After catching the train from Stratford on the Saturday morning, Alice and I arrived in London around 10:30. After missing our road several times, we finally managed to locate the hostel in which we would be staying for the next 2 nights. Handily having had the party the day before, there were plenty of leftovers for a packed lunch that we took down to Hyde Park, which was conveniently placed at the end of our road. After thoroughly enjoying our lettuce, cucumber, Camembert and hummus baguettes, Alice and I thought of nothing better to do than take a walk to the other side of the very luscious and green Hyde Park (for all those in Castlemaine, think Botanical Garden but 100x bigger and greener. Although, I do enjoy a good picnic in the Castlemaine bot gardens!)
After reaching a train station we made our way north to Camden and to Camden Market where we had constantly been told to visit by several Australians. Camden was colourful, lively, vivacious and exciting as people flooded the sunny day streets. From the very first sight of Doc Martins, Camden Market played temptress with our money pockets, with my money pocket being sucked into her beauty once or twice (or, possibly thrice).
We managed to escape the depths of Camden Market and wondered into a vintage shop on the side of a street. We walked to the top of the vintage shop and by chance stumbled upon a rooftop music gig. After sitting and listening to the music for a while we realised some of the people had booklets and with closer inspection we discovered that we were in Camden on the day of the Camden Music Festival (think, St Kilda Festival without the beach). It was fortunate luck for us to be there on that day, and more fortunate still, that we got into the main stage for free. We danced for a while before realising that we needed a beer and headed to the closest pub. Looking at the program and not knowing a single artist, Alice and I decided to venture further along the street. After eating some Thai I got a message from a fellow bridesmaid (for all those going ‘huh!?’ right now, I am a bridesmaid in my brother’s wedding in November) named Kate and we set our paths for Covent Garden.
There, we met Kate and she took us around London, pointing us to various places and providing some interesting unknown facts before we sat ourselves in a bar and drank the best alcoholic ginger beer. At the sound of my tummy grumbling (possibly unheard by the rest of the party) we headed to another pub for cider, beer and dinner. I had nachos, Alice had a burger and Kate did the traditional Bangers and Mash.
On Sunday there were no beautiful packed lunches or leftovers. After getting up later than expected, we went and got bread and jam. This was to be our meal for breakfast and lunch. When we visited the Cotswolds the week before, a man working in the pub had told us about a really great walking tour group called Sandeman’s. Oh, and he also mentioned that it was ‘free’. Being backpackers, Alice and I take much pleasure in the word ‘free’. So, that became our plan for the Sunday. The tour started at 11 and although we were 15 mins late we met up with Izzy and were lucky enough to still go on the tour. The tour started at Wellington arch. Here, the tour guide told us that Wellington Arch was built after the English defeated the French and was named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Now for anyone who is unaware, the French and the English have a sort of rivalry. The English don’t like the French…The French had built the Arc de Triumph before they had won the war, so the English decided to build an arch that was bigger and better than the Arc de Triumph. Let’s just say they were unsuccessful. Not only was the Wellington Arch about 10x smaller than the Arc de Triumph, the queen actually complained about the ugliness of the statue of Wellington that was visible from her window as it stood on top of the Wellington arch. The statue on the top was therefore changed but the Arch still remains smaller than the Arc de Triumph.
We continued on to Buckingham palace where we stopped for a while to see the changing of the guard, before the tour guide let us in on the story of the history of the Buckingham break-ins. First, she told us about 2 Germans who were camping in Hyde Park and got lost. They climbed over a wall of what they thought was Hyde Park and pitched their tents on the other side. In the morning, they found it rather difficult to get out and after spotting a security guard they went up to him and asked, “How do you get out”? The security guard astonished, replied, “how did you get in”!? They weren’t in Hyde Park, but in fact, Buckingham Palace. The next story took place in the 80’s. An alcoholic Irishman who had been sleeping on park benches in Hyde Park ran out of booze and went searching for some more. Coming across the Palace he saw an open window and went for it, jumping over the wall and into the window where he stumbled upon a cabinet filled with the Queen’s personal wine stash. The Irishman took a few bottles and left the way he came, quite satisfied with himself. That was the first time he broke in. The second time, he decided that he would have a bit more of a look around. He climbed over the wall, discovered that there was no open window so, broke a window and climbed through. Having another dip into the Queen’s wine, the Irishman continued further having a sit on the throne and having a better look around. You may be thinking as I did, ‘but how can a drunk Irishman get all the way into the centre of the Palace without setting off any alarms’? Well, apparently there was a new security guy working the desk that night and saw the alarms going off in the very centre of the palace. He thought it truly impossible that anyone could possibly be in the very centre of Buckingham Palace and thought it must be a fault in the alarms. Therefore, he turned the alarms off before anyone woke.
The Irishman, becoming quite tired from all this walking decided to set off in the direction of the bedrooms. Finding a bed, he flopped down at the base of it. Now on this particular night Queen Elizabeth was home. And in her bed.
Startled by the fact of a drunk Irishman passed out on the end of her bed, Queen Elizabeth pressed her alarm button several times. After realising that no one was going to come she started up a conversation with the drunk Irishman. Apparently the Queen and the Irishman both had four kids. However, soon enough an awkward silence arose (as there is only so much that the Queen and a drunk Irishman can have in common). To break the silence the drunk Irishman asked the Queen if she had a cigarette. The queen not having a cigarette, told the Irishman that her footman smoked and she could phone him up and get him to bring him one. The Irishman thought this a good idea, so the queen rang up and her maid answered. The queen calmly said down the phone “oh yes, I would like a cigarette for the drunk Irishman in my bedroom.” The maid was confused and the Queen further said, “THE DRUNK IRISHMAN in MY ROOM would like a cigarette.” It was not before long that the maid and the footman came rushing into the Queen’s bedroom, the footman grabbed and sat on the Irishman and the Irishman was sent back to Ireland to his wife who divorced him for not shutting up about his new best friend, the Queen. Funny enough, because of the royalty having special laws on ‘their land’, the only thing the drunk Irishman could be charged for was stealing a bottle of wine.
From Buckingham Palace we continued our walk until we reached St James’s Palace. This is where Henry the Eighth was commissioned. Thus, the guide told us a bit about Henry and his six wives.
We continued on, stopping briefly in front of a gentleman’s club that apparently would cost you 8000 Euros to become a member of (I think I prefer travelling the world thanks!).
Afterwards, we continued on our walk until reaching Trafalgar square. There, the tour guide told us about Nelson’s column, which was built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died in the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Now, Admiral Nelson was like a hero to the sailors, so when he died in the battle of Trafalgar, they could not possibly leave his body behind. Therefore, they squished his body into a barrel filled with alcohol (to preserve the body) and put it on the ship back to England. Supposedly, when the ship had arrived back to England and the sailors went to lift the barrel, they found it lighter than when they had carried it onto the ship. On the journey home the sailors were in need of alcohol but had not been sure which barrel had Nelson in it and which one had purely alcohol. Thus, Nelson’s barrel was lighter at the end of the voyage.
From the slightly off-putting story at Trafalgar Square the guide ushered us forward to a place where the queen sits annually on her birthday and the 2012 Olympic beach volleyball will be held (I am sorry but I’ve forgotten the name of the place).
From the place that can’t be named, we walked to Churchill’s War Cabinet bunker. Winston Churchill was a bit of misogynist. One of my favourite quotes that the guide mentioned from Winston was that of a conversation between a woman and Winston. The woman came up to him (she was not a fan of him) (and he was drunk) and said’ Mr Churchill, you are drunk!’ Now Winston replied, ‘I may be drunk madam but in the morning I, will be sober whereas, you will still be ugly.’
As we sat for a little at Churchill’s War Cabinet Bunker the guide directed our views to St James’s Park. In the park, lived pelicans from Russia. For you see, any time someone comes to visit the queen, they give her exotic things from their country (what else can you get the queen?). But you see, these Russian pelicans are no ordinary pelicans. They are pigeon eating pelicans. Apparently if you type it into Youtube, you can get a good shot of a pelican eating a live pigeon (I didn’t just do that).
This was just a boulder near the park that I thought was cool.
Walking further on our tour took us past some amazing architecture before leading up to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament (there were several stories with these big sights, but at this point, my fingers are getting tired..., sorry).
After the tour had finished I felt as though I had grasped a lot more about the city of London. It was a great, interesting and funny tour, which I would recommend to anyone visiting a new city (even just to get your bearings).
All very pleased with the tour, we tipped the guide and headed back into town. We had lunch in Trafalgar square and watched the protest that was going on there at the time (from the look of the many signs of Lenin, quotes of Stalin, and flocks of red I guessed a Soviet/Communist protest, and i was right).
We headed into the Portrait gallery after the protest and after seeing some street dancers. We decided on Oxford Street as our next stop so that we could meet up for a coffee at Starbucks with Alice’s oldest friend, Ellie (Starbucks seems to be the place to go in Europe as you can always trust that the coffee won’t be absolutely terrible as it generally is in most cafes!) After the lovely catch up, Alice and I only had limited time until our planned ‘one big night out pub crawl’ tour with the same company that we had gone on the walking tour earlier that day. We opted for two-minute noodles for that particular reason and also for the reason that there were no tea towels at the hostel meaning all dishes would be permanently wet.
The pub crawl started in a bar in Covent Garden. There, we got a free shot and 2 pound pints (for the whole night our arm band with the ‘one night out pub crawl’ supplied us with a free shot at each pub/club and special deals on particular drinks). Our next stop that Sam (our pub tour guide aka ‘Sam, Sam he’s our man, if he can’t do it no one can!’) took us to was sort of a pub club. It was at this second destination where we met two lovely Spanish girls who we ended up dancing with practically the whole night. We also met 2 Irish girls, 2 girls who looked like they were out of the British show ‘The only way is Essex’, 2 little English boys from the army who insisted that Alice and I feel their short and even shorter hair, 3 French girls, one who was celebrating her 25th birthday, an Australian guy and 3 lovely Spanish guys. As you can see, the pub-crawl we went on was very multi-cultural!
We continued for 2 more pub/club type places before ending at our final destination Ministry of Sound. Getting in was like going through an airport, or, possibly worse. The lady who strip searched me went through every little zip and pocket in my bag, took out my camera from it’s case and looked at it, took out my phone and opened it and finally after about 5 to 10 minutes decided that I was not a homicidal maniac, and let me through. The night concluded by a lovely taxi ride home with the 3 very lovely, quite honourable Spanish guys we had met earlier that night. I left the taxi with green writing all down my arm which read ‘Daivd Munoz Frances, I <3 U’ (due to a conversation had in the taxi, I was to add him on facebook and come to Madrid!)
The next morning was an early start as we were to meet Gina and Izzy and drive to Cardiff where we would be staying for the next 3ish days. Frazer was off to Fleet meaning that we had to say our goodbyes. It was weird saying goodbye to him, after spending some lovely moments with him and then having to say goodbye, it was starting to feel as though Alice and I would be flying duo before we knew it!
To finish off this post, I would just like to say that you can achieve so much visual pleasure, but just looking up. This is what I saw when I looked up in London:
