Destination 8 – London, United Kingdom
Where? Ibis Blackfriars Hotel, Southwark
When? Tuesday 21 July – Friday 24 July
Official language? It’s English innit my lover!
Interesting facts I’ve learnt about London:
- Most of us know the giant clock tower in London to be called the ‘Big Ben’ but we’re all getting it wrong! It was re-named from the ‘Clock Tower’ to the ‘Elizabeth Tower’ in 2012 for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. ‘Big Ben’ is the name of the bell within the tower.
- Apparently London wasn’t always the capital of England. A few different places have been thrown into the hat but it seems most history buffs believe the first capital of England was ‘Winchester’, a city south-west of London.
- The Queen lives between the Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Will and Kate) live in a 10 bedroom country-house in Norfolk in the east of England.
- The Star Wars theme song is played by the Queen’s Guard at Buckingham Palace during the Changing of the Guard. Something about the eighth book in the Stars Wars Jedi Quest series being called, ‘The Changing of the Guard.’ Apparently the Game of Thrones theme song has also been played. When we were there, they played ‘Happy Birthday’ in celebration of Prince George’s 2nd birthday.
- There are piles of London Underground tube facts. My fav? If you calculated the distance covered by London Underground trains in a year, it would be equivalent to 90 trips to the moon and back!
A snapshot of thoughts and insights I have gained during my last couple of visits to London:
- I love London although I’ve been here on past trips and not really understood what the fuss was all about. I think your experience in London is really dependent on where you stay. Naturally, it helps to have a local show you around too! Nice areas that I’ve personally stayed in are Southwark and Westminster. I’m sure there are plenty more to add to that list too. I’d recommend talking to someone that knows London well before booking accommodation because I feel that where you stay really sets the scene for how you feel about the city.
- I’m not normally a musical theatre fan but The Lion King at London’s west end Lyceum Theatre blew me away. The music was truly enchanting. If you get a chance to see it, don’t hesitate!
- Food is crazily expensive here and I hear that rent is too. This feels even more emphasized with the current poor exchange rate when you work out what you’re spending in Aussie Dollars. Perth is expensive but London is well and truly next level! On the brighter side, alcohol is cheap as chips in most places and can be bought from the supermarket!
- In my opinion, a trip to Harrods is definitely worth it, albeit just to see the building itself. Rich in history and romance, it really is a shopping experience like no other.
- Beware of the English heat waves. When it hits 25+ degrees, you can feel the panic! There are even signs in the tube stations on the ‘hot’ days advising passengers to keep hydrated and to take it easy! It’s definitely given me a bit of a chuckle!
- There are endless cool things to do in this city, plus it’s next door neighbours with Europe! How could you ever get bored?
Trip 1
I’ve already made a couple of trips to London during this holiday. First up, I visited with John for a couple of nights before I bid him goodbye at Heathrow. We stayed at a beautiful hotel near Buckingham Palace and had the most amazing time seriously spoiling ourselves!
While in London, we caught up with our friend, Karys who used to work with us at Curtin. Karys moved to London a year ago now and is absolutely loving life. The way she talks about her marketing job (they have brekkie every morning and get to leave at 1pm on Fridays!) could easily convince anyone that London is the place to be!
Trip 2
The second time I ventured to London was when my cousin, Katie and her friends, Emily and Olivia, and I drove to Warner Bros. Studio for the Making of Harry Potter tour. This is the actual place that Harry Potter was filmed for over 10 odd years. The sets are all still within the studio so walking through, you feel as though you are stepping into the movie.
There’s Harry’s cupboard under the stairs, the Great Hall, the Gryffindor Common Room, Dumbledore’s office, the Wesley Burrow, the potions classroom, Hagrid’s Hut, Dolores Umbridge’s office, the Hogwarts Express, the Knight Bus, Diagon Alley and the Ministry of Magic Headquarters.
You can ride a broomstick and in the flying Ford Anglia, you can eat chocolate frogs, push a trolley through platform 9 and ¾, sip on Butterbeer, walk over the Hogwarts Bridge and buy mementos like a woolly Ron or Harry jumper!
On the way home, we play lucky dip with Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans! I thankfully get ‘grass’ but poor Katie gets ‘rotten egg’. We all agree to take a bite each from the ‘vomit’ bean! As you’d expect it’s pretty disgusting and definitely requires a chaser with a sweeter bean such as ‘marshmallow’ or ‘tutti frutti’!
Trip 3
I meet Jacqui at around lunch time on Tuesday 21st July. Jack had arrived into Heathrow from Perth at 8am and made her way via the tube to the hotel. Seeing each other again for the first time in 8 weeks, I think we both imagined we’d run to each other and embrace slow motion style. Our eyes meet and Jack remembers I start off with a bit of a skip but then we sort of awkwardly dodge around a group of men standing between us totally ruining the moment! After a quick hug we launch into conversation like we saw each other yesterday!
I expect that Jack will be feeling pretty worse for wear having just flown 20 odd hours from the other side of the world but, to my surprise, she’s eager to get out and explore. We have a busy afternoon whipping through many of the London tourist hot spots. We enjoy a tapas lunch at the Borough Markets, take photos of the London Tower and London Bridge, wander around Trafalgar Square, buy M&Ms from M&M World and eat at Jamie’s in Covent Garden. Treating ourselves, we ride the London Eye with a champagne in hand taking in the sights from afar.
The next morning we take the tube to Green Park station and walk through the park to try and catch a glimpse of the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. The amount of people that flock to the palace each morning to see this is pretty insane!
Changing of the Guards? Check! Next up we walk towards Hyde Park to meet with Jacqui’s best friend from high school, Elise, who moved to London just a matter of months ago.
I’ve met Elise a few times when she was still living in Perth. She’s a really positive and energetic character that can tell a great story! Elise has landed a teaching job in a local school here. On the side, she is playing Little Red Riding Hood in an interactive play for children. The play is unfolding in a park across a few different days so when we meet her she still has a day left before the story wraps up.
Jacqui and Elise haven’t seen each other in about 2 years as Elise has been travelling the globe. As you’d expect, there are plenty of funny stories to catch up on! We walk to a café in the middle of Hyde Park and sit down to chat over coffee.
I find out that Elise and I are in a similar headspace at the moment. Career wise, we’re not sure what step to take next. We talk about constantly racking our brain trying to get an answer. It’s as though if we think about it hard enough, we’ll suddenly have that light bulb moment when all the dots join up! After talking about our confusion, we also acknowledge that it’s not that bad of a quandary to be in. We’re not locked into a career. Many doors are open. We just need to decide which one to walk through.
Now feeling peckish, we take the Northern line to Camden Town. A funky pocket of London home to a famous street of markets. We eat at a pub on the water that sells surprisingly cheap meals. Hooray! We chat away for a further couple of hours before hoping back on the tube, hugging Elise goodbye so pleased to see her really happy over here in London and excited about watching The Lion King musical later that night!
The Lion King really was just out of this world. Which means a lot from me because most of the time I’d rather gouge my eyes out than watch a musical! The soulful singing, the bright costumes, the dancing, just the general atmosphere in the theatre was electric.
The next day, our final full day in London, we start our day by taking the Piccadilly line to the Knightsbridge station. We eat a cooked brekkie before venturing into the famous upmarket department store, Harrods. The building, which Harrods has occupied since 1849, is gigantic, making Harrods the biggest department store in Europe! What a magnificent building it is!
Some of the departments within the store include ‘Harrods Shoe Heaven’, an ice-cream parlour, ‘Toy Kingdom’, a champagne bar, a penthouse personal shopping area, an incredible food hall, a Christmas store (yes, I’m carting around Harrods Christmas baubles), and an array of cafes and restaurants. There’s a suite of services offered at Harrods including personal shopping, interior planning, luxury engraving, gift wrapping, a bespoke stationary service (what the?) and a Cobbler. Then there’s the annoyingly old-school men’s grooming area called ‘The Refinery’ and a Gentlemen’s Lounge. Women need grooming and a place to sit and relax too, thank you very much!
From there we then head to another one of London’s well known shopping destinations, Oxford Street. Here you’ll find H&M, Zara, Warehouse, Accessorise, River Island, Oasis – all the main culprits. Very dangerous for girls that love to shop! Although, we find ourselves darting in and out of the shops disappointed because we just can’t justify paying the prices. Take shoes, for example. Jacqui is looking for some new sandals. Nothing fancy, just a pair that will get her through the next 3 weeks of exploring. The price for sandals seems to generally range from 30 – 50 Pounds. That’s about 60 – 100 Aussie Dollars for basic sandals! I’m not even talking real leather or anything. We give up on shopping in London and get a bit to eat instead!
Disheartened by the pricey shopping situation, we soon cheer up by taking selfies with celebs at Madame Tussauds wax museum! It’s a little creepy to begin with, like when you get a fright from a mannequin in a store thinking it’s real, but I’m soon kissing Brad Pitt and kicking goals with Jonny Wilkinson!
Later that evening, we head out to a part of London called ‘Shepherds Bush’, an area that is apparently quite a hub for Aussie expats. For many Aussies, London is a home away from home. Former Aussie President, John Howard even said that a stint in London is a rite of passage that all Australians should aspire to undertake.
Here in Shepherds Bush, we head to ‘The Sindercombe Social’, a bar where Jacqui’s old housemates, Sib and Andy are playing a gig. Andy is Elise’s brother so she is in the crowd too with her NZ boyfie, Eddy. A couple of glasses of Pimms go down a treat as we sing along to their rendition of Uptown Funk and R.E.S.P.E.CT! Having not met Eddy before, Jacqui, as a friend looking out for a friend, proceeds to suss him out a little. It’s not long before she’s then divulging all of the most embarrassing Elise stories that she can think off! With a few added embellishments for good measure! Thankfully Eddy laughs along seemingly unphased by the tales!
Elise shares an entertaining story of her own about her last day as Little Red Riding Hood. There had been a bit of a debacle at the park! The Woodcutter, Little Red Riding Hood’s love interest, was hiding behind a tree in the park, poised ready for the children to find him. As you can imagine, a guy in costume with an axe in his hand creeping behind trees, seems a little odd to the general public unaware of the story that is unfolding! Soon enough the police arrive to question Mr Woodcutter about why he’s hanging about with an axe waiting for children! A twist no one expected!
The next morning, weary from less than 5 hours sleep after a late one in Shepherds Bush, we board the Gatwick Express to the airport ready for the first leg of our Italian adventure in Venice!
For me, London has been more than I remembered it to be. I can ‘feel’ the opportunity here. It’s exciting. There’s just an indescribable buzz to the place! There is so much commonality that we share with the Brits. I particularly feel a connection to the UK as a big portion of my family live here and my mum grew up 2 hours south-west of London. I feel that England is a part of the puzzle that makes up who I am.
For Jacqui, a London first-timer, London fell short of her expectations. Dirtier than she anticipated, expensive and stuffy, Jacqui discovered that the big city life isn’t for her. That’s the thing about travel and I suppose life more generally. What floats the boat for some, sinks the boat for others.
Big Kid Me - Travel Adventures 