London, UK 2/1-2/5
This weekend I was able to travel to London with my flatmate Madalyn and planned to meet up with two girls who are from Colombia who are studying in Dublin with us who were planning to be in London this weekend as well. We arrived late at night on Thursday (2/1) and left late on Monday (2/5).
When we arrived it was late Thursday and we had the sole goal of getting to the apartment we when we stepped off the hour long train ride to the south part of London. The neighborhood though was one from a horror movie and the directions sent us down a dark back alley with only a Chinese restaurant in sight and no sign of life. We crept around the alley for quite some time only to never find the apartment we were to stay at so we turned around and headed back to the train station. With no idea of how to use the tube we rode till we were back in the city center, found a pizza restaurant and got some wifi. We each began messaging every friend we knew in the London area and within a couple minutes a friend of Madalyns from Purdue told us we could crash at their apartment for the weekend (shoutout to apartment #81). We caught a black taxi * side note: all drivers of a black taxi in London must train for 4 years and know every road and alley in London before they are able to drive a black taxi in London (black is only the color of the cab as their are many colors to cabs in London)* to their apartment. We were greeted warmly by our fellow Purdue friend (Human) and met many others (Rahja, Truffles, £2) from the US that were living and studying in London for the semester. They took us out to a bar called O'Neills that was three stories tall and had live music on the top floor. To get to the bar we took the tube and it was so much easier with people that knew how to use public transport. They showed us how to get an Oyster card which is the easiest and best way to get around (basically a credit card pre loaded for the subways.)
Friday we went to see the changing of the guards, it was so crowded we could hardly see anything but it was a neat experince with lots of people moving every direction. Then we went on to see Trafalgar Square and the Natural History Museum (actually amazing and very interactive). We spent hours there and were all quite hungry so we went to the Kensington Creperie where Madalyn had her first crepe ever! Then on we went to the Science Museum which was very detailed about the history of everything. The museums seemed reversed in that the Natural History Museum was more interactive and science based and the Science Museum was all about the history of everything from cars to glasses to computers. That night was spent at the apartment with our friends all telling stories of our travels so far and relaxing after a long day walking around.
Saturday took us into Camden and the Camden Market where we met up with our friends from Columbia that I mentioned earlier named Gabby and Hannah and Hannah's sister Fiona who lives in London. She was so kind and showed us around all day taking us through her favorite shops at Camden Market (lots of vintage clothing) and the food shops where I got an Arepa (south american dish), the Covent Garden Market where we got delicious warm Ben's cookies which are a must, and then onto SoHo - an area covered with every clothing shop you can think of possible including Harrods.
Sunday was our last full day in London and we were on our own for the day. We got moving and went to see a couple iconic sights in London. First we tried to find the 9 3/4 platforms and miserably failed (still not sure where it actually is), then onto see the Walkie Talkie (you need to make a reservation for $0 a week in advance) and then to the Gherkin (you need to make a reservation for $0 a day in advance) - as a kid in art class I made a clay repilca of this building and could not pass up seeing it in person. You can go up in both of these but we did not in either because we forgot to plan our trip to London at all. We went on to visit the Imperial War Museum which included a Halocaust exhibit floor. The museum was one to see and full of the rich history of London. That night was Super Bowl 52, due to time change the game did not start in the UK till midnight but we were not about to miss this game and man am I glad we didn't, it was one intense and awesome game. Go Eagles.
Monday morning we were running on two hours of sleep and running to catch the train to the airport. We did not get there in time and missed our flight. First flight missed ever. While waiting for our next flight we met a girl named Liva who spoke broken English but needed help figuring out the airport because it was her first flight ever, she hung around with us for the next couple hours, we found real tortilla chips and our time in London came to an end. We ended back 7 hours later than we planned but man were we happy to be back in Dublin.
This weekend I was able to travel to London with my flatmate Madalyn and planned to meet up with two girls who are from Colombia who are studying in Dublin with us who were planning to be in London this weekend as well. We arrived late at night on Thursday (2/1) and left late on Monday (2/5).
When we arrived it was late Thursday and we had the sole goal of getting to the apartment we when we stepped off the hour long train ride to the south part of London. The neighborhood though was one from a horror movie and the directions sent us down a dark back alley with only a Chinese restaurant in sight and no sign of life. We crept around the alley for quite some time only to never find the apartment we were to stay at so we turned around and headed back to the train station. With no idea of how to use the tube we rode till we were back in the city center, found a pizza restaurant and got some wifi. We each began messaging every friend we knew in the London area and within a couple minutes a friend of Madalyns from Purdue told us we could crash at their apartment for the weekend (shoutout to apartment #81). We caught a black taxi * side note: all drivers of a black taxi in London must train for 4 years and know every road and alley in London before they are able to drive a black taxi in London (black is only the color of the cab as their are many colors to cabs in London)* to their apartment. We were greeted warmly by our fellow Purdue friend (Human) and met many others (Rahja, Truffles, £2) from the US that were living and studying in London for the semester. They took us out to a bar called O'Neills that was three stories tall and had live music on the top floor. To get to the bar we took the tube and it was so much easier with people that knew how to use public transport. They showed us how to get an Oyster card which is the easiest and best way to get around (basically a credit card pre loaded for the subways.)
Friday we went to see the changing of the guards, it was so crowded we could hardly see anything but it was a neat experince with lots of people moving every direction. Then we went on to see Trafalgar Square and the Natural History Museum (actually amazing and very interactive). We spent hours there and were all quite hungry so we went to the Kensington Creperie where Madalyn had her first crepe ever! Then on we went to the Science Museum which was very detailed about the history of everything. The museums seemed reversed in that the Natural History Museum was more interactive and science based and the Science Museum was all about the history of everything from cars to glasses to computers. That night was spent at the apartment with our friends all telling stories of our travels so far and relaxing after a long day walking around.
Saturday took us into Camden and the Camden Market where we met up with our friends from Columbia that I mentioned earlier named Gabby and Hannah and Hannah's sister Fiona who lives in London. She was so kind and showed us around all day taking us through her favorite shops at Camden Market (lots of vintage clothing) and the food shops where I got an Arepa (south american dish), the Covent Garden Market where we got delicious warm Ben's cookies which are a must, and then onto SoHo - an area covered with every clothing shop you can think of possible including Harrods.
Sunday was our last full day in London and we were on our own for the day. We got moving and went to see a couple iconic sights in London. First we tried to find the 9 3/4 platforms and miserably failed (still not sure where it actually is), then onto see the Walkie Talkie (you need to make a reservation for $0 a week in advance) and then to the Gherkin (you need to make a reservation for $0 a day in advance) - as a kid in art class I made a clay repilca of this building and could not pass up seeing it in person. You can go up in both of these but we did not in either because we forgot to plan our trip to London at all. We went on to visit the Imperial War Museum which included a Halocaust exhibit floor. The museum was one to see and full of the rich history of London. That night was Super Bowl 52, due to time change the game did not start in the UK till midnight but we were not about to miss this game and man am I glad we didn't, it was one intense and awesome game. Go Eagles.
Monday morning we were running on two hours of sleep and running to catch the train to the airport. We did not get there in time and missed our flight. First flight missed ever. While waiting for our next flight we met a girl named Liva who spoke broken English but needed help figuring out the airport because it was her first flight ever, she hung around with us for the next couple hours, we found real tortilla chips and our time in London came to an end. We ended back 7 hours later than we planned but man were we happy to be back in Dublin.
