♪ London calling, yeah, I was there, too
An you know what they said? well, some of it was true!
London calling at the top of the dial
After all this, wont you give me a smile? ♫
London Calling - The Clash
Well, well, well !!!
So that's it !
Oh my gosh ! London was just sooo great !!!! There's so much to tell and so much to say...
Friday evening: (or how to party in the cosmopolitan city!)
Friday evening really was the reason why we went to London in the first place... I had found before leaving a meetup group in London which organise lots of different events in London (The London Childcarers Meetup Group) They had this night out on Friday in a bar on Duke Street, The Moose Bar which was beginning around 8pm. So after talking about it with Marie and Marine, we decided to go and to stay the night in London to be able to visit on the next day...! (even though Marine wasn't actually staying with us... she was sleeping at one of her friend's who is working in London for the summer...)
We took the 19:32 train to London Waterloo and arrived in London around 08:20pm, so we should have arrived way before 9pm but Marine and her friend were just so slow and all... Her friend was kind of annoying ! She had just arrived in London and was already all "Oh, this way, no not this line...": I wanted to take the Jubilee which is a direct line to Bond Street but she wanted to take another one (can't remember which one though...) and then the Central Line... I turned out to be right but this made us lose lots of time when we shouldn't have and then they were just walking so slowly! So annoying! So we arrived at The Moose at 9pm!!! I was a bit angry with them but well...
We met incredible people there! Most of them were from English speaking countries, which was very good because we had to speak English!!! There was Dawn, Alex and Elise who were either from England or New Zealand and Sara who was from Slovenia. I really did get on well with them and promised to Sara that the next time I would come to London we would do some sightseeing together!!!
I had such a great night! I even went dancing with Sara!!! I, who barely go dancing! But well... man it's London!!! I was partying in London!!! I think the exclamation points really show how ecstatic I was that night!!!
We didn't stay very long though because we wanted to wake up early the next day to do as many things as possible in on day! So we left around 10:30pm to go at the Piccadilly Backpackers Hotel on Piccadilly Circus: the hotel was relatively nice and we only paid 23£ for a 6-bed dorm.
Saturday: (or how to be a perfect tourist!)
Marie didn't sleep much apparently because of all the noise in the street and all but I must say that I slept quite well (anyway I can sleep anywhere!!!) and we woke up around 7am and took a breakfast in a little Italian restaurant near Piccadilly... I had a real English breakfast (Yes in an Italian restaurant! Don't try to understand, it's London!!!)
Here is what we did on this wonderful day:
- Camden Town and the Camden Market (fiiiinally!)
Well that didn't turn out exactly as I had planned... We arrived here too early (9am isn't that early, is it?) and nothing was prepared yet and since we didn't have much time we decided to go back to the city center to really visit... (because it was Marie's first time in London so we had to do what I call the "incontournables")
- the city center and the "incontournables":
we really saw what a perfect tourist should see! We got off at Waterloo Station so as to be able to see the Parliament and Big Ben from the other side of the Thames (East Side) and then walk over Westminster Bridge to enter West Side and saw Westminster Abbey. After a little dilemma: should we visit Westminster or take a sightseeing bus ? We decided to take a sightseeing bus and maybe do Westminster next time.
Our plan was thus to go all the way to Buckingham Palace and then to Hyde Park to take a sightseeing bus. We arrived to Buckingham Palace through Green Park (where we were able to see some squirrels =) ) and were really surprised to hear music! I immediately thought "Wow! That's the Changing of the Guards! How lucky we are!" but it was kind of early for that (10:30am when it's supposed to begin at 11am) and after a while we saw carriages approaching! In them we saw Camilla, the Princes and other members of the Royal family!!! We couldn't believe it!!! I could hear the people around me talking about the Queen coming and all... We were really excited about that though we weren't really sure she would come... but she DID!!!!!! And so this is how we saw the Queen!!!
I then learnt that that day was the Trooping of the Color also called the Queen's Official Birthday when she "inspects" the guards and all...
- sightseeing bus tour of London:
We then took a sightseeing bus with The Big Bus Company for 24£, the price was a bit expensive I thought but well we also had a cruise on the Thames so...!
The tour was fun: we saw some things that we had already seen but we had the chance to go around the center of London to some places we wouldn't have gone to if we had been on feet. We went all the way to the City and saw St Paul Cathedral as well as Tower Bridge and the Tower of London before going on our cruise!
Just one thing was a little "annoying": at the end we were freezing! Because althoug the weather was nice, there was a lot of wind and we were on the top outside part of the bus... =)
- cruise on the Thames
The cruise on the Thames wasn't really the most thrilling thing I did in my life! I think the cruises on the Seine in Paris are much, much better! But it was still fun to be on the Thames and to see London through a different point of view! And we were warm inside the boat!!!
- lunch at Pizza Hut:
We finally had lunch at 3pm and we really were hungry!!!
We took a special menu where we could have a medium pizza plus a plate of lots of things like chicken wings, fries, salad... and all that only for 12£99!!! Which quite a good bargain considering that the medium pizza we took (pepperoni) was already 10£ something...
We also had the surprise to see a bunch of naked people riding bikes!!! Don't know why they were doing this, but it was still very funny!!!
- Covent Garden:
I really enjoy the famous showmen! It's funny how you can always find them around Covent Garden... I really don't know why... probably because lots of tourists go around there! (just like us!)
Anyway, Covent Garden was the perfect way to end our little trip! We wished we could have stayed longer but I had to be back to baby sit so we took the 17:00 train and I was back home around 6pm! Happy but tired...
The rest wasn't as funny as the trip... I had to baby sit because Carolyn and Peter were going to some fancy party... I was really tired and I had some trouble putting the girls to bed because on the week ends they can stay a bit longer up.
I knew that once the girls were asleep I could go in my room but I wasn't sure whether I could sleep or not... So I stayed up watching TV and struggling to stay awake...
At 1am, since they weren't home yet, I decided to fall asleep in front of the TV, thinking I would woke up when they arrive... but I didn't and I woke up in the sofa at 4:30am!!! I was really tired!!! I went in my bed and slept until 10am because Hettie then came to tell me that they were leaving soon to go on the boat...
I explained Carolyn what had happened last night and she told that she was sorry, that I could sleep... and so I didn't come with them on the boat and stayed at the house to get some rest!!!
At least now I know I can sleep during once the girls are asleep!!!
=)