thought?
*To be fair I haven’t read any of the books or seen all of the movies. Just the first and the very last. Neither entertained me enough to try to watch any more. I’m more of a Star Wars person. Lucky for Madison that series takes place in a galaxy far, far away that we don’t yet have the ability to visit or I’d definitely drag her there with me.*
Next we head to St. Pauls cathedral. Which was huge. Massive. Beautiful. Brilliantly white. I couldn’t get over how London it was. It encompassed everything I’d already thought about the city, into one gorgeous building.
Then we finally made our way to the Tower Bridge, the bridge we had attempted to go to on day one.
The Tower Bridge was much more iconic than the London Bridge. We ended up walking across this bridge as the sun was setting by pure chance. It worked out wonderfully because we didn’t even realize that the Towers of London were near the bridge too so we got to check off another landmark as we made our way towards the bridge.
Looking out over the River Thames at sunset, seeing the shard mark the pink evening sky, was simply the perfect way to end our trip.
After making our way across the bridge, we literally plopped down at the nearest restaurant we could find because our feet began to scream with pain every step we took.
We had walked over 15 miles every day over the past weekend in attempt to see as much of London as possible. (I felt accomplished in this and that we did see a lot of London in our short time.)
Although my Dr. Martens are comfy and I love them to death, I’m sure there’s no pair of shoes in the world that wouldn’t leave your feet aching after that much walking.
Luck seemed to be on our side that day because there was an outlet in the pub we came across that we could use to charge up our phones. This was important because our phones were an essential piece to helping us navigate to the train station to take us back to Liverpool.
Lucky for us again, we ate a really good meal as we rested up. We spent our last hour in London inside the Starbucks at the train station. I resisted at first, because I’m determined to try as many local cafes as possible, but since it was a train station, our options were slightly limited. (Train stations are actually extremely nice here. Most are nicer than my home airport KCI- not to bag on my city. Much love. XO) To stick to with the English theme, we chose tea instead of our usual lattes.
Thus ended our wonderful trip to London.
As I promised in my first part of my London blog, I wanted to leave you guys with some tips that I found helpful during my first trip in Europe. I hope you can learn from mistakes and successes :)
1. Google maps is literally bae. I’m sorry but apple maps just isn’t as good. Prior to our trip Obie and I created a map on google maps and pinned every location we really wanted to see. When we got to the hostel we planned out our days by looking at those pins and seeing which ones were closest to each other so we could plan out what order we should visit each location.
I would highly recommend doing this if you have a lot to see in a short amount of time, like we did. Not only was this time efficient, but it helped us be cost efficient as well. Taking shorter tube rides helped save us money on transportation. If you’re worried this will take the spontaneity out the trip, don’t. A lot of the times Madison and I changed our minds as the day went on. It’s okay to have a plan and then deviate :) Just having a general idea is good if you’re hoping to go to a lot of destinations.
2. PORTABLE CHARGERS. If you don’t have one, I would highly recommend getting one if you plan on being out and about while you travel. I know you’re thinking, well I’m not going to have my nose in my phone the whole time, and you shouldn’t! But when it comes to navigation, unless you’re amazing with directions (which I am not), then you’ll end up draining a lot of your battery by using your maps. I have a portable charger with me in England, but I forgot to pack it for London. Madison and I survived by using airplane mode when we weren’t using navigation. But barely. There were times that we had to rely on our memory to get us back to the hostel, which was a little unsettling, but we managed.
3. Pack light. This is so incredibly hard for me to advise because I’m truly the worst at this myself. I’m the kind of person that likes to have several outfit options. Sometimes you wake up and you’re vibing a different outfit. However, if you really want to travel cheap, you won’t have this luxury. It sucks I know.
Madison and I learned on this two day trip that we packed way too much. The lockers in the hostel we stayed in were relatively small and I think this is a common theme with many cheap hostels. So if you have a ton of valuables, chances are you won’t be able to lock them all away. Obie and also checked out of our hostel on Sunday morning and we had a whole day of exploring left because our train didn’t leave until Sunday evening. Which meant we had to carry our bags around with us everywhere we went. This wasn’t too bad because we only had a backpack and a purse.
If you’re traveling with a friend, share things like shampoo, body wash, conditioner, etc. Or if you’re the same size, even share clothes. You might have to rough it a little. It’s the hostel way. It’ll be worth it I promise.
4. Plan ahead when booking your hostel/ hotel. Obie and I booked our hostel before we realized that it was about a 30 minute tube ride outside of central London. It would’ve been much more convenient had we marked a few places we wanted to go on the map and then looked for a hostel instead of looking for the cheapest hostel with semi decent reviews. We got lucky because our hostel was a short ten minute walk from the tube, but had it not been close, we would’ve had a much harder time figuring out transportation. So location is something important to consider while booking a hostel.
5. Read hostel reviews. For the most part they can be all over the place, but some are very helpful. Obie and I learned that paying 5 pounds more a night might be worth it if you can take a shower lol.
6. GO WITH THE FLOW. Yes I realize this contradicts with the planning. But plan enough so you’re not lost the whole time, but be willing to change a plan or travel off the beaten path. If something doesn’t go right, don’t let it ruin the trip. I get really stressed and anxious when I’m lost because I hate directions- so this is something I need to work on too. If you’re a weekend traveler you don’t have time to waste by letting things like being lost for an hour or not having the best hostel, ruin your trip.
That’s just my two cents after only one trip inside of England. I’ve already learned so much more after my four day trip to Amsterdam this past weekend. (Shout out to the strike going on at the University of Liverpool. More on that later.)
Be looking out for my next post because I’ll be sharing my favorite things to do in Amsterdam.
Until next time.
Cheers,
Isabel