My neighbour was returning from the States. She's originally American, but she decided not to go home during Christmas, so she went home before Christmas instead. I entrusted her with my house plants because I do not trust any of my housemates in doing so, and also her home is basically a nursery, a few more plants wouldn't hurt. She was returning around midnight that night, and she told me the moment she gets home she's going to bed, so if I were to give her my plants, I have to catch her between the taxi and her door. The constant standby was tiring too.
After that, I waited for a few more hours, then called a cab, and boarded my plane. I will first have a layover in Toronto, then directly to London. I decided to catch some z's in the short St John's to Toronto flight, and then proceed to stay up through the entire journey, hoping to beat jet lag. It was semi-successful.
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| Figure 72.1: Chicken or vege? Uhhh... Chicken? .... I regret my decision. |
So I stayed at a friend's place during the entire duration. That night, she was having an office party, so I was invited. I attended because I really have no other choice. I was mad tired, it was around 9pm. The boss offered me some lasagna I believed, I ate it, ate some other stuff and drank some other stuff. Was pretty groggy the entire night. Apparently, I was the perfect reason for the party to end. According to my friend, when everyone looked like they want to leave but does not want to offend the boss, "We should go, Jerry looks like he's going to crash" and the party ended. I slept for such a long time that night.
The first day I spent just looking for a sim card. How surprising that it took me such a long time to look for one. To be fair, I woke up super late that day (around 12pm). I went to one of the stores and tried to buy the cheapest plan. Apparently it is all sold out and the only one available is the 2nd most expensive one (sneaky!). Boyyyy I was livid. The salesman told me there's a warehouse error, so all the stores in London will have the same problem. I almost believed him, but I'm not forking out ~50 pounds just for 10 days. I decided to go look for some free wifi, google map-ed myself to a nearby bookstore. While walking to the bookstore (Foyles I believe), I saw another store. Walked in and they told me there is the cheapest plan! Wooo! Perseverance! 2G of data for 10 pounds. I believe for 2 weeks, I barely touched 500mb, but that's basically my first official day in London. Went home and cooked cause my friend had stuff in the fridge.
The first few days of the trip was just visiting museums. Just constantly visiting museums (since they're free). The tough part is what to do at night. I know that before coming to this trip, I have decided to watch a musical. I believe it is way easier to find tickets for a solo man. Who would have thought Bill Bailey was performing during that week! His show was sold out for many of the days but I finally got an evening to watch him. Boy oh boy was it fun.
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| Figure 72.2: One day I will be in those booths.... ...with those mini binoculars... ...and maybe a twirly moustache... |
The first few days, I was content with travelling with the tube, until I noticed I'm spending a bit too much money on the tube. So after that, I decided to just walk everywhere. By the end of the trip, I gained blisters, and ripped some of my socks but hey I saved money! I also get to walk around and see lots of the in-between things.
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| Figure 72.3: One of the in-between places. Extremely empty! No idea where I was! |
So for the first few days, I visited the British Museum, and the other one in South Kensington. The Natural Science Museum or something? It's the one with the dinosaur bones. It's pretty cool! And South Ken is so posh, walking around the place makes me feel kind of classy and poor at the same time. I had a really cheap meal in South Ken though! I found this little Asian joint tucked up in this little corner, had rice and meat and some vegetables for only 5.20 pounds. It's considered a really price for London, and especially South Ken.
The weekend arrived, which means my friend is no longer working. We went to visit the London Eye because she has a 50% discount coupon. After looking at the price, and experiencing it, I wouldn't have paid full price for it. It's too expensive!
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| Figure 72.4: An hour later, it would have been raining. |
The next day, my friend took me out for Sunday Roast. Sunday Roast is basically the British version of Jiggs Dinner. And guess what, I love Jiggs Dinner, and Sunday Roast was delicious too! It's basically roast meat, potatoes, vegetables, and a plenty of gravy. Extremely Anglo-Saxon-y, and delicious too.
Then the dreaded 24, 25, and 26 of December arrived. My friend went back home to celebrate Christmas with her family, so I'm home alone. All of the museums are closed on those 3 days, and I really didn't want to spend money visiting spots. So on the 24th, I went to Waterstones (a book store) and sat there and read books. That's it. Fun right? My housemate here in St John's was also visiting the UK with her family, except she's all the way at Luton, but we decided to meet up just for one night. She her family is Muslim, and the strict kind at that. They said that they would only eat halal food. We know the usual halal spots, but now that we're a big group, they all have super huge queue and the approx waiting time is around 90 minutes. No way I'm waiting for that long, so we just settled in some non-halal restaurant, but they ordered seafood dishes instead. I believe the halal meat thing only applies to ground animals so seafood is all good.
I thought Christmas in Europe would be this wonderful wonderland or something, but it sucks if you're a tourist. Actually... not really... it just sucks if you're a SOLO tourist. Everything's closed, no one's around, there's nothing to do etc. etc. I was lucky that I met some random Malaysians in London. They were all waiters at restaurants, and they were wondering what the hell is an Asian doing alone (because if you noticed, Asians travels in packs), and then they asked me where I'm from at then it's like oh you're Malaysian, he's Malaysian too! And then from there I kind of self invited myself to their Christmas get together.
The get together is at night, so I decided to walk around the London in the day because why not. I have nothing to do anyway.
Nothing is open. Absolutely nothing, except Starbucks. Starbucks is open, and it is crowded with people.
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| Figure 72.5: When I see a group of people on streets, I know there's Starbucks nearby. [Taken on Christmas Day] |
So yeah, just kinda walked around till its time for the get together! Weeeeee! My goodness was the get together expensive. After Christmas Day I never saw them again, back to reality. During the dinner however, I heard them talking about the "Boxing Day sale". I was backpacking so I really have no urge to buy stuff, but I decided to go to the shopping streets anyway because things are still closed on the 26th.
I went to Oxford Street first. I hated it. It was just swarming with people. I didn't even bothered window shopping, and I just kept on walking till I got out of the place. I decided to go to Chelsea instead. I know there's this good Vietnamese place in Chelsea that sells noodles for cheap, so I walked there. To my chagrin, it is closed. Of course it is closed! They're still on Christmas break! Wishful thinking on me! But since I'm around Chelsea already anyway, I decided to go for walks anyway. I bought 5 pairs of Happy Socks because I like them. When I was in Sweden, there were Happy Socks everywhere but they were too expensive. Now, they're 50% off! I figured my backpack could fit 5 more pairs of socks right? (It could)
Chelsea is known to be a high-class sort of street, so I figured the other restaurants that were open would be classy. Some was. 20 pounds for fish and chips, na-ah! So I kept on walking. I kept on walking until my feet hurts, I'm tired, hungry, and really needing to use the washroom. I felt like a poorly kept Sims character at that point. I kept on walking until it got dark (around 4pm), and then what is supposed to be a residential area, I saw lights at one of the turn. Turned in and it's some super shady kebab place. I didn't care, walked it and ordered kebab and used their washrooms. Much better, but a bit on the edge due to the nature of the place. Immediately after that I got home and just stayed indoors. My feet was blistering. I guess I really needed to rest, because for tomorrow, the museums will reopen and that means more walking.
The next day, I went to the Imperial War Museum. Stayed there till the store closed, went back home and start washing my clothes and packing. Flight to Madrid the next day! That's about it I guess. I'm sure there are things I've missed but oh well.
Three things though:
- It's really difficult to keep up with Duolingo when you're on holiday mode.
- I thought I would be reading in cafes a lot, but apparently not. I guess it's cause there's no reason for me to be in a cafe during the day because I'll be visiting museums and stuff, and I won't be drinking tea in the evening either. I still read a lot though!
- The Waterstones @ Piccadilly is the best. 5 floors, washrooms, a cafe, and lots of seating area. One of the days I really just sat there and read and browse books. Lovely place.
Some pictures!
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| Figure 72.6: Truly London's best cinema. |
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| Figure 72.7: If this picture has sound, it's HORN HORN HORNNN |
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| Figure 72.8: Food from LEON. One of the worst in the trip (if not the worst) |
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| Figure 72.9: Millennium bridge + St Paul's cathedral. Apparently I'm told Harry Potter and Voldemort's showdown is filmed on this bridge. |
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| Figure 72.10: Neat! |
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| Figure 72.11: ...Neat...? |
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| Figure 72.12: British vandalism. |
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| Figure 72.13: I want to know how does someone climb onto this, let alone ride this. |
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| Figure 72.14: Second hand book sale under the bridge! |
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| Figure 72.15: Christmas market! Some of them have unique names like "Mr. Bombay" that sells Indian street food. Then there are stalls who isn't very creative with their names. There was a store called "waffles". Guess what they sell? |
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| Figure 72.16: Halloumi and chips! |
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